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Old 20th October 2018, 17:28   #1
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Default Fitting Rover logo door lights

Hello guys, a set of 4x Rover logo door lights arrived to me from China yesterday, as we know, Rovers don't come with installed door lights so I thought about installing a relay for each door, the ground to the relay would be coming from the wire that is grounded when the door is opened (each door has one), and you also need a 12v wire to energize the relay and output the 12v signal that my lights would need to turn on, so in theory, I'd always have 12v to the relay, and when the ground signal from the door opened switch is activet, it energizes the relay and sends the 12v to my lights, so far so good, but, as I've noticed, only my driver's door has a permanent 12v feed which I found by pulling out the connector running to the window and testing each wire with the multimeter, but for my passenger's door for example, no 12v signal to be found in the wires running to the window switch, and I don't wanna go through the hassle of pulling a permanent 12v wire from the inside of the car to each of the rest 3 doors because I want to keep this installation as clean and easy as possible. So do you guys know for each door a 12v permanent wire that I can hook my relay up to?
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Old 20th October 2018, 18:38   #2
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There is a how to: How-To Install Puddle Lights (non-Sunroof Models) but the photos are missing. T-Cut wrote it and may be able to help with the missing photos.
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Old 20th October 2018, 19:41   #3
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Originally Posted by stevestrat View Post
There is a how to: How-To Install Puddle Lights (non-Sunroof Models) but the photos are missing. T-Cut wrote it and may be able to help with the missing photos.

The original photos are under the Photobucket ransom and I couldn't get access to the HowTo document to update it, so it was abandoned. But I have in fact revised and reposted it using a new image host, but it's still hidden somewhere in the Technical Forum. I'll try to find it. I haven't managed to get the old one in the How To forum replaced. There are around half a dozen more in a similar position.


I'll post a link here if/when I locate the update.


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Old 20th October 2018, 19:56   #4
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Update to above.
I couldn't find the revised edition so I've redrafted it here just for you. Maybe if a mod sees it he might copy it over the old one in the HowTo forum?

Also note that this document is now over five years old and puddle light technology has no doubt moved on by now. Many people now prefer the battery powered stick-on type that don't rquire any effort to fit.
************************************************** *******
How To Install Puddle Lights

This write-up describes fitting puddle lights to all four doors. The lights have the projected MG/Rover logo and supplied by Radioguy via the Club Forum.

Before doing anything, I couldn't wait to see what the logo projection looked like. I connected each puddle light to a 12v supply and was pleasently surprised by the brightness and vividness of the image. I bought the Mk2 Rover logo ($12 extra for some reason). Out of the four I bought, one gave a blurred image on a white screen about 18" away. The lamps should be in focus, but this one wasn't. After hours of investigation, I corrected the problem. I will add more on this if required.

For a door lock/BCU-switched power supply, I decided the main courtesy light was the most convenient. I preferred to tap my four supply wires into that and radiate them outwards through the roof space towards the A and B posts on each side. This provides a way of doing it with minimal dismantling. Of course, it's not the only way since the equivalent supply is available elsewhere. The Haynes manual is useful for details on removing interior panels.

References here to the door 'conduit' means the concertina type rubber ducting joing the door edge to the door jamb. The door wiring harness passes through this and is the route your new wiring has to follow. Each end of the conduit forms a grommet which can be pulled out by hand from its mounting hole. A small screwdriver is useful for getting it started.

I recommend installing and testing one puddle light at a time. Make sure it works properly before starting on the next one. Having all four doors open and stripped of their cards may have practical issues and logistical problems if you need the car to be readily available.

1. Disconnect the battery to avoid shorting anything while wiring up the lights. Take any necessary precautions with this according to your fitted accessories like satnav, radio code, etc.

2. The courtesy light lens should be levered off using a small screwdriver. To avoid fracturing the clips, there's a levering recess as indicated here.

PHOTO (Lever_Lens)


3. The light unit chassis can now be freed from the roof brackets by removing the two large self-tappers. With the chassis released, you can now disconnect the wiring plug hidden above the roof lining.

