What follows is a DIY fix in case your expensive illuminated side sills no longer light up.
I applied this to my Panamera Turbo S, but figured the 991 community would also benefit from this.

This seems to be a common issue which most owners remediate by buying new side sills (600$ and up) or leaving the issue unattended. Porsche does not sell the individual parts and only sells the sills by the pair. Ouch.

I refused to bend over and came up with the solution as described below. Please be advised that I am just a shade tree mechanic and that English is my third language. So in case you screw up, well…go and buy new sills 😊

As said, my car is a 2012 Panamera Turbo S, but I would assume that this procedure also works for other Porsches and model years.

Tools needed :

· Interior trim tools

· Soldering iron

· Liquid tape

· Shrink sleeve

Parts needed :

· 5mm bright white LED Light Bulb DC 12V (eBay, Amazon,…) Less than 1$.

Process :

Remove side sills, which is held in place by clips only. Carefully unclip through the use of trim tools. Be especially careful in the footwell area where there is overlap with one of the other trim panels.




Carefully remove the cable with the small LED bulb at the end. You need to :

1. Release connector in the footwell area

2. Wiggle the LED bulb out of a small plastic socket. This plastic receptacle points the little LED light in the right direction so it can further distribute it’s illumination through some optical guided wire. I was nervous at first uncoupling it, but it’s safe, trust me. Just be careful and try not to break anything (plastic tabs or the led bulb).




Now you’re ready to solder on the new LED bulb. Before I cut the old bulb from the end of the wire, I made sure to make a marking on the wire to indicate polarity.






Solder the new bulb to the wire. Once the solder dried, I applied some liquid tape and then some shrink sleeve.






We are now ready to install. Plug in the electrical connection in the footwell area and the bulb should light up.




Now carefully run the wire through your side sill. Keep it in place with some new duct tape and plug the led bulb back into the receptacle which feeds the light into the optical guide wire.






Reattach the side sill by pressing in the clips, et voila, you’re done !




Reward yourself with an excellent microbrew, you just saved 600$ (however, your wife may re-allocate those funds )

 

Nicely done! I feel like if it had gone out on me.. I probably would of just purchased the non-illuminated aluminum version and called it a day lol

Nice job!