[Dupie24]

These are instructions that I have put together from my expierience of installing the factory accessory illuminated door sill guards. I used part# 82208040AB. As you can see it is for a Magnum but the lame illustrated only instructions are titled Chrysler 300/Dodge Magnum Illuminated Door Scuff Plates.

First thing I found out after opening the box, there was no primer in the box, the instructions clearly show there is supposed to be. Also there is no double stick tape installed on the scuff plates as the instructions called for.

No problem though, I have read in other threads that the tape is lame and does not hold. Suggestions were hot glue, 3m tape, etc, more on that later.

First step is disconnect the negative battery cable. It probably isn't necessary but I do it anyways, wouldn't want a stupid mistake to cause big problem if you know what I mean. Didn't take pictures of removing battery cable, if you need instructions on this then do not attempt this install. Make sure when you are done to perform battery reconnect procedure. You can find this in the knowlege base.

Second step is to remove the moldings for access to install the wiring. Start on the right side and remove the A pillar trim piece first. This is the A pillar trim

The trim is a bitch to get off. There are two clips, an upper one and a lower one. The upper one is the bitch. Put your fingers under the trim piece at the windshield and get them under the trim piece, pull towards the back of the car at the upper clip. I found that it came a little at first and then was real hard. I tried prying with screwdriver (be careful not to damage trim edges, etc.) and prybar, finally it came with a loud pop. This pic is the A piller trim piece removed. At the bottom (left side of pic) you see a tab sticking out. this connects to a slot in the upper dash, you have to wiggle the trim piece and pull to get it out of this slot, comes out pretty easy once the upper clip is removed (edit: Check post #24, Turf has a easier way to do this step, thanks Turf!)

This is what it looks like with the A pillar trim removed. I have circled where the two clips go into from the trim piece

Here is a pic of the upper clip, it has a head on it and the plastic retainer in the A pillar holds on real tight to this.

Now remove the middle trim piece from the A pillar. It has two clips similar to the lower clip on the upper A piller trim. Just pull straight back towards the rear of the car and this piece pops off

Now remove the lower scuff panel. Start at the back of the panel nearest the rear of the car. Pull straight up working your way towards the front of the car, it has the same clips as the middle panel. When you get to the pillar, just wiggle it and pull and it will come off. It has a clip in the upper part of the panel near the mid trim piece bottom

Now remove the glove box. There is a small rope attached to the right side of the glove box door, it acts as a dampner when opening the door so it does not slam when opening. This is a bitch. You have to open the clip a little bit to get the loop out. You will see what I mean. I used a screw driver to pry the clip open.

Now we drill a hole in the lower scuff panel to let the wires from the plate to go through. The instructions call for 16 1/8" but I added an 1/8" to this. This allows the wires to go through the plate without taking a real hard 90 degree turn through the plate that might cause the wiring to be damaged.

Now we run the wiring. First run the wiring that will splice into the A pillar connector. You can put your left hand up from the bottom and your right hand down from the top the grab the wire assembly. These are the two wires that are tapped together with a cloth type electrical tape. I think the tape used is better for protecting against chaffing.
Start from the bottom

and grab them from the top

Next disconnect the white electrical connector. There is a push tab on the body side of the connection, just push the tab and then pull the connector apart, it comes apart fairly easy. Then pull the wiring harness free from the holder half way up the pillar. This pic does not clearly show the harness holder half way up the pillar but you'll see what I mean. this pic is after I soldered the wiring, but it does show the connector disconnected. You can also see the push tab you need to push to disconnect the connector. It is in the middle of the connector

Next carefully strip the Yellow/White wire which is in position 2 on the connector and the Black/Light Green wire in position 4. I stripped them a few inches from the connector. I know that I am connection the wires to the up side of the connector, but the down side of the connector does not come out very far for access to stip and solder the wiring. There is plenty of extra length in the kit harness to allow attatchment were it is much easier.

Here is a pic of the the wires stripped

Connect the Red wire from the kit to the Yellow/White wire on the car wiring harness. The Brown wire from the kit goes to the Black/Light Green. Solder the wires

 

[Dupie24]

Illuminated Door Scuff Plates 2

Tape the wires up real good and reconnect the connector. Reinstall the wiring harness into its holder. We should be done with the upper electrical connection. I left everything apart until I made sure it all worked.

