Today, not only possible repairs, but also various improvements to our cars can be solved quite easily by ourselves. If you love your tin pet so much that you are also interested in possible design extensions, let's look together at one of the possible paths to take. That way is the installation of backlighting, in the area of the front door of our car. When opened, this not only has a quite interesting aesthetic effect, but it can also significantly contribute to overall safety, especially when we get out of the car, especially when it is already dark or completely dark.
What we need?
Naturally, first of all, we need to buy all the necessary components that we will need in order to install LED backlighting in the car. Today, on the market, we can quite simply buy ordinary LED strips, which impress us mainly with their durability, as well as with their price, or with the fact that we can buy them in different color designs. Of course, we are talking about universal options. In addition to them, it is not a problem on our market if we also buy special tapes that are intended for placement in a specific vehicle. Here, there are no problems associated with, for example, shortening them, or problems associated with, for example, any other technical modification.
If we are more skilled and have experience in the field of electrical installations, it is not a problem to buy separate diodes. This solution will definitely look significantly better than the previous option. But it is somewhat more demanding both in terms of time and, of course, technically, which must be taken into account.
Installation of the lights themselves
The first step is certainly one of the hardest parts if we want to install the LEDs in the door area. If it is only a ready-made tape, the path is relatively simple, as the current possibilities allow it to be easily glued to the desired place. Ideal for the inner part of the door, in which individual holes are subsequently drilled, through which the strip will easily shine.
If you decide on solution number 2, you also need to drill the individual places where the diodes will be located. You will then place them permanently here. From the inside of the door, of course, you will not forget one very important thing, which is the necessity of connecting individual individual diodes to the cable, thanks to which you will create a separate circuit. Here you can't avoid both without specific skills and, of course, without soldering.
Connection is required
If we have finished the installation of the diodes as such, we can proceed to the next necessary step. This is the connection to the electrical network of the car. If we have experience with car electronics, we can usually handle the given step ourselves. If not, we need to contact an experienced auto electrician who will help us with the individual steps. Here it is important to watch out for any current electricity damage. The advantage is certainly that the connection itself does not have to be that complicated, as there is no need to have any concerns connected with the fact that you would have to reach the area of the fuse boxes with the given cabling.
Most cars already have a so-called lamp in their door. That is, a light that turns on automatically when the door is opened. If this is also your case, you simply connect the given LED backlight to this circuit. Thanks to this, you ensure that the lights turn on exactly and only at the moment when you open the door. If you want to replace the original light in the door with them, there is nothing easier than simply disconnecting it and plugging in your LED diode structure instead.
Functionality test
You should proceed in the same way on both sides, i.e. both on the right and left doors. Door backlighting can be installed in the rear door in a similar way. If everything is in place, it's time to test the functionality itself. This should be associated with the fact that when you open the door, the lights should come on. On the other hand, if you close them again, they should go out.
If something isn't working as it should, it can usually be linked to a bad electrical supply. We must say that there are usually no problems associated with LEDs not lighting up. And that's also because this type of light offers a fairly high resistance and lifetime.
We install the door cover
Once everything is working as it should, that's naturally very good news for us, because at that point we can get down to fitting the door cover back into place. Of course, we take care not to damage the installed diodes. At the same time, we also pay attention to the fact that there are drilled holes in the places where the diodes are located. If everything is in order again, we will test the possible functionality once more and we can set off.
Finally, we must not forget that we strongly recommend using LEDs as part of the installation. And this is due both to the fact that they are quite durable and, of course, also due to the fact that they have a long service life. And this mainly consists in the fact that as we keep opening and closing the door, the diodes keep turning on and off. It lasts significantly longer than a regular light bulb. This is also connected to the fact that it lasts for a longer period of time – even longer than a regular light bulb. The third and important positive is also the consumption of electrical energy. It can be even 90 percent smaller compared to a light bulb. Even if the door is left open for a long time without the car running, there is absolutely no need to worry about the battery being discharged due to long-term lighting, or perhaps another specific technical problem. Exactly opposite. In addition, as we mentioned, this solution can significantly contribute to safety on any of your trips.
