MESO Puddle Light build

Agreed let shit hit the floor

 

@MESO Puddle Lights
These things are awesome! Quality is amazing and an OEM finish. The trim piece tucks the LEDs in incredibly well where you'd have no idea that they were there or weren't stock unless you were looking for them. The lights are super bright with a nice crisp white light. The distribution of light along the whole cab is great with no dead spots. The harness is good quality with more than enough cable length and plug-and-play connectors so no cutting/splicing of any kind is required. Installation isn't terrible at all and is pretty straight forward. The only pain in the ass part is getting the wires through the door boots, not a major feat but takes some patience. These have been awesome to have already at nighttime when approaching the truck or unlocking the doors.








Instructions

PDF version of instructions: here

Parts List

• Parts
  • Puddle Pods
• Tools
  • 10mm socket
  • Phillips screw driver
    
  • Electrical tape (if required)
  • Zip ties (if required)
  • Trim removal tools

Removing the Door Panels

1. Disconnect negative battery terminal with 10mm socket
2. Remove felt in cubby with pick
   1. 
3. Remove plastic behind door handle with pick
   1. 
4. Remove three fasteners securing door panel
   1. 
5. Remove two Phillip screws
   1. 
   2. 
   3. 
   4. 
6. For the plastic insert, push the center button in and then pry outside with pick
   1. 
   2. 
7. Remove the upper mirror trim piece with trim removal tool
   1. 
8. Remove door panel with trim removal tool starting at the bottom pulling hard and sliding up towards the window
   1. 
9. Slide out two door handle cables
   1. 
10. Disconnect the two electrical plugs, the larger one has a release tab you press down and a collar that slides back, the smaller one has a release tab you press down,
    1. 
       
    2. 
11. Set door panel aside
    1. 
    2. 
12. Repeat Steps 2-11 for the passenger side
    1. Passenger door has two electrical plugs to disconnect as well but both just have a release tab you press down

Installing the Puddle Lights

1. Disconnect mirror plug
   1. 
2. Remove three black tape pieces covering the bolts securing the mirror with pick
   1. 
3. Remove three nuts off the mirror bolts passing through the door with a 10mm socket while holding the mirror on the outside of the door so it doesn't fall
   1. 
4. Remove the mirror from outside the door by sliding the bolts through the door once the nuts have been removed
5. Disconnect the 10” extension from the meso harness
6. Remove the tape on the mirror cable pass-through
   1. 
7. Remove lower mirror trim piece with pick
   1. 
8. Fish 10” extension through mirror trim piece and then through mirror arm
   1. 
   2. 
9. Connect the extension to the puddle light and snap it into place
   1. 
   2. 
10. Pull out slack of cords and push the trim piece flush onto the mirror
11. Rewrap the cables coming out of the pass-through with electrical tape
    1. 
    2. 
12. Reinstall mirror from outside door with 10mm socket to reinstall the nuts onto the bolts while passing the cords through the door and holding the mirror in place
    1. 
    2. 
13. Repeat Steps 1-12 for passenger side
    1. If the passenger pod does not sit flush, use a pair of snips or a dremel to remove a notch in the plastic so there is clearance for the new light. Not all trucks will have this extra plastic "rib" inside on the passenger side.
    2. 
    3. 

Installing the Harness Leads

1. Overall wiring
   • 
   • 
2. Remove floormat
3. Remove lower kick panel trim piece with tool
   1. 
4. Remove twist cap nut with your hand and then pull side footwell panel trim piece out
   1. 
5. Disconnect three plugs in the driver footwell
   1. 
6. Between the door and the cab, pop off boot from door with pick careful not to hit wires by slowly prying around the edge
7. Pop off boot from the cab side by prying on around the edge on the outside with the pick and pushing from inside the cab and cut the electrical tape securing the open end of the boot that goes into the cab
   1. 
   2. 
8. Take the shorter lead side of the meso harness and add some tape around the extension connector and its wires (if required) so the wires don’t pull out and so the connector release tab doesn’t snag on the boot as you push it through
   1. 
9. Feed the meso cable through the cab passthrough to outside
   1. 
10. Push the connect through the boot which is a little bit of a pain in the butt but have patience, it helps to have one hand stretch the boot as you use the other hand to push the connector through with your finger from the backside of the connector, once you get it more than halfway you can roll the opposite side of the boot back to expose the connector (needle nose pliers may help to grab it) and pull it the rest of the way, be very careful to not rip any of the factory cords or damage the boot
11. Fish the cable into the door now that you have it through the boot
    1. 
12. Make a small cut in the door plastic lining to reach your hand into the door to pass yourself the meso cable
13. Pull the cable through and connect it to the end of the extension that's coming through the top of the door
14. Feed the longer lead side of the meso harness through the small hole of the carpet under the console to the passenger side
    1. 
15. Feed cable under carpet in passenger footwell, it just lifts up
    1. 
16. Repeat Steps 2-13 for the passenger side
    1. There's only two plugs to disconnect for the passenger footwell
    2. 