Now run the right side wire harness from the box through the right lower dash and tuck it under the soft trim. You will have to adjust/move this when installing the lower scuff panel. Tie wrap the box thingy to something out of the way and make sure it is not gonna rattle on anything.

Next we need to remove the left side panels/molding to gain access for the long wire harness from the kit to go across the dash.
First remove the mid section trim from the A pillar

Next remove the lower instrument panel cover. There are two screws and two clips.
Remove the two screws. This is the screw in the A pillar

This is the screw in the bottom of the panel cover

Pull the lower cover off, the clips that hold it on are at the top of the cover, I didn't get good pics of these clips but they are the same as the mid section piece trim. This shows the approximate location of the clips. I have circled the left upper clip, the right upper clip is about where the arrow is pointing. I just left the park brake release connected, it can come off and the the whole cover would be out of the way. I found that I did not need to remove it all the way

To run the harness across the dash you will need something to grab the wire harness and pull it through/across the dash. I used mechanical fingers. You could also use a coat hanger straigtened, pushed through across the dash from the left side to the right and then taping the wire harness onto the coat hanger and then pull the hanger through with the harness attached. Be care not to snag on anything, don't pull so hard that something gets disconnected or the wire harness comes off the hanger
These pics are from the left side

This is from the right side, the end of the mechanical fingers is hard to see but its in the yellowish lighted area

And this is the harness pulled through/across the dash

Route the wiring so it is out of the way and the connector ends that will connect to the plates are approximately at the meeting point of the A pillar and the scuff panel. I didn't get any pics of this, it was starting to rain and I needed to get it done. You should be able to figure out this though, just run the harness to where you think the connectors are going to come together.
Note: If you have tabs on your sill plates you do not need to tape them, you can, but it will not let the plates sit real flush, depending on the thickness of the tape used.
Now make sure you have drilled the holes in both scuff panels. I used double stick tape on the scuff plates. The right side I did first and put the tape approximately where the instructions showed where the tape was supposed to be. I used a 3m double stick tape and cleaned the surfaces with alcohol before sticking.
This shows where I put the tape for the right side. The tape is the red stuff. Don't do it like this!

It will not let the plate sit real flush with the panel. It works better if you put the tape on the flat surface where the led is, like this. You can't see the right side of the plate but do the same thing on both ends of the plate, just keep the tape on the flat panel that the led sits on. So do both sides like this, it works much better.

Make sure you clean all surfaces with alcohol before sticking the tape on. I put the plate on the panel and then turned it upside down on a towel (as not to scratch it) and pressed really hard to stick the tape. My kit came with these little tabs that you bend around the panel edges. I think this is new feature as there was a lot of complaints that the plates would come off. I cant see how they will come off with these tabs

Now put the connector together on the plate end of the wires. I don't think it matter which wire goes where. Put the wires into the connector end and then clip the connector shut. This is the best pic I find of this. By this time I could feel raindrops on my back!

Connect the wiring harness together at the plates and then reconnect the battery cable and see if they work. You have to cup your hands around the lettering to block out any light to see if they work if it is daytime. They are not bright. If all works, and it should, start putting it back together. The left lower scuff panel goes first, start at the pillar end, line up the centering pin and clip into the A pillar and push it in. Work your way towards the back of the car. The mid panel goes on next. The right side upper A pillar trim is first to go back on and then the lower and the middle piece, just make sure on the right side the middle trim piece goes on last.

 

[Dupie24]

Illuminated Door Scuff Plates 3

Well this should be enough to get someone through this project. Here is a before and after pic of the left side.

Before

After

I hope this helps anyone intrested in doing this. If there are any questions, feel free to PM me -- Dupie24

Since I had to do this in 3 seperate threads, I'm not sure if the glove box removal was included. Just in case here it is again. The glove box comes out when removing the right side panels and trim.

Remove the glove box. There is a little rope thingy that dampens the opening of the glove box door. This has to be removed. It is a bitch. I had to pry open the clip that holds the loop on (edit: See post #24, Turf has a better way to remove this, thanks Turf!)

Here is a pic of the loop and clip

Next you have to push in the glove box door open stops. They are on the sides of the door, push them from the outside of the door towards the inside of the door, you can then grab them from the inside and pull them in enought so the door will open fully. Then just lift the door from the hinge.

This pic shows the glove box door stops that need to be pushed in towards the inside of the glove box door

And this is the glove box removed

 

[DMAG]

AWESOME write up! Great instructions! :thumbs_u:

 

[Drew's RT]

I'm convinced, now I really don't want them, too much work. LOL... They do look great though.

