Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Light in the handle of the door (interior)

Hey all!
I noticed today that one of the lights on my 95 'Tour is no longer functioning. Does anyone know if this is an L.E.D. or an incandescent lamp? Do I need to remove the entire door panel to get at that little light or no? I have been playing around with L.E.D.'s lately and found some high output blue, green and orange...I'd like to toss 4 High output blues into the door handles but I need my first questions answered before I consider that! I hope I have given enough description for everyone....just in case...the lights are located in the car inside the door handle. They shine downward to illuminate the handle for passengers...I think we all know what I'm talking about now! Thanks for responding to all that do!

The lights are incandescent, an you do have to remove the whole door panel to replace them. And with having to do all that, you are better off replacing them w/ LED's. E-mail Pollo_loco69@hotmail.com as I believe he has a how to written up on doing LED's in the door handles.

Pollo and I both have the how-to James. Brex, if you want to swap them to LEDs send me a private message with your email address. I will forward you the how-to.

All my lights burnt out as well. You do have to remove the door Panels if you have pwr windows and locks be carefull not to break the mounting tabs off the controls. I replaced with the factory lights the price was rediculous for the little things if you know of an alternative I would like to know. I think I paid 2 or 3 dollars a piece. jasu98@rcn.com

well after talking to the guys above the comment you wrote...I'm going to rig some high output LED's instead! They're bound to out last the car! I'll post the results to this topic here when I finish and I'll take some digital cam pics to show what I did (If I end up doing the LED thing.) Quick question...when you bought the oem lights...were they green or is the lens green?

I would not care about the price of the bulbs...its the idea of removing the door panel to replace them that I do not want to deal with...

Hey.. I tried to fix that on my too..

I removed the door panel but still could not reach the lights...

( i guess I gave up to easily..)



I was afraid I was missing something important.. u know...

I'll be PM you guys.. I also want the How-tos...

Would someone post some pics on how to get "there" ???



And by the way.... I just bought a digital camera... what is the easiest way to post pics ???

What pic hosts you guys use ???

Thanks !!

If you had the door panel off, all you needed to do was pull back the foam liner around the door pull that's glued to the door and you will see the wiring on the top of the handle housing for the lights. The bulb base just slides out. Sorry I don't have any pics, but that's all you needed to do when you had the panel off.

I just replaced my bulbs too. I had three of them out. Get this Ford said they wern't suppose to light up. HA!

By the way, the bulbs themself are green and slightly smaller then a Christmas twickle light bulb. Cost is between 2 and 3 a piece.

I got them from Lincoln Mercury... then found clear at Auto Zone, 2 for under 3$.

It is a pain to have to take the entire door apart fo get to them... but I like them working much better.

I would be nice if they made them blue...

Eurythmian