ADDING BLUE DOOR PUDDLE LIGHTS

Since I had already changed the front and rear footwell lights from the stock tiny white to brighter blue lights, I thought I’d also try to replace the stock door puddle lights as well.

I went through a trial and error phase where I ordered a bunch of blue SMD Led arrays with either 6 or 9 leds but all of them where to big to be placed into the existing light fixture. I wanted to keep using the original light fixtures so that I could easily replace them if need be.

So just in case I ordered an extra set of these things from Tesla directly:

Here’s the part number if anyone wants to order these as well
The black LED inserts can be removed using a small screwdriver. This then leaves enough space for the new LED lights

I first ordered these SMD LED arrays which turned out to be slightly too big:

First try with 12 LEDS – nope, way too big
2nd try with 9 LEDs was still too big

I then ended up finding these short 3 LED strips on ebay which hopefully would fit. I soldered some of the small black connectors which I salvaged from the unusable LED arrays directly to the LED strips

LED Strips with soldered connectors

From there I just used strong clear adhesive tape to fasten the strips to the inside of the light fixtures, removed the original white LED light fictures and popped in the new replacement fixtures. The original lights can be very easily removed by just detaching the plug from the light and reattaching the new lights using the same plug. Piece of cake.

The replacement light fixture with the new blue LEDs
Original Light removed but still attached. Unsnapping the connector and reconnecting the new lights is very easy.

So here are some before and after pictures after the finished installation:

Before
After – somehow it looks purple, but in Reality the light is blue. The brighter spot is the white downlight from the handlebar.

2 Comments

  1. Well done! I think that all the lighting in the model S is poor for what is billed (and priced) as a luxury car – interior, footwell, trunk and puddle. I’m surprised that some company hasn’t developed upgrades for them all. I shall follow your other mods with interest.

    Does this sort of mod not have any effect on the warranty?

    • I don’t think so. The Tesla Service technicians even said they liked the new lights better and they did not complain or mention anything regarding the warranty.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Posts