Topic: Lighted Sills

[TomatoSoup]

Sorry Roadstar, wrong thread for your question, since this one is talking about SILLS - no door access reqd.  I did respond on your thread on the BB though.

[Critterman]

Did you try spitting on them?  That usually helps getting into tight space.......

[Rogue]

Interesting timing on this thread. The King Penn sills on Rogue have gone out. I noticed it when was cleaning him up for this weekends POCI sponsored car show. Checked the electrical connections and they're OK. I can hear the inverters humming, and can make them stop humming by uplugging the positive or negative lead at the harness near the fuse block. Do the EL units have a finite life? As little as Rogue is used that short of a life would be awfully disappointing. Thanks.

[TomatoSoup]

A few people have had issues with the backlights shorting out across the metal of the sills themselves and had theirs replaced.  I think WR increased the insulation in that area in later production.  Contact them directly and they'll probably sort you out.

If you take off the sill(s) and see blackened wiring, you'll know for sure.

[Rogue]

Thanks TS. Now that you've mentioned it we did have that problem with one of the EL's in GXPsy and WR was excellent about replacing the defective one. And yes, it had shorted to the body through the insulation. Thanks for refreshing my memory.

[Sol Asylum]

In answer to the life of ELs, yes they will wear out but what usually happens is that over time they start to dim and eventually just don't light up anymore.  I suspect TS is right, if I remember correctly the conneions can rub on the body and either short on the body or get wet and short.

[Critterman]

In answer to the life of ELs, yes they will wear out but what usually happens is that over time they start to dim and eventually just don't light up anymore.  I suspect TS is right, if I remember correctly the conneions can rub on the body and either short on the body or get wet and short.

Did I type that?  Did you mean connections?

[Sol Asylum]

It's spelled wrong so you must have typed it.

[Rogue]

No SA, you must have done it. It was the only mistake. Critter would have misspelled several words.

[Sol Asylum]

Good point, clearly my bad, sorry everyone.

[Critterman]

No SA, you must have done it. It was the only mistake. Critter would have misspelled several words.

E tu Brutus?

[Rogue]

Just got a response from the folks at Windrestrictor/King Penn Industries. The lighted sills came with a one year warranty. Plus, they no longer manufacture using inverters and EL elements. They did, however, offer to make their new LED sill lights available at a significant discount for the purpose of customer satisfaction. Not sure yet what I'm going to do.

[Gentleman Jack]

Just got a response from the folks at Windrestrictor/King Penn Industries. The lighted sills came with a one year warranty. Plus, they no longer manufacture using inverters and EL elements. They did, however, offer to make their new LED sill lights available at a significant discount for the purpose of customer satisfaction. Not sure yet what I'm going to do.

A dollar?

[Sol Asylum]

5 Euro?

[TomatoSoup]

Crap.  That doesn't seem like the customer service I've been led to expect from them.  Hmmm...

[Rogue]

To quote their email response to me:

Dear Jeffrey A Dewey,

Jeff, Your sills came with a 1 year warranty. We no longer carry the electro-luminescent door sills with the inverters. However, I can offer you our new style door sill with LED technology at 30% off retail ($139.30 sills + $19.00 shipping, total: $157.30) We want to keep you as a happy customer.

Click the following link to send your response to KPI support:


Pretty disappointing considering the car has just 4K miles on it. The EL's couldn't have more than just a few hours of use on them. Oh well.

[Sol Asylum]

It's been too long since I worked on any of these , are there two inverters?  Does one of the sills still work?

You can probably wire both sills to one inverter.  Another option is to get a new inverter.

[Rogue]

At least one inverter is working. I can hear the hum. However, neither sill is illuminated.l

[Sol Asylum]

Check the connections (spelled right this time) at the EL strip.

[Gentleman Jack]

Throw them in the trash.

[Rogue]

I'll check all the connections one more time, but I'll probably follow GJ's suggestion. Except for the fact that the red shows up well even if they don't light. It's highly unlikely I'll be buying any more at this time.

[Sol Asylum]

Before you trash them maybe you could send them to one of us with some electrical skills and we could take a look and see if there is an easy fix.

[Gentleman Jack]

I have no electrical skills. Please don't send them to me.

[Sol Asylum]

You have skills?  Oh wait I remember those pictures of what you did to that bottle at that mod meet.

[Rogue]

I have pretty fair electrical/electronic skills of my own. A degree in Physics, several years in Pro Audio including circuit design and repair - analog and digital - and many more years as a sales engineer in electromechanical Industrial Controls. If I decide to reverse engineer and/or diagnose I'll give any of you a shot at it after I'm done having my fun!