bbs25

Thanks a lot for the help. But I just got finished with it. The wire color is sold purple for my 2014. Thanks again for trying to help me out

misterh

Well I bought these door sills a few backs back when I purchased all of my stereo equipment, new head/tail lights and LED replacement bulbs (I got a tail gate with a reverse camera so I put in an aftermarket head unit to view it). I was going to try to pay the Car Audio place where I got my stereo and reverse camera installed (or someone else) but since I had a rush stereo install on New Year's eve, they didn't want to mess with the door sills. ...And I'm glad because these are MUCH easier to install then I may have anticipated and it's actually a fun little project to DIY.

I have a 2013 F150 XLT without premium navigation and the wiring guide by the OP was spot on...tiny yellow/green was hot (when doors open) and tiny black was ground.

You literally don't even need a screwdriver to install these bad boys! Just pull up the door sill guard to expose the wires, cut back some of the duck tape binding all the wires together, find your wires and wire tap into them. I came up with a nice little tip that may be helpful to some so I figured I'd post some pics and info. Mine came out with absolutely no wires showing whatsoever and a completely clean install.

TIP
===
What I did, for mine to mount flush, was to cut a little rivet out of the double side tape on the bottom, for the wire to come out the side without making the door sill uneven. Just take a sharp knife, cut a little groove out of it and pull the tape up. Then, I started with electric tape but it didn't hold well so I used gorilla tape to tape the wire in the position to come out that groove.

As the OP mentioned, the best place to run the wires into the channel where the wires go, is through the groove provided where the clip attaches to the door frame.


CONSIDERATIONS
===========
I did notice that as I was installing them and once the connection was made with the wire taps, the light came on. After a while, my map lights faded extremely to where they were barely lit. The door sills faded too. I hit the unlock button on my key fob and boom...they lit back up at full brightness. This made me recall the reply in this thread where the guy had them working for months but then his lights shorted out and he had to take it to the dealership. Maybe these have too high of power consumption and may lead to a short. The wires we tap into are tiny gauge so they probably aren't designed to carry too much power. Also, I'll probably be tapping into the same wires when I install my driver side rear door sill so that may really put a drain on it.

PHOTOS
=====
Here are some photos showing what's discussed in my post, the wire taps I used and what the final product looks like (I've only done driver side front so far because it's dark outside now).

funmoneypit150

iTrader: (4)

I have had these for two weeks now waiting for me to install. It's cold but you may have just inspired me to do the install. I was waiting for my JW Speaker LED fogs to get here but they are on backorder. May get to this tomorrow now.

Smoke270

In for later

volvodoc

Where did you get them??? Thanks

funmoneypit150

iTrader: (4)

Here: http://m.ebay.com/itm/261674178278?txnId=1546005551016I offered him $41 as another forum member had suggested and he accepted. It's plus $15 shipping.

misterh

UPDATE!!!!
=======
I just went and took my car for a drive and noticed that my map light LED bulbs are ever so faintly lit even when turned off. When I was installing the door sill, the door was open so the map lights were lit and as I was tapping into the wire and crimping the wire tap, the map lights cut off. I hit the unlock button on my keyfob and they came right back on so I figured I had the correct wire and my pliers temporarily shorted it out or something. Well now it's dark outside and I noticed the map lights faintly lit even when not on. Then I was trying to determine if my door sills were lighting up even when the door was not open. I couldn't find a way to tell because no light was illuminating out the bottom of the door because of the weather seal and as soon as I open it, they are supposed to turn on anyway. Eventually, I found a crack in my door, while viewing from outside the truck, where I was able to see that the door sills were still lit even with the door closed. So now I'm assuming I tapped into the wrong wire and the door sills are just constantly on right now.

I'm going to have to figure out what I did wrong and which wire is the correct wire for the map/dome lights (hot when the door is open). Maybe I grounded into the correct ground but didn't hit the correct hot wire. Ground is ground...it's always grounded so that could be why. And maybe the fact that the door sills are always on, and tied into the same ground as my map lights, maybe that's why the map lights are always dimly lit now.

I tapped into a thin yellow wire with a green stripe. It was the same size as the black ground wire which based on the symptoms, causes me to believe I have the correct ground. Now I need to figure out which wire is the correct wire to tap into.


Yellow with Green stripe is always hot. Which wire is correct for the door ajar (map/dome lights wire) on a 2013 F150 XLT???

misterh

I haven't been able to find a wiring diagram with color codes for the 2013 F!50 but through my research, I found this thread: https://www.f150forum.com/f38/need-f...p-here-204662/

They say that the dome light wire color shouldn't change between 2010 and 2013. That makes sense to me. It's the same generation of F150...why would they go changing up the wires every year? That being said, I understand that different plants can have variations in builds. Anyway, now I'm wondering which wire is the dome light wire. I have a multimeter but I really don't want to start stripping back a bunch of different wires to test.

Does anyone have information regarding this or a way that I can test the wires to find out which one is correct?

I was thinking about it and there's probably not many wires that are always hot, even when the vehicle is locked and off. I guess the dome light wire (not the one that activates when the door is opened but the one that goes to the lights you can turn on or off even with the vehicle off) would always be hot. So maybe that's what I tapped into.

JP Mewley

When I did my footwell lights, I found a connection on the passenger side inside the kick panel. Open the kick plate and look for a green connector towards the bottom. You can unplug this to see if the dome light goes out. If it does, you are in the right place. If memory serves correctly, this is a two row connector. One row is full the other about half full. The wire you are looking for is purple. I belive it is in the 4th position. Use a test light or meter to confirm. You can run a staight pin through the wire to make a connection with your meter without having to strip the wires. Ran the ground to a nut in the kick panel.

This tread has pictures. https://www.f150forum.com/f38/footwe...needed-270954/

Hope this helps.

misterh

As instructed to do so in this thread and in other threads where people are trying to find the dome light wires for their truck, the advice was to go to the Amp Research Power Step Install instructions, based on your make/model/year of truck because they have an install guide for their automated running boards that pop out when you open the doors. This really is a great idea and it actually further supports my point that I wouldn't think the wire colors would change year to year (in the same generation). They have a guide that covers from 2009-2014 and I have posted a photo of the excerpt about splicing into the wires.

According to the guide, Green/Violet is the wire to tap into in Driver side front so I will try that and report back.