Warning & Solution - Illuminated Door Sills

[Tillsy]

My original illuminated door sills lasted one year before they suddenly stopped working. After a bit of fiddling with them I found they were getting incredibly HOT, would start to smoke, and eventually flames shot out. They were replaced and never heard or thought anything more of it.

A year later the replacement stopped working. DMCMW were flat out so I didn't hear anything for months - enough time for me to worry about two batches of door sills suffering the same glitch. To that end I took it upon myself to perform a biopsy and see what was going on.

Here is the original door sill with the EL panel off, showing the typical pink appearance...
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36082&d=1439531824

The condition of the EL panel when I removed it from the door sill...
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36083&d=1439531829

Reconnecting the EL transformer and applying power...
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36084&d=1439531834

Smoke and flame...
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36085&d=1439531838

Seems to be nicely alight now...
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36086&d=1439531842

Burning is getting worse the longer it is on, time to cut power...
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36087&d=1439531846

Time to dissect the EL panel itself...
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36088&d=1439531851

As you can see, there are signs of corrosion. Given EL panels run at high voltage it would seem this was creating resistance to the point where it was igniting. Note that at that point in time my DeLorean had never been in the rain and living in the driest state of the driest continent on Earth, so this isn't environmental...

Put simply, I will never ever tolerate an EL product again... the risks when it goes wrong are simply too high.

It has been another year now since this second incident, so it is time to resolve it myself. Firstly re-installing the door sill without the EL panel so I can mark out a template for where the hole is.
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36089&d=1439531859

Next I cut out and attached a styrene plasticard to act as a light filter. I experimented with different thicknesses and found 0.5mm to work best.
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36090&d=1439531869

Next I dremelled off the top bracket in the door sill to allow light to travel into that region.
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36091&d=1439531876

Filter and LED strip attached.
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36092&d=1439531882

I did test without using reflective material, but there wasn't enough light. Afloil does the job nicely, but I found the shiny side to reflect TOO much light - so the dull side was sufficient.
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36093&d=1439531889

And the finished product - nice and safe! The lighting looks overpowering but just my camera struggling with it even when I angled away from it a bit.
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=36094&d=1439531895

[DavidProehl]

Looks great! I didn't realize the original setup they were selling used EL panels. That would make it rather hard or impossible to see lit in the daytime. I like your LED solution, it really pops!

[Timebender]

Nice fix and solution! Now I gotta make some for myself.

[Domi]

Really nice!

[andy blackmon]

when my illuminated sills quit lighting up, I took apart, went to Auto Zone and got some small leds. After a little playing with the placement of light I ended up with the same look of the originals. Andy B