Well, I got the illuminated sill plates and I got the replacement parts I wanted and you get a tutorial going.

NOTE: Crossfires don't come from the factory with Illuminated Sill Plates. These are an accessory available normally through your Chrysler dealer for a cost of over $200. I obtained mine through a user on this board who decided not to install theirs.

The original plates come as a light blue color when lit. This is nice, but I wanted to change it to purple (wife's favorite color).

So I went in search of one inch wide Electro-Luminescent Tape. I found it at www.beingseen.com. I ordered it on the phone so I could get less than 20+ feet which is the smallest amount you can order on their online store. I could not order purple tape itself, but rather they had white EL tape and a purple film to put over it. This would probably work for a variety of colors or even alternating letter/word colors, etc.

They suggested I get them to put on the connections, include two inverters and leave the tape in a single piece. I will probably suggest that you let them put on the connections if you are not able to solder well. I also would suggest you only let them send you one inverter as the second one for me is just going to be used for experimentation on the leftover tape.

Next step was disassembling the original illuminated sill plates and replacing the blue tape with the new white tape and purple film.

Here is the original kit.


And here are the replacement parts I ordered from:
www.beingseen.com.


A close-up of the two 12 Volt DC inverters I received.

 

Next step is actual disassembly of each sill.

Using a utility knife (carefully, always cut away from yourself, etc.) get under the corner of the metal plate and begin slicing the quarter inch strip of adhesive backing around the edge of the plate.


Continue cutting around each end and the outside edge to sever the adhesive strip.


Next, use a longer knife such as a steak or pearing knife or long bladed pocket knife to sever the adhesive strip along the back edge. You will have to pry away the metal plate and EL Tape piece to get at it.


Now you should be able to remove the plate from the plastic/rubber sill base. Now begin to peel the original EL tape from it's adhesive strips. These do not require a knife. Peel carefully as you will want to try to reuse some of the adhesive that's there. If you can't save any of it, it's okay, you can use doublestick tape in it's place later if necessary.

Underneath the original EL tape strip are two clear plastic lenses held in place by clear adhesive strips. The same strips held the original EL tape in place. (pardon the blurry picture).

 

Cut the new EL tape the same length as the original or slightly longer. In my case I cut it about a half inch longer. Then cut your colored film (if you needed it) the same size as the EL tape strip to be installed. It can be slightly narrower than the tape. I cut mine about 7/8 of an inch wide and the full length of the strip.

Also, because I had them install the connectors, that part of the strip is much thicker than the original, so I had to cut out some plastic to make room for the difference.


Now simply lay in the new EL tape and it's film (if applicable) and reassemble the sill plate to it's plastic/rubber base.

If you are having problems getting things to line up, you can always use clear tape to hold the EL tape and it's film in place for assembly.

Next, I attached the original wiring pieces to the new EL tape wires. You can probably skip this step, but I felt I should keep the original wiring and break away plugs.


I also cut the wiring from the original yellow inverter box and attached it to the white wires (output) of the new inverter.

 

Here are the plates glowing under flash and with the shades pulled and no flash.

 

Looks great! I have the blue, and with my Aeroblue car, they look great...but I do like the purple. I'm a Husky fan, as in the University of Washington, so purple would be fun, too!

 

Next part of this will be the installation... probably tomorrow.

 

Had time today to install the sill plates.

Tools needed: flat head screwdriver (medium size), Torx driver (# listed in instructions), a 10mm socket and about a six inch extension for your ratchet wrench, multimeter or 12v test light, soldering iron, solder, electrical tape or similar for re-sealing wires and some zip ties (two or more really large ones and a small one).

First off the instructions for the illuminated sill plates are pretty good. Only gripe I have is that they want you to tie into the wiring on the passenger side and utilize the actual door pin trigger switch circuits and a hot line (not sure what circuit as I haven't looked).

I decided to tap into the same two wires that are used for the cargo light. One is always hot and one is the ground trigger from the body control box. This means I will be pulling the included harness for the sill plates the opposite direction (from the driver side to the passenger side).

First steps are in the instructions about removing the old sill plates. Easy... Pull them straight up sharply and they will either release from their clips or pull the clips with them. If any clips are left, remove them carefully with a flat head screwdriver from the outside edge at the bottom.

