Retrofitting Illuminated Door Sills - battery removal required?!

[ZZZZ]

I just bought a new pair of illuminated door sills for my A200 coupé - wasn't easy to find, particularly at about a ¼ of MB listed price. So far so good ...

Went on WIS and printed the retrofit instructions (AZ82.20-P-0001AK), and it is frightening to say the least - half the car needs to be taken apart, it seems: seats out (okay); battery out?; fuse box out?; rubber door seals out?; A-pillar paneling out; footwell carpet out.

I understand the need to get to the SAM unit in the passenger footwell, but it feels like most of the other work can be done without ripping the car into pieces?

Has anyone actually done this on a W169, or better still - C169?
I wish I took some notes, when we were talking with Nikhil, about the mods he's done.

 

[Submariner1]

Were yours a one off sale,
Or have you found a supplier of these door cills at a reasonable price? ... 2 of mine have a few scratches, but they are an outrageous price.

Must confess I wouldnt rip the car apart just to get lights in them.
Does seem crazy having to do all that work

 

[KennyN]

Far from being an expert in such things but cant you just take a constant fused 12v + supply from somewhere then just earth the negative by using the pin switch on the door frame ?

Or is it not as simple as that ?

Kenny

 

[Yugguy]

Probably not. I have a pdf file of instructions of an install of them to a w204, cant upload it here for some reason but if you pm me an email I can send it.

 

[Submariner1]

Far from being an expert in such things but cant you just take a constant fused 12v + supply from somewhere then just earth the negative by using the pin switch on the door frame ?

Or is it not as simple as that ?

Kenny

I was wondering something similar.
Could you not take a positive feed off the battery and use the pin switch with one of those very small relays.
I use them to turn on big power amps. I.e one can access the big positive feed and then use a relay switched by the head unit.
I think the drain would be so small it wouldnt trigger anything.

 

[David Richardson]

Illuminated sill on your baby should look great mate, good luck with all of that dismantling of the interior though

D

 

[ZZZZ]

Were yours a one off sale,
Or have you found a supplier of these door cills at a reasonable price?

A one-off sale, although I do know he's also got a 4-door version for the W169.

Must confess I wouldnt rip the car apart just to get lights in them.
Does seem crazy having to do all that work

Yup, agree completely - I think even with the 'proper' install, it can be done without going into all this...

Far from being an expert in such things but cant you just take a constant fused 12v + supply from somewhere then just earth the negative by using the pin switch on the door frame ?

Or is it not as simple as that ?

Well, it's Mercedes - nothing is simple
But, yeah - I can't see why not. I don't really care about the lights going off after 5 minutes of doors been open (a default feature), if to achieve that I need to dig down to bare metal ...

I was wondering something similar.
Could you not take a positive feed off the battery and use the pin switch with one of those very small relays.
I use them to turn on big power amps. I.e one can access the big positive feed and then use a relay switched by the head unit.
I think the drain would be so small it wouldnt trigger anything.

Thanks, that sounds like a good idea, I'll look into that

 

[ZZZZ]

Illuminated sill on your baby should look great mate, good luck with all of that dismantling of the interior though

Thanks David.
If I decide to go "by the book", I might put it off till I'm ready to replace the Audio20 head unit - mobile phone unit under the driver's seat would have to go, as well as CDC and the phone tray (already bought a new replacement storage tray), so it's pretty much carpets out job anyway ...

 

[ZZZZ]

Just in case anyone else is looking for these - there's a lot of confusion as to the correct part numbers - e.g. Mercedes Northampton wasn't able to confirm the correct one for me.

Luckily, the parts are listed on the WIS instructions page for this retrofit, so here we are:

for the 5-door W169 (169.0):

Black 2-door set: B66890087
Beige 2-door set: B66890088
Black 4-door set: B66890086 (only front sills are illuminated, the rear ones got MB lettering in chrome)


for the 3-door C169 (169.3):

Black set: B66890095
Beige set: B66890096

Universal:

Wiring Harness: B67885152

The document number is in my original post.

 

[KennyN]

I dont see the one-off wiring being any different to installing any other piece of electrical accessory to any other vehicle. If you want to do it as "factory" then it will be complicated and expensive but using the battery for the main constant positive (fused) source and the doors pin switch for the earth then it doesnt really get any more straight forward , providing the plates lamps are 12v.

Kenny

 

[turbopete]

in the days before can-bus, that's roughly how the 'official' retrofit would have worked too. why do they make such simple alterations so complicated? and because the car has the can-bus, the chances are that whatever lights up the trims (LEDs or bulbs) is probably not going to be 12 volts just to annoy you even further.

 

[ZZZZ]

I'll check everything carefully, once the sills are here.
I does seem incredible such a simple mod would require such a complicated retrofit.

 

[Stan the man]

I have a full set of 4 bespoke stainless illuminated sills suitable for a W204, may fit others. Each sill is self contained with a built in battery, so no external wiring required. Operation is by a small magnet taped to the underside of the door. Each sill is mounted using double sided adhesive tape, so no drilling required.
I now drive a W205 with oem illuminated sills, so these are surplus to requirements. If interested please pm me.

 

[ZZZZ]

Well, it done now - it was a bit more complicated than I hoped for, and what Kenny has suggested, as the OE sills are not 12V, and are actuated by their own power blocks, which are part of the wiring harness (p/n in post #9).

However, I managed to avoid tearing the car apart, removing the battery and the fuse block, re-pinning one of the SAM connectors, and the rest of the madness as per WIS.

Nevertheless, I now have the full factory functionality for the illuminated door sills, including the cut-off after 5min of a door been open.

 

[David Richardson]

Looks superb David

 

[ZZZZ]

Thanks David

Yours got metal door sills, right?
If not, I'd be more than happy to send you my original ones - they're in very good condition?

 

[David Richardson]

Cheers Dave,

I think from memory they are, I'll take a photo & send it up to you, just that it's pouring down with rain here at the moment

will do as soon as it stops

D

 

[daibevan]

Well, it done now - it was a bit more complicated than I hoped for, and what Kenny has suggested, as the OE sills are not 12V, and are actuated by their own power blocks, which are part of the wiring harness (p/n in post #9).

However, I managed to avoid tearing the car apart, removing the battery and the fuse block, re-pinning one of the SAM connectors, and the rest of the madness as per WIS.

Nevertheless, I now have the full factory functionality for the illuminated door sills, including the cut-off after 5min of a door been open.

Cor, what a palaver. Anyway they look great and success with such a big job is always more satisfying than an easy fix. Keep up the good work.

 

[ZZZZ]

Thanks It was indeed very satisfying, to get everything just right ... the only easy part of this mod was the access to the ground points - one on each side, with plenty of space to work on.

 

[Scacco]

Well, it done now - it was a bit more complicated than I hoped for, and what Kenny has suggested, as the OE sills are not 12V, and are actuated by their own power blocks, which are part of the wiring harness (p/n in post #9).

However, I managed to avoid tearing the car apart, removing the battery and the fuse block, re-pinning one of the SAM connectors, and the rest of the madness as per WIS.

Nevertheless, I now have the full factory functionality for the illuminated door sills, including the cut-off after 5min of a door been open.

I have just bought a original kit for my Mercedes W169 3-door.

I'd like to know if you can illustrate how you did it for editing.

Also I would not like to follow the classic Mercedes installation and would like to connect the illuminated sill doors to the courtesy lights which are recessed in the lower door panels, that come on when I open the doors.

But I would like to keep the automatic shutdown timer if possible after 5 minutes if the door remains open.

I would be grateful if you could help me and respond to my request for help.

Thanks in advance.