Interior Door Handle LED Lighting Kit

RobinA3

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Chaps

After lots of happy customers for my footwell and puddle lights i am looking into doing the door handle LED lighting modification. I originally didn't want to do it as its a fiddly job to make the loom up and also a quite fiddly to fit them to the door handle but i have lots of people asking if i can do them.

So after some thinking i decided to do the driver side on mine and its looks pretty good but i couldn't be ***** to do the passenger side one, will do it later on this week.

Anyway is anyone interested in this mod? I need to get an idea of the number of people who are interested before i do a how to guide and get some looms and fitting made up.
 
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Hi Robin,

Yes! I really liked your footwell/puddle lights and I only need the door handles now to make the full kit!

If you could do them to fit a 06 SB that would be great!

Matt:thrashi:
 
Hi,
My car already has the full lighting pack, so would this be an upgrade to the exterior handles or the interior handle lighting?

I would only be interested if this is for the external handles....

Thanks
Dan
 
whoops sorry just read the title, its for the interior....

How much of an improvement would this make? any pics?

Thanks
Dan
 
Definitely interested mate, would we require new handles though?
 
on mine i have used the old door handle and given it a slot to allow the led strip to sit into it but its not a great job, i have priced up a new set of handles and they come to £60 a pair which come with the slot already there, i will post up how to put the slot in the original handles for people who wanna save a few quid.

i'll keep you posted!
 
price wise it won't be much, probably around £15 for 2 doors loom wise. i will keep you guys updated :)
 
right chaps just a quick update.

I have just bought a door handle for the A3 which has the LED light fitted to it. The handle was £30 which comes with the light as well, the slot for the light is predone so the light sits pefectly like you would expect.

In order to fit the light to your existing door handle you'll need to have a dremel or something similar to do the slot and the fit of the light is pretty rough, well mine is as i kinda rushed it as it was cold outside!

Therefore there are 2 options to do this mod.

1 - Create the slot yourself with a dremel or something similar, its £10 for the led and connector per door.

2 - Buy a new handle from Audi for £30 so £60 in total which will come with the light as well so it kinda works out to £20 per door as the light itself is £10.

I can supply for the looms for £10 each door inc postage.

I will post some piccies of both the self modified led slot and a pic for the pukka preslotted led slot as soon as i can be ***** to get my **** out in the cold weather!!!!
 
Any news on this? Whats the PN for the LED's so I can order them. What is needed for the loom also as I can make it up myself.

Cheers,
Joe
 
right chaps just a quick update.

I have just bought a door handle for the A3 which has the LED light fitted to it. The handle was £30 which comes with the light as well, the slot for the light is predone so the light sits pefectly like you would expect.

In order to fit the light to your existing door handle you'll need to have a dremel or something similar to do the slot and the fit of the light is pretty rough, well mine is as i kinda rushed it as it was cold outside!

Therefore there are 2 options to do this mod.

1 - Create the slot yourself with a dremel or something similar, its £10 for the led and connector per door.

2 - Buy a new handle from Audi for £30 so £60 in total which will come with the light as well so it kinda works out to £20 per door as the light itself is £10.

I can supply for the looms for £10 each door inc postage.

I will post some piccies of both the self modified led slot and a pic for the pukka preslotted led slot as soon as i can be ***** to get my **** out in the cold weather!!!!

Right chaps

sorry for the lack of updating, been busy at work :-(

Anyway i have fitted the LED door handle on the car now and i have to admit that buying the door handle from Audi with the led light fitted is 10000 times easier than making the slot in the old handle and fitting the led light.

Basically as i mentioned in my previous post there are 2 options.

1. Buy the led and use your old handle.
2. Buy a new pair of door handles.

The 1st option is the cheapest but its a right **** of a job making the slot for the LED light. It can be done with some patience though.

As the led light needs a feed and an earth. The earth needs to be joined to the earth wire on the puddle light and warning light loom. This will require a bit of soldering and cutting etc.

Loom options are as follows:

1.1 - £20 inc recorded postage - I will supply the loom for the LED light which will mean you will need to solder the earth wire to the earth wire on the puddle/warning light loom. I will supply the electrical connectors, you will need to get the LED light conductor and LED bulb (items 22 and 23) from Audi, both these parts come to £10 per door from Audi. However if you are going to buy new door handles then you will only need the loom and not items 22 and 23.

handle.jpg


2 - £40 inc recorded postage - I will supply the loom, all connectors and items 22 and 23.

3 - £20 Remove your current puddle/warning light loom, send it to me and i will rework it to have the LED lighting loom added into it, all you need to do is buy items 22 and 23 if you don't go for new door handles.

4 - If you haven't already got the puddle/warning light looms then i will add the extra wiring for the LED lighting loom if required, please pm me for details.

