led bulbs to each door handle, 97 civic

Hello everyone, my name is Mike, I found this forum after searching the web for a few hours to find a solution to my dilemma, it appears I'm one of the first to try this and do this so I ended up coming up with nothing.

So I came to you guys for help ;)

Here's the information on the project.

The Project

-Installing 2 LED bulbs on my 1997 Honda Civic coupe, one on the driver side door handle, one on the passenger side door handle.

The Objective

-Have said LED lights turn on when unlocking the car, staying on while the door is opened, and turning off once the door is closed (or shortly thereafter)...Much like how the dome light works.

The Dilemma

-Well...where do I connect the LED wires to in order to make that happen?

The Obvious Solution

-Hook those mustards up to the dome light!

The REAL Dilemma

Ever since I removed the stock radio in favor of an aftermarket head unit, the dome lights no longer light up when unlocking the vehicle or when I open the door.

I found a way to "jump" the old radio harness to so that the dome light will turn on when the door is opened...but it still no longer works when I unlock the door via my alarm remote (Clifford Alarm).

Some people have suggested that I tie it in with my parking lights, but I don't want them to be constantly on while I'm driving, nor do I want them to just "flash" when I arm or unarm my car. The reason why I'm installing these lights is to illuminate the door handle to see in the dark and this would sort of defeat the purpose.

So...I need to hear if there's any hope at all for this project? My inspiration comes from the new BMW's, which have this option in their door handles, however they have a foot light that they can tie the LED's into..my Civic does not.

To get a better idea of what I'm doing, you can check out this BMW thread I got my inspiration from though:

https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=433107


Now, please keep in mind I have no clue about anything wiring related. I don't understand wiring diagrams or anything, but I can do the physical labor of the install, soldering the LEDS to the resistors (580ohm), taping them up, connecting them to extended wire...and running them through the car.

My problem is that I wouldn't know what needs to be cut so I could splice this all in to get it to work, so I will probably need extensive directions on this...Thanks in advance everyone.

It's supposed to say LED Help Needed...I don't know what happened to the title, sorry guys...

Morning bump!

Overnight I thought of more possible solutions:

Tying them into the Compustar remote start, when when the remote start is activated then the lights will be on until I actually get in and "start" the car.

Eh...the more I think about it the more impossible it seems to do...

What model is your clifford alarm?  Do you know if it has Domelight supervision?

The Compustar alarm is model 2W900FMR-PRO, I'm not sure if it has domelight supervision or not though...sorry.

I can't find any info on your alarm.  I think we can easily get the LED to come on when you disarm the alarm and have it stay on for say 30 seconds or so.  Would this be acceptable?

Yea....that's sounds pretty good. Disarm the car, the lights go on for 30 seconds...and then go off after that, sounds good enough for me!

(Btw, THANK you for taking the time to help me, I was seriously at the point of giving up on my project)

I'm not sure if this will help at all, but here is the site page that displays more information on my alarm system:

https://www.compustar.com/products/P2W9000FMR.htm

I talked to a friend of mine, and he was saying it would be cool if I could have an option to also turn them on whenever I like, as well as having them serve as courtesy lights...I know it's asking a lot, but is it possible to also implement that as a function?

I was thinking about having the unlock pulse of the alarm to trigger a second relay that would energize a capacitor and the LED, depending on the size of the capacitor will determine how long the LED remains on.  I will experiment tomorrow to see what we need to do.

That sounds great (although a bit complex)! I can't wait to hear your results. I will most likely be able to give you quicker responses tomorrow as well since I'm taking a day off of work.

Update: Project Abandoned.

why did you abandon the project?

-------------
Kevin Pierson

curious to see where this goes..might do on my 00 civic!

The project was abandoned due to well...me not knowing how to go about doing the project, or getting sufficient help to do so.