4. With the courtesy light on the bench, I soldered four male spade connectors onto the switched supply busbar. Ensure to select the correct one as shown the next photo. The spades I used were the 2.8mm crimp type (code red) suitable for 1mm wire. I removed the red plastic crimp sleeve by heating and pulling it off. I then flattened/filed the metal stub so it's easier to position and solder onto the busbar.

PHOTO (Supply_Terminals)

PHOTO (Supply_Terminals_2)


5. I decided to use 1.5 amp (1mm approx) insulated wire in white to feed the supply to each puddle light. You can estimate the length required for front and rear doors by following a route in straight lines from the courtesy light, across the headlining to the top of the A or B posts, down the post to the door conduit, through the rubber conduit into the door cavity and across the door cavity to the puddle light location. The light will be located on the bottom edge of the door card. Now add half as much again for comfort and cut the wires to length.

6. Crimp or preferably solder a female spade connector to one end of the four wires. Protect/insulate the joins with heat shrink as appropriate.

7. You now need a few feet of maleable steel wire about 2mm thick to use as a pull-through for the supply wires. You can get suitable wire from DIY stores or Screwfix. Using pliers, make a small loop on one end. The looped end will be pushed into the roof space (the gap between the headlining and the roof) from the point where the A or B posts start.

8. To access the roof space, pull away the rubber weatherseal on the body door opening down the post. At the top corner, this reveals a small gap above the headlining into the roof space. You can push the probe into this towards the courtesy light hole. When you use the right sort of wire, it's dead easy to do. Push/jiggle it until the loop end is visible.

PHOTO (Push_Wire_Over_Liner)


9.The loop end is pulled through a few inches so you can attach the plain end of your supply wire.

PHOTO (Wire_Pullthrough)


10. Use the pull-through to draw the supply wire across the roof space so it emerges at the top corner of the A or B post. Make sure you don't lose the other end into the roof. You could plug in the courtesy light chassis as support and attach the puddle wire to one of the spade connectors. Detach the wire from the pull-through.

To avoid any confusion as the wires are assembled, it's a good idea to stick a label around each one in turn to identify which light it goes to (LHF, RHF, LHR, RHR).

PHOTO (Connected_Up)


11. The next job is to winkle each wire from the top of the A/B post to the point where the harness cables from the door come through the rubber conduit. The A and B posts house the safety system air bags tightly folded along their length. You must be careful when bringing down your wires that they do not foul these bags in any way.

12. To get the A post wires down, pull away the weatherseal from top to bottom. Remove the plastic panels on the side of the foot wells. Now maneuvre your pull-through wire upwards from the footwell into the dash side so the looped end emerges from the gap in the A post near the dash. Attach the supply wire and pull it down so it emerges in the footwell. Using your fingers, carefully push the supply wire into the gap between the post and the air bag. The wire should be behind or at the side. It shouldn't run along the face of the air bag so it can inflate properly if it's ever needed. All this can be done without removing the finisher panel running down the post. MGR say these panels should be renewed if they're removed. Haynes describes removal/refitting if necessary.

13. On the footwell wall is a large oval grommet that conveys the harness from the conduit in the door jamb. This grommet must be pulled out from the wall. There's a cavity behind it through which you should be able feel the grommeted end of the conduit.

14. With the large oval grommet out, you'll see that the door harness passes through its central web. You must put your supply wire through this as well using the looped end of the pull-through. This is shown in the next photo.

PHOTO (Inner_Skin_Grommet)


15. Remove the door card. This requires an understanding of the clip system which is documented in a separate HowTo. The card may be left attached to the windows switch harness, but it needs to be placed on a suitable surface to protect it. Old carpet is good.

16. Detach the radio speaker by removing the self tappers. Support it carefully using a stout wire hook, etc to the door frame. This gives you access to the waterproof membrane stuck to the door frame. You need to pull this away very carefully so the adhesive mastic stays put as far as possible and avoid tearing the foam. You only have to pull away an area near the conduit and downwards across the bottom edge. This is so you can get your hand on the grommet and so you can fix and wire up the puddle light.

