Puddle Lights - How To Fit These on your F/TF

Following on from Phil's fitment of puddle lights i decided to fit some to mine with a few pictures and a brief how-to.


The lights i chose are from a Renault Laguna but there are several differing models you could choose from.The renault ones are quite a deep fitment,about 1 1/2 inch) but still fit ok.


When doing any electrical work it is always wise to disconnect the battery before starting any work on the car.


Firstly obviously you need to remove the door cards,then on a nice flat surface offer the light up to the desired position,i chose the position i did as the renault has quite a deep recess,draw a pencil line around the base of the light.The measurement of mine was approx 92x25mm.

Once you have done this drill small pilot holes just inside the line a couple of mm apart,you could just drill a hole large enough to fit a hacksaw blade in and then cut the shape but i found drilling the easiest way.remember the golden rule of measuring two or three times before cutting or drilling anything.




Then once these holes are drilled i used a stanley knife to basically join the holes up and then pop the piece out.Then you can carefully smooth the edges out with the stanley knife being careful not to go over the outline you have drawn.




Keep smoothing the edges off and offering the light to the hole until the light pushes through with a nice snug fit and sits nice and flush with the door card.Again, remember that you can always shave a bit more off but cant add it if you rush and trim too much. (This i found to be the longest part of the whole process).






Next you will need to turn the door card over and attach the wiring.I used simple male/female crimps to connect the bulb wiring to your own wire.You will need approx 3 metres to do each door,this will allow enough for correct routing of the wire inside the car.Once this is done its a good idea to tag the wire along the inside of the door card to stop it getting in the way when re-fitting the door card and also there is no chance of it snagging on the window mechanism.(You only need to do this up to just before the speaker,i did one too many which i removed later).






Then your ready to start wiring it up inside the car. (I did the passenger side the other way,ie wiring in the car first then door card to see if any easier and to be honest theres nothing in it whichever way you do it).

You will need to remove the speaker to gain easier access to thread the cable through the door.




Then feed the wire through the door aperture,make sure you use the smaller hole rather than the speaker hole as obviously your speaker wont sit correctly.




Then thread the wire through the tube which is connected between door and car,i used a piece of small bore tubing,a longish piece of strong wire would have been easier but didnt have any to hand.




Pull the wire through into the cabin and then you can start to route your wire whichever way you think is best.I went just behind the fuse box on drivers side and right round behind carpet on passenger side.

Then you will need to remove the two philips screws holding the footwell light panels on.You should then be able to make simple crimp connections using the existing footwell connections.Note i used piggy back crimp connectors as this is by far the easiest way and scotchlocks can cause all sorts of problems later on.





Before putting everything back together it is worth re-connecting the battery to ensure you have made the connections correctly.



Once this is done you can re-fit the footwell panels and the door card and hopefully it should look something like this :-




The bulbs in these renault lights are 501 wedge bulbs i think so at some point i will be getting some led ones to see if this gives off any more light,which i think is likely.

I tried to take some pics in my garage with the light off to see what light it gave out but the pics werent too good but ok for the purpose of this how-to i think








I hope this of help to people as its quite a nice little mod to have and cheap as chips to do.Took me 2 hours from start to finish which included a tea and fag break inbetween each door

Nice Job, One more Mod added to my wish list

Nice how to!:yesnod: They look really good!

Something else I keep meaning to do.:lol:

Full marks - even the other half liked these. :lol:

Now that looks like a job even I could do and they look great.

Nice job, they look great and a good "how to do it " as well ~ think the led's should give more light. i too have added this to my wish list. :woohoo:

Oooo nice job I like em

pitty you couldn't put a kit together, I think they might sell well in Australia at the mo

Great safety mod. Thanks for the 'how to' Jester. :broon:

Brilliant mod, thank you for taking the time to put it together!