Illuminated Door Sills

I bought a set of the third link you posted. They are very nice, good color quality, I actually just attached them to the top of the OEM plastic ones and they look great.

Installation was a nightmare. After trying to follow their directions for 2 hours I had to take it to a stereo shop and have them do it. They looked at the pictures they sent and threw them away.

 

I have the last set (with "BLUE" spelled "BULE"), because all 4 were illuminated, and because the seller/manufacturer will customize them (i.e., what it says on the sills; and I believe that the LED color was possibly customizable, too). I have not installed them yet, though, because I am waiting for the bodykit to be finished, and for my wheels/tires/coilovers to be installed before I start wiring up all my electrical mods....

 

I bought and installed the 2nd ones you linked to. They dont use the factory clips/mounting style. They just have thin strips of double sided tape running across the top and bottom of each piece. I dont know how the OEMs or the 3rd ones are in daylight, but on mine, you can tell its lit up, its just not very bright in bright sunlight. At night, however, they are very noticeable/bright.

They have wires coming from the lit up "Prius" piece that terminate at a little clip. In the box, it came with another section of wire with the matching clip. So once its wired up, if you need to remove it for any reason, you can just unclip it without removing the wiring.

Also, if you install illuminated rear sills, the right way would be to wire it to the rear dome light. I didnt do that though, since I didnt want to deal with finding the rear dome light wiring or try to access it from the roofliner. So I just tapped mine into the front sills. So the rears dont light up unless the front door is open. Not ideal, but a hell of a lot easier.

I just used the Toyota instructions to find the correct wires to tap into (front driver and passenger kick panel). Over all, a very easy install as long as you're comfortable tapping into your stock wiring and pulling interior plastic pieces.

 

The guy that installed mine ran everything himself. He tied the negative lead of each sill to the door switch, that gives it the ground. He ran a single power up to the fuse box to provide power to each sill. Each sill operates on the door switch.

 

I bought these as well ($78 shipped off eBay from seller 'abravepig') and I thought I'd throw in my .02 cents.

In my opinion, these are pretty bright. I agree that in full sunlight they aren't as noticeable, but on overcast days they are quite noticeable and at night they are VERY bright-at least to me. This may be a blessing or a curse depending on what you're looking for. For me, I was hoping for something more subdued/consistent with the instrument/dash lighting of the car. For me, these are close to obnoxiously bright. Maybe I'll get used to them or maybe not...we'll see. This is very subjective obviously so maybe I'll post a video to let folks decide for themselves.

Installation was straightforward with the helpful video of the OP and tracking down the install instructions for another model of illuminated sills (but of course the wiring on Prius side was the same) when I got to the points of needing to find the correct two wires to tab on the front passenger side (pins 12/24 white with blue and white with red).

I don't like the adhesive strips; I'd much rather have snap-in tabs like the OEM plate or on the more expensive models. I'm skeptical whether this adhesive will hold...particularly during warms days and with the abuse this plate will take. Maybe adding your own industrial-strength adhesive tape (and one that won't leave a nasty, hard-to-remove residue) would be a good idea.

And speaking of abuse, if the idea of this is protective, think again. This thin-aluminum (?) plate already had some small scratches from shipping and a dimple where a piece of dirt/rock had lodged between the pieces. Given any kind of knocking around from your feet (or maybe you're more careful/conscientious than me), this baby is going to get scuffed up/beat up pretty fast in my opinion.

Finally, these things had a REALLY funky odor when I opened up the shipping box. At first it smelled like mothballs--but not exactly. Whatever it is, it's not going away very fast. Plan to put them outside a few days to dissipate the funk...

 

Hahah.. yeah.. agreed.. forgot to mention that.. it smells like it was shipped in a nasty old greasy freighter or something.. its like a combo of the mothballs and like old machinery/oil. Mine were sitting in the garage out of the box for about 2-3 weeks before I installed them.. so the funk was mostly gone by the time I put them in.

 

I will snap some pics tonight.

 

I'm posting from my phone so excuse the attachment. But here's a shot of mine (the cheap ones)



Hope that works. If not I'll fix it when I get to a computer.

 

Did you tap into the door switch wire or did you go to the kick panels?

 

Here are mine, the $73 ones. The installed tapped into the door switch (ground) and went into the kick panel for power.

 

Mine are just tapped into the kick panel, so the rear doesnt light up unless the front door is open. If I had to do it over again (or if I ever have spare spare time), then I'd do it bielinsk's way

 

I actually emailed Nigel and he said he also have this door sill available for $6x.
I think they are the same, and it is available in blue or white color.

 

I have been trying to find the answer to this question on numerous threads and I still cannot get an answer. Does anybody know if you can replace the color of the led on either of these models?

I like the OEM ones as they clip in instead of just adhesive, but they come in blue and I have a Barcelona Red Prius. I want to switch the led color out to either red or white, not sure yet.

bielinsk those are my favorite by far and thank you for the pictures. Could you answer two questions for me...Do they install with just adhesive or do they clip in? Can you change out/customize the LED color?

Thanks for all your help!
tarheelsfan873

 

Not to tease you guys anymore but the coolest ones in the world are the Tommy Kaira versions. I have no idea how you would even acquire them in the United States, but they are awesome.

 

They came with red 3m adhesive strips, I simply removed the stock ones and attached these on top of the stock sills. They stand a little higher, especially where the actual LED is, but they work great. Then I clipped them back in place.

These come in either Blue, Red, or White LED. The LED is a self contained unit that I wouldn't want to open. When I ordered, I received an email from them asking what color LED I wanted, I choose blue.

 

new to the forum, just bought a new Prius Three 2012. Wanted to share my opinion on those since I am on the market of getting a set myself.
I already made up my mind and I'm buying the factory OEM set. For those who go that route, toyotapartsoutlet.com has better price than Ebay - $134.40+$2.99SH.
The downside of the aftermarket ones is that they don't look very "original". I love the clean cut look of the original door sills. On another note, these are shipped from China. Did anyone read the return policy? Basically it says that if something arrives damaged or defective returns are accepted only within 14 days, it will take longer than that just to receive the set, not even talking of cost and time to send it back. So, you're out of luck basically.
I don't know how well machined they are, but the price is attractive, which is the only upside for me.

 

I disagree with you, my after market ones are the same quality as the OEM and I personally think it is a nicer design. OEM's only light up the front, not the back seats.

Where do you think the OEM ones are made? Everything comes from China.