For all the people who have got the puddle/warning lights loom already from me i must apologise for not adding in the LED light when i first did the looms, at the time i wasn't convinced that the led light was worth the extra hassle and extra costs, therefore i have priced the above options up to be as cheap as possible, there is no profit in the above for me as i have to buy the wire, connectors, loom tape, electrical connectors etc from Audi dealership in order to make them. It would be wrong of me to make profit from people who have already bought the looms.

If you need any more information please drop me a pm or reply to the post.
 
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A guide on how to retrofit these things would be nice too :)

I`m also very interested, since your puddle/warning light looms were awesome
 
Right here is a guide to do this mod.

Remove the door cards - guide to do this on my puddle/warning light thread.

Remove the small torx headed bolts holding on the door handle.

led1.jpg


Remove the handle by pushing it out of the door card.

Replace the door handle with the new one - thats if you buy a new handle with the led already fitted.

If you are modifying your existing door handle then you'll still need to remove it from the door card and you will an outline of where the led strip sits into.

led7.jpg


You will need to remove the material from the handle casing shown in red.

led6.jpg


How you do this is up to you, i used a dremel and a drill, took me about 30mins, i only did it on the drivers side and bought the passenger side from Audi.

The LED strip will then sit into position, i couldn't get the drivers side to sit in properly hence why i bought the passenger side one from Audi.

led5.jpg


Refit the handle into the door card.

You will then need to connect up the loom.

led3.jpg


One the other end of the loom one pin goes into the door controller and the other goes to an earth - use the earth on the puddle/warning light loom.

Here is the result.

Shame i took the pic in the daytime as they light up very well in the dark and look very good.

ledlight.jpg
 

Hi.
Thanks for the guide, it helps. Im thinking of doing this in my a3, but im thinking of using the door handles that i already have.
But i didn't understand, what is that transparent/acrylic(?) thing? Is something to support the led?
 
the led bulb plugs into the transparent part and spreads the light across the handle as shown in the picture above showing the the led strip lit up red.
 
Robin has supplied the part numbers in post number 19. You can get them from any Audi parts dept, or you could try Stoke Audi who sponsor part of the forum.

I have ordered these for my A4 but it wasn't easy getting the hole cut out and as Robin has said they just don't sit right. (Bought just one set first as a trial to cut the hole)

I ordered the whole handle in the end (x4). Tt comes as one part with the light strip already fitted.
 
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Thanks:icon_thumright:
I see this really is more complicated that it looks, at least to do this in the door handles that i have now. I would buy them already prepared for this from audi, but i have a a3 sportback so it would be more expensive =/
But i won't give up so easy:laugh: What about these led's : Ebay link ? maybe it would be easier to install and i would only have to do a small whole on the door handle, or not? the only downside is that probably the light efect won't be the same, because of the shape of the led
 
From where will i take current for leds?
Is there already source current for led or must create new cable ?
 
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Robin,

Do you have the part numbers of the handles that already have the holder in them, as looking on ETKA I cant find part numbers for ones with and ones without.

Thanks.
 
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From where will i take current for leds?
Is there already source current for led or must create new cable ?

+ve for the door handle illumination lamp on the 32 pin connector is pin 17. -ve is pin 19. For the rear doors on the 32 pin connector, +ve is pin14 and -ve is pin 2. (This was taken from elsawin on a 2008 model).

You will therefore need two repair wires (approx £2 each) and these were long enough on the A4 to reach, so should be ok on the A3. I also bought the oem connector which was about £2.50 but I don't know what the part no. is. Alternatively buy Robins loom.

I have just fitted these to my A4 and bought the new handles, the fitting is relatively the same.
 
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Have you got a pic of these in action in the dark/night?

P1000825.jpg

(Although taken from my A4 the effect is the same)

This picture was taken underneath the handle, all you really see is the glow along the handle when seated normally.

tbh you don't get much glow from these, the red light glows off the aluminium handle quite subtly.

If I were going to do this again I would experiment with a couple of 12v led's from maplins at a few pence each to see the effect. Drill a 3-4 mm hole and insert led and holder, still quite discreet. After all you will either be cutting a hole in the handle for the illumination bar or buying new handles so its worth a try.

If anyone does this post a reply. Buying a new handle at £30 a go is alot to get this effect (and I bought 4!) when an led might just do the same thing. As they will be underside of the handle you can't see them anyway. Just my opinion though
 
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Robin's looms or alternatively 2 repair wires and a oem connector block.

See post number 15 for his price. Robin's looms are top quality and come wrapped in cloth tape (oem style). I bought his puddle/door warning light looms when I had my A3. With my A4 I decided to have a go myself but wasn't much cheaper!