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Puddle Lamps


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wait... your making you own puddle lamps because you did not get them in your model? like cutting a hole in your mirrors & rigging LEDs or buying the factory bulb and modding that in? or is there some after market dealo you found? I will be curious to see this mod and/or get a better explanation of what your doing.

 

A couple of us here have done a mod to existing puddle lamps to swap them to LED - but it sounds like you do not even have them and are going to try to add them.

 

anyway... why not tap the power into the power tilt/adjust feature wires that already run into the mirror? does yours have the heated mirrors (or was that only on higher up model) as you could tap into that also.

Edited by Lex Talionis
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wait... your making you own puddle lamps because you did not get them in your model? like cutting a hole in your mirrors & rigging LEDs or buying the factory bulb and modding that in? or is there some after market dealo you found? I will be curious to see this mod and/or get a better explanation of what your doing.

 

A couple of us here have done a mod to existing puddle lamps to swap them to LED - but it sounds like you do not even have them and are going to try to add them.

 

anyway... why not tap the power into the power tilt/adjust feature wires that already run into the mirror? does yours have the heated mirrors (or was that only on higher up model) as you could tap into that also.

I picked some up on ebay. They are led live baitwell lamps. Paid $ 12.00 for them. They look just post-3777-1241577414_thumb.jpglike the ones that came on my neighbors 07 Edge. I could tap into the mirror power however them they would be on all the time. Or, are they on whenever the headlight are on and if that's the case, ill tap into the power line that lights the switches.

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well, your neighbors 07 does not have LEDs, just incancesdents, so you will be 1 up on him with this mod :)

 

second, I might be a little concerned about the height of those units you have. The bulbs that come in the Edge, and you can search here and see photos of their profile in the LED puddle lamp mod thread, are maybe half the height of what you have there from the sense I get of their height by looking at them. Well, I hope the motor unit and tilt unit of the back side of the mirror itself does not run into or get hung up on those taller screw thread post of yours. IF that proves to be an issue, as it is kind of a tight fit in there, you might have to thread on the nut, trim off a chunk of it as it looks like what you have there has a bit of material that could be cut off. Also, you are going to have to read up on some of the threads here concerning changing out the mirrors for the 2009 blind spot mirrors. The reason why is I bet you will have to remove the mirrors and such to get back into the unit to fiddle around and to tighten down that nut from the inside & fish wiring through and those blind spot mirror threads have photos and some pdf directions IIRC. Unless you plan to forgo the nut and just cut the hole and epoxy them on - but still, fishing the wire will be another reason to maybe have to get into those housings.

 

alas, your correct about the power wire. I totally forgot that you will need to tap into the delay accessory wire that is only activated when you open or close the door. that being said, who knows, maybe those wires are there in the mirror harness (like the bulbs that are in the Edge BAMR Vista light control panels but not activated at the factory), but I doubt it. So, all the more reason you will have to fish wire into the car and thus, have to pull the mirror and unit apart for access.

 

can you provide an eBay link to those lights? I could not find them using the wording - or any variation - you stated "led live baitwell lamps"

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I got the lamps from jagtradingonline on ebay. I just checked and he doesn't have any for sale at the moment. The total height of the lamp is 1 1/4" and the cutout for the hole will be 3/4" and I would not cut anything because it ruin the watertite seal.. I took off the mirror to check clearances, I don't think i'll have any issues there. I have replaced mirrors before its not hard if you tilt the mirror downward and have a long screwdriver to release to tabs. I will most likely have to run a wire, wouldn't be the first time. I just need to know where to run the wire from. I will use the existing harness connector and add a pin where the power mirror plugs in behind the oval black molding on the door. I was hoping they had run the wire into the door harness and all I would have to do was find it and tap it.

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if you pull it off, it will be cool and give those that do not have puddle lamps the opportunity to do a mod to get them. post up images for sure, and any tips hints (including wire colors you tied into) on your process.

 

 

Today I bought a wiring diagram on ebay so I'll even be able to do more crazy stuff.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update on installing puddle lamps on a vehicle that didn't come with them. There is no wire in the harness for the lamps if they weren't installed at the factory. So I have to improvise. I can connect a small relay to the wire that turns on the switch lights when the door is unlocked and I will use another small relay connected to the automatic door lock to trigger them off. This way they will come on when the doors are unlocked and turn off when the doors lock almost like the factory, I just need time to do it. I will take photos and have a diagram to wire the lights so anyone can do it if they wish.

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  • 1 month later...

this might be a poor mans solution but I just installed interior accent LEDs that I wanted to work with the dome light delay and dial. I just tapped into the dome light and ran a wire down. theres 3 wires going into the housing, one constant, one ground and then the delay one (cant remember which is which but a tester would tell you.) i cut the delay wire and spliced into it so only my LEDs come on when i unlock/open the door but the constant power still allows the map lights to work when switched.

 

I'm thinking puddle lamps may be my next project and this is how ill power them.

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yo Lex, can you just swap the exisiting bulb for the puddle lamps too LED bulbs?

 

yes, you can. I did it first here and used a method where I totally replaced the stock bulb housing (as the bulb is sealed into a housing unit that snaps into the mirror) for a stand alone LED bulb with no housing and home made lens. You can read that here - I did this as I did not want to cut into the bulb housing, as it is a closed sealed unit and they were/are like $50-60 per unit!

 

BUT

 

then another guy broke one of the housings trying to mod it and then just went on to go ahead and open them up - since it was broken anyway - and see if you could change the bulbs to LED in the sealed unit. Sure enough you can. So, my second variation, the one I have installed now, is using that method and that can be read starting here - all you need to know starts there

 

it is not a hard mod, but you have to mod the housing, after cutting it open, to get an LED to fit and get a small enough LED and epoxy it back together and get the polarity correct.

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  • 5 months later...
like cutting a hole in your mirrors & rigging LEDs.

 

I did as much on my Dodge Ram. At the forum I hang out for Dodge owners, a popular mod is to add LED puddle lamps. The simplest way is to buy one of those LED strips and drill small little holes for the LED tips to poke through the bottom and then wire it up to the power mirrors, or run a wire from your lights. Very sweet mod when you take your time to do it right.

 

-Mike

Edited by MJ5150
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  • 4 months later...

What exactly are these puddle lamps in the mirrors suppose to do? I didn't even know they were on my Edge until I read about them in this forum and then looked at the bottom of my mirrors.

 

highlight the ground to make sure you do not step in a puddle of water, poo, mud or so you can see if anyone is under your car about to slit your Achilles tendon

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