Next is removing the trim up the back side of the door jam. This is not really necessary, but your carpet may be under this. If you need to, pull off only a portion, remove the carpet and put the trim back.

Unscrew the three torx screws on the door jam at the top rear and remove the metal trim piece.

Move and tilt your seats all the way forward.

Now unscrew the carpet hold down behind the seat by hand (round plastic head with two dimples).

Remove the plastic speaker grills. Be very careful as these things are fragile. Use a flathead screwdriver to gently pry it free on from the top. Then work your way around and down one side. It should begin to tip away and out easily after that.

Here is a picture to help you see where the clips are.


Now you can carefully pull the carpet up and fold it away so it braces on the back of the seats.

Open the center console box and carefully pull the cover up at the bottom rear of the storage area. Under here you will remove the two 10mm nuts from their anchors.

Lift the rear of the center console up and prop it on something about an inch thick.

Here is the passenger side wiring.


Here is the driver's side wiring.


I used two really long zip ties (about 14") to pass under the carpet. The instructions tell you to use a grabber tool. I used a smaller zip tie to grab my wire.

Here is the end coming through from the passenger side to the driver side.

 

Okay, so now I had to find the wires from the cargo light circuit.

That's easy, you can just pop the cargo light fixture right out and look. Two wires. One Brown with a Yellow stripe and one Red with a Gray stripe.

Uh oh... two Brown with Yellow Striped wires!


Easy, we use the meter or test light before and after the dome light circuit goes out from it's timer.

I found that one is always grounded and one is only grounded when the dome light is on. So, that's the one we need. (It seemed a bit larger in gauge to me also).

I then stripped the hot wire (Red with Gray stripe) and attached the red wire from the inverter. You can see I already covered the wire that will not be used.

WARNING! If you do not disconnect your battery you must NOT let this wire or any tool touching this wire touch the body of the car or another ground source (Brown with Yellow striped wires are ground sources).


I then carefully soldered the joint and wrapped the open joint with electrical tape about four times.

Next the black ground wire from the inverter was attached to the Brown with Yellow striped wire and is ready for soldering.


Next I soldered and wrapped this joint with electrical tape. Again about four times is good. Then I wrapped all three wires again about four times and re-wrapped the bundle with the factory cloth wrap and secured it back down.

 

Here is the bare inverter all wired up and tied into the vehicle harness.


Next I wrapped the inverter in some thin foam padding I had laying around. I mainly did this because I can hear the 650 hz whine from the unit when it's powered up. Following that, I stuffed it and the wires in place and set the driver side sill in place.


Last was the tedious task of putting everything back together.

Best advice... just take your time and be careful.

This install took about two hours total.

Here are the results.

Sorry for the blurry picture... it's hard to get a non flash picture sharp, even braced on the car. (The glow on the floor is from the cold cathode tubes I have installed. I need to put some better purple film around them as they look pink now).


Here's the unlit plate taken with a flash.

 

Niiice! You are so talented. I had to have the dealer do mine. I like the purple...hope your wife does, too!

 

She loves it... (I'm sooo not in the dog house... ).

 

This is freaking amazing!! Where did you get the supplies for this?

Thanks
AJ

 

Please review the first post... there is a link to the place where I found the EL tape.

 

Thanks, I missed that...

 

MMZ my words can't explain how bad a** that is.

 

MMZ that's freakin sweet! I'll definitely be doing this only in red!

Thanks alot!

 

Everyone is quite welcome... that's the reason I posted the tutorial/how-to.

Hope everyone is able to get their own 'personality' out of the sill plates.

Cheers!

 

I tried calling from the link you gave us and it goes to voicemail. Do I ask for a certain part or will they know what I am talking about?

Thanks,
AJ

 

Tell them you are looking for five feet of one inch wide EL tape. And tell them whatever color you want. You also will need one 12V DC (automotive type) inverter.

With the EL tape, if you have never dealt with this stuff, get them to put the connections on each end of the five foot long piece so all you have to do is cut it from each end as I did.

Good luck.

 

Where did you get the CROSSFIRE metal strip??
It doesn't exist on my car.

Thanks,
AJ