So, after seeing what VASky did with the trunklight mod - I poked around my garage and found an extra red LED strip and figured I would wire it up! I actually ordered 10 of the Oznium Suplerflux 4 LED superbright white (they come in tons of colors) modules ($2.99 a piece)
http://www.oznium.com/prewired-superflux to use and they should be here on Thursday.
I like them because they are small, prewired, have a self contained resistor and above all are completely waterproof! I will put 2 in the trunk lid - near the hump cavities, 4 in the underside of the hood and 2 each under the car below the doors to wash the ground with light when the car doors open. The ones under the hood will be tied to a micro pin switch to turn on when the hood is lifted. The ones in the trunk tied to the stock trunk light harness, and the ones under the door sills tied to my led strips in the footwells which are tied to the dimming circuit the map lights are on.
So tonight I figured I would wire the trunk and use my red led strip temporarily till the other LEDs come in.
Here are the bits and pieces I used:
First I removed enough of the plastic rivets holding the carpet to the trunk lid to allow me to get access to run the wires behind the carpet. I spooled off a 20' section of 18 gauge wire, folded it in half and tied the two loose ends to the trunk latch. I then used the folded end (stiffer this way) to feed down through the holes in the trunk lid, through the ribbed rubber tube and into the trunk. This way you only do one wire pull rather than two:
Hole used to send wire over to ribbed rubber tube thing:
Pull both ends of the rubber tube out of the trunk lid and trunk - there is a white plastic ring that secures both ends. They have two tabs that allow them to snap in place. Pull those out carefully.
I found it easier to feed the wire through the tube by taping it to the end of a fiberglass rod and pushing the rod through:
Feed the wire down into the trunk and follow the other wires heading toward the stock trunk light. Leave a small service loop in the wire behind the carpet and cut your ends to length. Pull the carpet back in that corner and remove the light bulb from the socket. Pop the bulb holder out of its plastic grommet in the carpet and remove 2" of the black harness wrap. Wire tap the ends of your hook up wire and then tie them into the two wires in the harness coming from the stock bulb assembly:
Add hookup couplers to the ends of your new wires at the trunk lid. Do the same at the end of your LED strip(s):
Plug in your LED and test things out. BTW your RAP timer probably timed out by now (10 minutes) so the trunk light would have gone out - just open and close your door to re-energize the circuit before cursing that your wiring job is bad!
Hook up your stock bulb to make sure it works too before closing things up. If everything is working, tape up your wires - gotta make it look stock, right? Carefully work the white rings back into the ends of the ribbed rubber thingy and snap it back in place.
Mount your LED strip - I put mine under the trunk lid bar out of the way of the latch and the convertible top - the Optix LED strip (any autoparts store) is superthin and comes with double sticky tape on the back:
You could tie two of the LED strips together for more light too!
Thanks to VASky for the idea! Another why didn't they think of that mod... I'd call this a 1 beer mod.
JonyMac
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5.22.09:
So my Oznium Superbright LEDs came in today and I mounted two in the trunk - they look AWESOME! I drilled a 5/16" hole in the trunk lid fabric cover thingy right near the edge to get the LEDs to point properly down into the trunk - slipped the LEDs in and they fit SNUG in a 5/16 hole - attached the leads to my harness and I am good to go - can't wait to see it at night!
LED comes with built in inline resistor:
Drill 5/16" hole in carpet inside hump:
Superbright in the daytime!:
JonyMac
