The pale light in the Door Sill Plates has been bothering me for a while... so I decided to switch them over to more powerful LEDs. Since my car is blue, I changed the color, too.

The whole mod is fairly easy. Less than 2 hours per side (plus the month it took for the lights to get here from China, that is).

Here is a quick overview.

Steps

The result:




In the car...





Compare to the old one...

 

That is great! I wanted to do last last year and only ended up ruining a scuff plate. I'll take a new look at this. How did you pull off the Al plate? I couldn't get a grip under and didn't try yet a wire.

In your steps you state remove the original light unit but then you put it back? Why bother putting it back?

I like the look - much more modern. I have blue LEDs for the courtesy lights and changing so other interior switches to blue LEDs.

 

Awesome mod and write up Caseoane!! Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks! I used a chisel, believe it or not, to gently pry the plate off the plastic. It was the right width. After that, I hammered out any dents placing the plate on the anvil part of a vise.

I kept the light unit mainly to diffuse the light off the LEDs. If you put the strip against the plate directly,you'd be able to see thru: the LED strip I used is narrower than the "LEXUS" window, so it would look weird. If you could buy a wider strip maybe you wouldn't need to keep the unit (I tried placing two strips per side but it didn't look good).

Hope this helps!

 

I tried this mod too about two months ago, and ruined my aluminum finish. Too many dents in the metal from trying to pry up the "Lexus" Icon plate. Turned out to be a nightmare for me. Glad it worked out for you. I now have an entire extra door sill that I will experiment with. I was thinking of just cutting through the back of the unit all together and removing the light complex from the back rather than even alter the front. Will keep a running post on how it turns out.

 

Nice job Caseoane.

 

I tried that too but didn't get the OEM light out (yet). The back is solid so the light unit is inserted from the top them the metal strip is placed over it. SomImhave an extra one too - I'll try again to simply cut the entire thing out.

 

ShawnOK - YES! Why didn't I think of that! I tried your method of going in from the rear (hehehehe) on the other side tonite and it's perfectly doable. I didn't have to take the plate out or anything. Just carefully cut the window for the LED, insert it and solder the cables. Less than an hour.

Only problem is that I scratched the back of the OEM light unit when scraping off the remaining tape. If you look carefully, you can see it from the top, but it's not too bad. Had I known and been a bit more careful, it would have been perfect.

Thanks for the idea!

 

Casoane - so you're putting the new LED strip under the OEM light block and the light just shine though?

 

Yup, that's exactly what I'm doing. The OEM light unit has a white backing that's perfect for diffusing the LED's light. If you put the LED strip directly against the LEXUS icon you'll be able to see the strip's borders and it won't look good at all.

Remember that the LEDs are REALLY powerful - you have more than enough light to shine through with this method...

 

....loving this mod...I just put a bid on a set

 

Keep us posted texsexlex... And learn from my mistakes: careful with scratching the OEM light if you cut from the back. Good luck!

 

Caseoane, if you posted a photo DIY or video DIY for attacking this mod from the back that would be awesome! This is a mod people have discussed for along time but no one has created a food proof method until you came along. :-)

 

"food proof"?? :-)

Unfortunately, I have installed everything back in place. But if I find myself doing it with, say, someone else's sills, I'll be sure to document everything...

 

Caseoane, where are you located? you can use mine to do it again for step by step photo documenting this time, Lol!!