Installing the Harness to OEM Connections

1. Remove the three 10mm bolts holding the lower dash piece in place with the 10mm socket
   1. 
2. Gently pull the lower dash piece down to disengage the 11 clips holding it in place
3. Use the pick to remove the plastic piece in the a pillar that is covering the bolt
   1. 
4. Use the 10mm socket to remove the bolt and pull the a pillar cover off
   1. 
5. Feed the large end of the meso harness behind the dash towards the a pillar
6. Disconnect the OEM harness and plug the OEM female into the meso male and the OEM male to the meso female, you may need to cut the zip tie securing the OEM harness to do this
   1. 
   2. 
   3. 
7. Tuck the extra slack of the meso harness in ensuring nothing is getting in the way or possibly interfering with the airbag
   1. 

Final Steps

1. Reconnect battery negative terminal with 10mm socket
2. Test by opening and closing your doors and unlocking and locking your doors to ensure the puddle lights come on with the map/dome lights (ensure the map lights switch is set to the center function to be triggered by the door)
   1. 
3. Tape the meso harness to the existing mirror harness in the door
   1. 
4. You can add tape if needed to the plastic lining on the door if you had to cut it to pull the meso extension wire through
5. Reconnect the door panel electrical plugs and the two cables for the door handle ensuring you snap the ends of the connectors for the door handle wires into the trim on back side of the door panel, the door handle wire connectors have notches for this
6. Lift the door panel back onto the door starting at the top near the window and sliding down before pressing all of the plastic clips into place
7. Snap the top mirror trim back into place being careful to not lose the three plastic clips that secure it in the door
   1. 
   2. 
8. Screw back the two phillips head screws in the door, the larger screw is for the cubby and the smaller one is for behind the door handle
9. Snap the plastic insert back into place
10. Reinstall the felt and plastic trim pieces for the doors
11. Push the rubber boot back into the door and cab
12. Repeat Steps 3-10 for the passenger side
13. Reinstall the a pillar trim piece using the 10mm socket and snapping the cover back over the bolt
14. Snap the lower dash piece back into place and secure with 10mm bolts
15. Tuck any extra wiring up behind the lower dash piece and secure with tipties (if required)
16. Reinstall the side footwell trim piece and tighten with twist nut
17. Reinstall lower kick panel
18. Reinstall floor mat
19. Repeat steps 14-16 for the passenger side

Photos















Below has the meso puddle lights on plus my rock lights with a @DSIM dome light harness which you can read about in his thread and my wiring write-up





If you happen to lose the felt pieces for in the door handle cubbies, they are ~$2 to replace. Part # 74222A for driver and 74221A for passenger.





If you also lose the clips that hold the mirror trim on the door panel they fall in the door easily), part # is 67491E. You can retrieve them by pulling the vapor barrier back and reaching in the door. They are around $2.50 each if you can't find them that way. There are three per door. My recommendation is for when you reinstall that trim is to remove the three white clips from the door and clip them on to the back of the mirror trim piece. There's three little protrusions on the back of the trim piece that snaps into the middle of the white clips. If you do that, there's no way they can fall into the door.







Lastly, if you lose any of the 10mm bolts holding the lower dash panel, part # is 90080-11353. They should be less than $1.





All of these are likely special order at your dealer's parts department but they should have it within 1-2 days with free shipping if you pick it up.

 

Very nice step by step. This will help a lot of people install these. Luckily I'll be able to use my current puddle light wires but great write up.

 

Cable management. Love it. Nothing a couple of zip ties and electrical tape can't fix. I'll be glued to MESO website. Hopefully, I'm fast enough to snatch one on the first run.

 

Is that the dsim harness?

 

The meso harness shown and the connected puddle lights work perfectly on their own and is plug-and-play.

I do have DSIM's V1 of his harness, not shown in the write-up, for my rock lights which I've had for a year. It compensates for the fading of the dome light circuit for the rock lights which are powered by a relay since they draw more power since I have them all around the truck. If you don't have a relay for rock lights, and don't have ones that draw a lot of power), you don't need the rock light harness. If you are using a relay for rock lights, and/or want to be able to power them on at any time with a switch in addition to the dome trigger, then you need the DSIM harness.

I'm using them both together with no issues.

MESO's t-harness will be used in future versions of DSIM's harness I believe.

 

Looks too complicated, I'm out!

 

It's my harness I designed and had made specifically for this kit. I did offer DSIM to use them for his rock light kit which he will be doing on his newest version.

 

Ok i purchased his harness for interior courtesy lights. Could i tie your puddle lights also into his harness

 

I try and make it as simple as possible, but the bottom line is the wires that are needed for puddle lights just don't exist in the door. My kit is 100% plug and play. It's no different than running LED light bar wires, installing door speakers, or anything else really.

 

@MESO I messaged you on IG about a mount... lmk when you can bro

 

It really isn't too bad at all. I was overly detailed in showing every step so it probably looks more complex than it really is. Everything is plug-and-play. Biggest thing is running the wires into the doors but that's not a big deal and is similar to changing out your speakers.

 

Thats the greatest god damn write up I’ve ever seen.

 

I second that, very nice to have a detailed write up before going into it. I’m rather newbish with taking apart trim but confident I will be able to make it happen now. Thank you @pc3coyote !

 

Initial launch will be a few hundred sets of puddle light kits. But I will have more batches after..just takes time to get everything together.

Don't check IG that often, PM sent

 

You got this! Easy peasy!

Happy to help! Thanks for the nice comments. Just paying it forward since I've definitely benefited a ton from all of the great info on the forums.

 

@pc3coyote always coming in clutch w/ the detailed DIY posts!

 

That's why he's a beta tester!