so the one feature that my last car had but the S does not is something to illuminate the interior door handle area at night. i'm getting sick of reaching across people just to grab the door handle for them (although with some girls it's welcomed). my last car had a single red bulb flushed into the handle cup and it was just enough to show where the handle was without being too much. has anyone done such a thing? i can't imagine it'd be too terribly difficult to sink a tiny led in there and wire it up but i'm an electronic wiring idiot. point me in the right direction?

 

try here

http://www.hi-tecdesigns.com/

 

I installed a single LED in the door handle cup. Its pretty easy. the hardest part is running the wiring for it.

 

darkknight- any pics of the led at night? i don't want something that's terribly bright, just suttle enough to point in the proper direction.

 

I'll take some pictures tomorrow or saturday and post them up.

 

The website thetz pointed to...

You could go with individual accent LEDs (sold in packs of 4). The issue with that is the viewing angle is fairly small, and in such a cramped area you'll more than likely see a very bright spot rather than all-around lighting.

The Minis are better for all-around glow, but they're more expensive, and possibly overkill if you're interested in only a single color.

 

if you get some water clear ones and sand them flat on the end and sand the edges itll diffuse the light a bit and stop the spotlight effect the macgyver was talking about as well.

also use another resistor and drop the voltage a touch below what they are rated for to dim them if they are too bright.

 

awesome, thanks for all the helpful replies! like i said i'm a wiring idiot so i just found out from reading various places that adding resistors will effectively dim the brightness of the led. how hot does an led get? rather than having it exposed id like to countersink it and throw either a clear cover over it, flush with the contour of the cup, or i could even fabricate a more opaque, textured diffuser "lens" for it.

any links to the a photo guide on the best way to pull wire from the fuse relay's to the doors and consequently under the dash? or is there maybe even a switched hot lead on each side that wouldnt require going from one side of the car to the other?

 

I just turn on the reading light above....pretty much solves that.

 

What the....^^