cbs78

Hey guys,

The mod to turn your mirror reflectors to turn signals is very well documented here and I completely understand how to do it.

However, there are 2 things that came up in some of these posts that I'm curious if anyone has done or tried/investigated further.

My Goal - I would like to incorporate running lights in this mod but I have dealt with the door electrical plugs on my 08 XL installing power locks and keyless. I would prefer to not deal with that agian on my 11. The wires in my door jams alway annoyed me.

1. Pulling Running light power from lighted switches in the door. There was some brief discussion on this but I have not found where anyone successfully did this or explained why it wouldn't work.

2. Rear and front facing mirror lights do both turn signals and running lights. This would allow you to do all wiring in the cab and thru puddle light holes. Basically - You do the reflector to turn signal mod. Then do all the diode/resistor wiring to incorporate the running lights up under the dash. Tap into existing door turn signal wires inside kick panels to feed the output of your work to the mirrors. This would just make the rear and forward facing mirror lights be lit dimmly for running lights and regular/bright for turn signals. I did comments where a few folks may not like the rear ambers being lit at night. If they are knocked down by the resistor I'm not sure they would really bother me.

Anybody got any experience/thought/insight?

Thanks!!!

mattd17

i have some experience, thoughts and insight for you here. i did this mod on my 11 XLT about 3 months ago. i absolutely love having the mod function both for my running, and turn lights. however, i DO NOT recommend having your rear facing LED's illuminate with your parking lights. i could be wrong here, but it may be illegal as well (not trying to be a goody goody two shoes here, but trying to avoid you potential misery).

to avoid this particular setup, i would however recommend doing all of your resistor/diode work inside the mirror housing. it is very easy to do, and you will be much happier doing the work while standing beside the mirror, rather than laying on your back underneath the dash. afterall, the mirrors come apart fairly easily, and will make the job much easier. i know that a lot of members are worried about breaking the mirror glass, and i can understand since they are expensive to replace. however, if you take your time, and really understand how they can be removed, i think you will be fine. (i would not do this outside, unless you are in a warm environment though).

i also understand that running wires through the door jambs can be a pain in the *****. i decided to remove each door from the truck to get better access to the wiring plugs. then i was able to drill a small hole, and run a wire through for the parking light feature. when i was done, you can barely see the wire. i did install connectors, so i can still remove the door in the future if needed.
How i ran the wire through the door jamb plug:



This pic here shows how i fished the wire back into the rubber boot:
And with the door back on, and connector installed:


More to follow.....

mattd17

i got power for the parking lights from the passenger kick panel, and put it straight to a fuse. from there, it splits off and goes to each door jamb, and ultimately up to each mirror. in my 2011 XLT it is a yellow wire with blue tracer:

Here is the wiring i did in the mirrors to show the resistor and diodes:


Where the 2 diodes are connected together, that it the + power supply to the front facing mirror LED. the ground for the LED i also shared from the rear facing LED. the whole mirror system has a common ground for all features, so it works well to splice into that.
As you can see in the pic, the blue wire coming down into the resistor is the wire i ran for the parking lights. i dont remember the resistor size, but i only get about 10 volts to the LED's for the parking feature. the green wire is the stock rear facing LED + power wire, and it supplies the full voltage to the front facing LED whenever the blinker is on.

Overall this mod was rather easy to perform, but did take a while. there are several ways to do this, however the way i chose worked pretty good for me. the doors are easy to remove, but they are heavy, so if you also chose this route then be careful not to let them fall. if you have any questions, go ahead and ask them.... ill do my best to answer.

And, good luck !!!

jcain

I've done this as well. 1.5k resistor and 2 diodes. drug a wire from the parking lights in the front bumper for mine. pulled the door trims and ran to mirror and did all my work through the puddle lamp hole.

cbs78

Thanks for your input and information. I just assumed I had the plugs on the door jams. I checked tonight and I DON'T. Yay!!! I can run anything I need in the doors by just fishing the wires and pulling the door panels. I can handle that. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

I'm going to buy the LEDs a little long and try to make the pieces I cut off a center console light and/or some ambient floor lighting.

guardrail22

Depending on what you mean by running light, I had a string of 6 led lamps on the pinch weld of my F450. Wired them back to tail lights. They were on whenever the tail lights were.

Also had leds bars on splash guards tied tied to turn signal and tail lights, but thats big truck stuff.

mmaan12

I am currently trying to do this mod but I'm confused as to which wire I should tap in to in the kick panel. Does anyone have any suggestions on which wire would be the parking light wire on an 05 fx4?

hashcel

I'd like to bump mmaan12's question as well... I can't tell which wire is the running light wire in my passenger kick panel either (2013 FX2). I can find the fuse with the instruction manual but I can't tell which wire it is.

If anybody can help I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

lewis26

iTrader: (1)

If you can find the fuse, just use one of these:


That's what I'm doing to wire up my running/turn signals