 

[thewagon]

Great job on pics and explaining the steps for the install!

Question: What's a popular phrase for most any mechanic/installer to say?

Answer: This has to be removed. It is a bitch.

loved it!

 

[NC-R/T]

Great write-up. I am glade you did it instead of me. lol

 

[sweeper6]

I've been wanting to do this for a while now but have been waiting for someone who's done it themselves to answer a question for me.

Is the LED Panel a series of led lights that can be changed for a different color...say blue or is it illuminated like the instrument cluster on the dash? Which is much more difficult.

 

[Dupie24]

I've been wanting to do this for a while now but have been waiting for someone who's done it themselves to answer a question for me.

Is the LED Panel a series of led lights that can be changed for a different color...say blue or is it illuminated like the instrument cluster on the dash? Which is much more difficult.

The scuff plate light is a strip attached to the underside of the scuff plate. The scuff plate has the letters "magnum" cut out and the light strip is seen through. I don't think that the light strip would be interchangable, as far as I know mopar only has the one color. The power source to the light strip comes from a "black box", the black box may be a inverter or something, so I'm not sure what kind of light strip is compatable. The group buy light strip is not mopar and it comes in different color lights, but I believe the body of the scuff plate is not chrome. Hope this answers your questions, feel free to pm me or whatever if you have any more questions
Bob

 

[franko]

Great tutorial, yet I am still very happy that I had the dealer install mine.

 

[Hazman]

Great Write Up!! Thanks Dupie24
I came wait to get my blue one in!!!

 

[SoCal_Magnum]

EXCELLENT Write-up! Very nice! Knowledgebase here we come

 

[SoCalRT]

Nice job on the write-up.

 

[KGBPro]

wow really helpfull detail except for that wiring pic....did you use butt connectors for those wires?? and are you using a fuse just incase? on my last car i figured hey i'll just wrap some tape around these wires and they'll be ok.......BIG MISTAKE!!!!!! the heat of the sun over time had shrunk and expanded the tape which unravvled it....causing the wire to touch the metal part of the vehicle which then resulted in a fire catching because of wires not having a fuse and butt connectors
so just to be helpfull, make sure you have a fuse and your connections do not have a way to touch....Id hate to see you literally burn up 400 bux =)

 

[sieb]

Be carefull if yours don't have the little tab thing on the side like mine. They got kicked and went flipping out the door with the passanger, ripped the wiring out. I highly suggest hot-glue gunning them down because without the tabs, the tape they give you doesn't stick for long, and I couldn't get 3M double sided tape to stick to the trim.

 

[300MAG]

The reason your box box didn't have primer or tape is because you have the new and improved door guards with the tabs. The guards are held in place by bending over the tabs. It looks like they put the old set of directions in the box.

 

[Dupie24]

wow really helpfull detail except for that wiring pic....did you use butt connectors for those wires?? and are you using a fuse just incase?

Thanks for the info. I soldered my connections, no butt connectors and no, there is not a fuse. I was hoping that the DC engineers would have the inside light circuit protected. DC would not want to fry some switches and a computer if a problem occurs, at least I hope so. I taped each connection seperately and then taped the whole thing together, I have done this type of tapeing numerous times in my auto shop and have not had a problem. Time will tell! Ya got me thinking about the fuse thingy, I'm toying around the idea in my head, probably will install an in-line fuse when I install a glove box light.

 

[KGBPro]

Thanks for the info. I soldered my connections, no butt connectors and no, there is not a fuse. I was hoping that the DC engineers would have the inside light circuit protected. DC would not want to fry some switches and a computer if a problem occurs, at least I hope so. I taped each connection seperately and then taped the whole thing together, I have done this type of tapeing numerous times in my auto shop and have not had a problem. Time will tell! Ya got me thinking about the fuse thingy, I'm toying around the idea in my head, probably will install an in-line fuse when I install a glove box light.

cool, the fuse will help in the long run.....

 

[hemiwagn]

Great write-up Dupie! Do you happen to have a pic showing how well the end of the sill guard matches the contour of the factory plastic trim piece?

 

[Dupie24]

Great write-up Dupie! Do you happen to have a pic showing how well the end of the sill guard matches the contour of the factory plastic trim piece?

This is the best I have right now, I will try to take some tomorrow. The chrome fits right over the ribbed part of the door sill exactly.