17. Push the conduit grommet outwards from the hole in the door edge. Do the same at the other end by pushing it out from behind the footwell wall cavity. Here, you'll find that the door harness has a large connecting plug immediately inside the grommet hole. You can leave this connection intact. It will push through the hole with the grommet. You need the conduit floating on the harness in the gap between the door and the jamb.

18. Insert the pull-through into the door side grommet, through the conduit and out of the jamb grommet alongside the connector block. This is made a great deal easier if the conduit is compressed to minimum length between your fingers. If you don't do this, the convoluted inner makes it a PIA. Pull your supply wire through the conduit as seen here.

PHOTO (Pull_Wire_Through_Conduit)


19. Push the end of the supply wire into the door cavity. Push the conduit grommet back into the door edge. Push the connector block and the conduit grommet back into the jamb. Replace the large footwell grommet. Bring the supply wire through the door membrane somewhere near the speaker pocket. Nick the membrane and feed it through.

20. Refit the membrane to the door frame using the mastic. Refit the speaker.

You now have your supply wire inside the door as shown next.

PHOTO (Wire_into_Door)


20. Repeat the above general procedure with each door that will have a puddle light.


Fitting the Puddle Light Units

a. The units are supplied with a 28mm hole saw to cut a mounting hole through the lower edge of the door card. I found the fit extremely tight. The 28mm hole requires some easing with a half-round file/rasp or you'll have difficulty fitting the lights. Be prepared for this. The hole saw would be better at 29mm.

PHOTO (Hole_Cutter)


b. Carefully invert the door card so you can see the best place to locate the light unit. The base of the card is shaped/tapered, so you must place the centre for the drill on the wider horizontal part. If you try to mount it too close to the hinge end, the light won't fit. The exact place is your choice, but I think the best place is on the wider part nearest the centre. This puts the light beam as close to the door sill as possible.

c. if necessary, use some masking tape on the outer face of the card to mark the drill centre point. It must be central on the width because there's precious little room for the light module inside.

d. Using an electric drill, cut the hole through the card from outside inwards. A little ragging of the edge is unavoidable, but it will be covered by the lamp bezel. The hole saw is actually of good quality.

PHOTO (Cutting_Hole)


e. Test the fit of the lamp unit by removing its locking ring and pushing the wires/body into the card from the outside.
If necessary, ease the fit by filing around the hole until the lamp moves easily. You need it to turn without the threads binding. This is so you can orientate the Rover/MG logo that's projected on the ground.

PHOTO (Insert_Light_Unit)


f. When you're happy with the fit, screw the internal holding ring onto the lamp unit but leave it finger tight. Don't lock it with the grub screw until you've set the logo beam orientation.

g. The next step is connecting up the circuit. The lamps are supplied with a large amount of twin (red & black) flex, which you'll need to shorten to a suitable length. This is determined by the earth connection for the black wire from the puddle light. There's an earth lead in the door harness. The cable bunch from the lock, etc. has a single black earth wire which can be found by unwrapping the binding and separating the wires. With this done, cut a little of the plastic insulation so you can solder the black wire from the light to the earth. An alternative might be scotchlocks or similar, but the wires are quite fine. I recommend soldering the join if possible using heat shrink sleeving or insulating tape over it for support.

h. The red wire from the puddle light is connected to your new supply wire, preferably by soldering them. Insulate the join.

i. Temporarily refit the door card by hooking up the release cable and fitting the card onto the window ledge. You need the door to shut properly and open again with the handle. Shut the door.

j. Reconnect the battery.

k. Place a white sheet of some sort under the door so you can see the projected logo.

l. Open the door and check that the puddle light comes on. The logo should be in focus, but may not be orientated as you'd like.
The obvious orientation is so you can see/read the logo correctly as you prepare to exit the car. If it's not right, the light unit needs twisting round.

m. With the door open, pull the card away at the bottom so you can grasp the light unit. Alternatively, the exterior bezel has flats to receive a spanner.Turn the unit so the logo is correctly displayed on the ground.

n. Lock the light unit in position using the locking ring and then tighten the grub screw to stop it moving.

o. Refit the door card using new card clips where necessary.

p. Repeat all the above for each puddle light.

q. Results are best seen in the dark!



