Pauly99to17
Well-Known Member
Warning: This DIY is not for everyone. You need to be a patient person because there is a lot of fiddling to adjust lights so that they shine evenly and correctly. If you decide to do this DIY, you do so at your own risk.
I wanted illuminated door driver's side controls like the Si. I also wanted to do the passenger's side, but was really disappointed to learn that no trim has this side lit up, so it can't be done. That side is a solid plastic piece that does not allow light through.
Well, at first I thought that if I switch the LX controls with the Si controls I would get lights AND Auto Window for the driver's side. Woohoo, or so I thought. Unfortunately, neither one of those options worked. No plug and play.
I was determined to have blue lights there so I decided to add my own LED lights. 
I was lucky to get my hands on the Si controls for a VERY reasonable price from another member.
I'm not sure how much that part will cost, but will update this when I find out.
Needed Materials
* Si door control unit (to be updated with more info.)
* **At least 1 LED light of your colour choice. E-Bay has them with already added resistors.
You could also use an LED light strip and cut it to its shortest length (3 lights). I recommend doing it this
way for the large motherboard, but you will still need 1 small LED for the window control button. See
below for more details about which lights to choose.
* Enough wire - 7 feet to be safe (I used 18 gauge)
* Electrician's tape
* 2 Marrettes
* A fuse tap and fuse
* A ring terminal (for ground)
* Zip ties
Required Tools
* A Dremmel Drill
* Plastic pry tools or equivalent (To take apart door and control unit). College Hills Honda has them.
* Phillips Screwdriver and a flathead screwdriver
* Scissors
* Wire strippers
* Socket with an extension (to take off ground bolt)
Directions
1) Use a plastic trim pry tool to take off the door control cover. Start at the front. There is a small slot where you can insert your tool.
Once you get it up slightly you can just use your fingers and slowly, but solidly lift up. The cover is held on by a few clips. It is not difficult at all to take off and snaps back into place easily too.
Pay attention to that little lip on the far left of the cover. Lift the cover off by tilting the front end up higher so that lip can come out of its slot.
2. Detach both plugs. The smaller one is straight forward. It has a small retaining tab to pinch and then you can pull it apart. The larger one, seen here, was tricky and took me a while to figure out because I was doing this at night and didn't see the arrow. Pinch the little tab and then turn the white piece to the right. The plug will detach automatically once you have pushed the white piece far enough.
Here you can see the little tab that needs to held. Then simply push that white piece in the direction of the indicated arrow. (See picture below)
Here you can see the arrow pointing the direction to push.
3. Take control unit off the cover (It's held on by small Phillips screws). Now you can take apart the control unit.
First take off the small Phillips screws. Then, use some sort of prying tools to open up the sides and
release the small tabs that hold it together.
***Note *** I didn't take any pictures of the drivers side control unit because I thought I was going to be able to do both sides at that time. The following pictures are of the passenger's side even though we now know that lights cannot be added here because the plastic is solid and doesn't allow light through. The pictures will give you an idea of what you are going to be doing to the driver's side though.
Remove screws.
Using thin pry tools to pry open sides so the holding tabs release. Open up the control unit into its two
pieces. Keep the motherboard to the side.
4. ***IMPORTANT STEP*** Carefully choose places to Dremmel holes where you will place lights. ***A LED strip light is probably the best way to do this so that you will only need to drill one hole at the end for your wire to go out. I did it the far more complicated way using individual LEDs. I don't recommend this way. Both ways will give you great looking illuminated effects however.
Here you can see the idea of how I tried to line up the lights under the buttons as best I could. Sometimes I could not Dremmel a hole because it was blocked by a motherboard switch inside. etc. Put the holes high up on the plastic as seen in the photo above. Too low and the holes wont line up and you'll be hitting the motherboard
components.
I used a 9 volt battery to test what the lights looked like in the dark.
I wanted illuminated door driver's side controls like the Si. I also wanted to do the passenger's side, but was really disappointed to learn that no trim has this side lit up, so it can't be done. That side is a solid plastic piece that does not allow light through.
Well, at first I thought that if I switch the LX controls with the Si controls I would get lights AND Auto Window for the driver's side. Woohoo, or so I thought. Unfortunately, neither one of those options worked. No plug and play.
I was determined to have blue lights there so I decided to add my own LED lights. I was lucky to get my hands on the Si controls for a VERY reasonable price from another member.
I'm not sure how much that part will cost, but will update this when I find out.
Needed Materials
* Si door control unit (to be updated with more info.)
* **At least 1 LED light of your colour choice. E-Bay has them with already added resistors.
You could also use an LED light strip and cut it to its shortest length (3 lights). I recommend doing it this
way for the large motherboard, but you will still need 1 small LED for the window control button. See
below for more details about which lights to choose.
* Enough wire - 7 feet to be safe (I used 18 gauge)
* Electrician's tape
* 2 Marrettes
* A fuse tap and fuse
* A ring terminal (for ground)
* Zip ties
Required Tools
* A Dremmel Drill
* Plastic pry tools or equivalent (To take apart door and control unit). College Hills Honda has them.
* Phillips Screwdriver and a flathead screwdriver
* Scissors
* Wire strippers
* Socket with an extension (to take off ground bolt)
Directions
1) Use a plastic trim pry tool to take off the door control cover. Start at the front. There is a small slot where you can insert your tool.
Once you get it up slightly you can just use your fingers and slowly, but solidly lift up. The cover is held on by a few clips. It is not difficult at all to take off and snaps back into place easily too.
Pay attention to that little lip on the far left of the cover. Lift the cover off by tilting the front end up higher so that lip can come out of its slot.
2. Detach both plugs. The smaller one is straight forward. It has a small retaining tab to pinch and then you can pull it apart. The larger one, seen here, was tricky and took me a while to figure out because I was doing this at night and didn't see the arrow. Pinch the little tab and then turn the white piece to the right. The plug will detach automatically once you have pushed the white piece far enough.
Here you can see the little tab that needs to held. Then simply push that white piece in the direction of the indicated arrow. (See picture below)
Here you can see the arrow pointing the direction to push.
3. Take control unit off the cover (It's held on by small Phillips screws). Now you can take apart the control unit.
First take off the small Phillips screws. Then, use some sort of prying tools to open up the sides and
release the small tabs that hold it together.
***Note *** I didn't take any pictures of the drivers side control unit because I thought I was going to be able to do both sides at that time. The following pictures are of the passenger's side even though we now know that lights cannot be added here because the plastic is solid and doesn't allow light through. The pictures will give you an idea of what you are going to be doing to the driver's side though.
Remove screws.
Using thin pry tools to pry open sides so the holding tabs release. Open up the control unit into its two
pieces. Keep the motherboard to the side.
4. ***IMPORTANT STEP*** Carefully choose places to Dremmel holes where you will place lights. ***A LED strip light is probably the best way to do this so that you will only need to drill one hole at the end for your wire to go out. I did it the far more complicated way using individual LEDs. I don't recommend this way. Both ways will give you great looking illuminated effects however.
Here you can see the idea of how I tried to line up the lights under the buttons as best I could. Sometimes I could not Dremmel a hole because it was blocked by a motherboard switch inside. etc. Put the holes high up on the plastic as seen in the photo above. Too low and the holes wont line up and you'll be hitting the motherboard
components.
I used a 9 volt battery to test what the lights looked like in the dark.
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