Note:
The puddle light unit contains a tiny photographic transparency of your chosen logo. The LED beam is configured to produce an in-focus image over a wide range. There are five optical quality plastic lenses inside the unit which should be in the correct positions to focus the beam. One of mine was out of focus. Correcting this is difficult but it can be done with care. The unit can be opened up quite easily by unscrewing the LED carrier at the top end. Inside there's a split tube insert containing the optical system. If you don't take great care, the whole thing will disintegrate on removal and you'll never get things back without instructions.

There are two large plano-convex lenses set up in a Plössl arrangement, followed by three unequal bi-convex lenses of smaller diameter. The clue to correct focus is in the orientation of thee small lenses. If anyone finds their logo to be blurred when projected onto a flat white surface, I will post the instructions for adjusting the focus. I really do hope nobody needs to do it!

TC

Last edited by T-Cut; 20th October 2018 at 20:00..
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Old 20th October 2018, 22:42   #5
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Thank you very much T-Cut for your time looking for that post and bringing it to me here! The thing is, I can do this all by myself easily with no guides, my method would be spreading the 12v interior light feed from the BCU side to each of the 4 doors, but this method would take much more time than finding a permanent live feed in each of the 4 doors to connect to the relay that I would install in each door, the ground would come from the wire that is grounded when opening the door, so basically I wouldn't have to wire no cable anymore through the door gromets and it would be easier, no panels and trims needed to take off for the installation at the interior side of the car, and as said, for the driver's door, I was able to find a permanent 12v feed, but for the other ones, no luck, hence my thread here, for the other 3 doors besides the driver's, there is no permanent live feed going to the DDM (window switch), and also the lock/unlock motors are getting 12v only then pressing the window switch one way or the other, so I am stuck with no other ideas where to find a 12v permanent feed inside the doors
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Old 21st October 2018, 18:10   #6
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Quote:
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- - - - so I am stuck with no other ideas where to find a 12v permanent feed inside the doors

I don't think there is one, hence what I did.


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Old 21st October 2018, 23:57   #7
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Yup also thought so, so the only thing left is wiring a 12v source from the interior to each door separately
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Old 22nd October 2018, 12:03   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rsnail View Post
Hello guys, a set of 4x Rover logo door lights arrived to me from China yesterday, as we know, Rovers don't come with installed door lights so I thought about installing a relay for each door, the ground to the relay would be coming from the wire that is grounded when the door is opened (each door has one), and you also need a 12v wire to energize the relay and output the 12v signal that my lights would need to turn on, so in theory, I'd always have 12v to the relay, and when the ground signal from the door opened switch is activet, it energizes the relay and sends the 12v to my lights, so far so good, but, as I've noticed, only my driver's door has a permanent 12v feed which I found by pulling out the connector running to the window and testing each wire with the multimeter, but for my passenger's door for example, no 12v signal to be found in the wires running to the window switch, and I don't wanna go through the hassle of pulling a permanent 12v wire from the inside of the car to each of the rest 3 doors because I want to keep this installation as clean and easy as possible. So do you guys know for each door a 12v permanent wire that I can hook my relay up to?
Just out of interest, who did you get the lights from? Was it through Radioguy, or direct from China?
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Old 22nd October 2018, 13:29   #9
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I got mine from Radioguy, but I suspect they can be had a lot cheaper by going direct. At the time, there were loads of identical lights on eBay at significantly better prices, though getting the Rover Mk2 logo seemed to be a Radioguy special that cost me $12 extra. Though it felt like a rip-off, I'd no option.


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Old 22nd October 2018, 14:27   #10
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Thanks T-Cut, last time I looked, Sean's looked quite expensive, but at the moment, there is nothing on eBay.
Just tried to check his shop, and got hit with a load of spam (ooh look, 1000th visitor today, I've won an ipad, lucky me) so I won't bother with him.
Anyone got an alternative source, please.
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