DIY trunk lighting improovement
08-21-2011, 12:22 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
DIY trunk lighting improovement
Trunk lighting improvement
Works on: all generation S2000s
Special thanks to Eric Skirzynski for the idea and example
I am not responsible if you hurt your car or yourself doing this, this guide is merely instructional.
Purpose: My goals for this project were to improve the lighting in the trunk, because that 194 bulb just doesn’t output enough light for me. Also I was looking to spend less than $5, because I’m on a tight budget.
Things you will need:
1X Roll Electronics Solder
1X Soldering Iron
1X Electrical Tape
1X 3M Automotive trim tape
1X Wire Strippers
2X Strip LED lights (you can get these on ebay for cheap I paid around 2 bucks for both)
1x 194 LED bulb (I recommend a SMD bulb as they are brighter)
1X Flathead Screwdriver
1X Sharpie
1X 9v battery
Optional things that are nice to have:
1X Roll speaker wire
1X Third Hand
Plug your soldering iron in to warm it up. Then, start by removing the trunk light housing, do this by prying it out using the indentations in the trunk by the housing, and disconnecting the connector for the light. This will be a connector with a tab you have to push in to remove. Your housing will look like mine, minus the wires going everywhere and the solder on the connectors.
Once you have your housing out, cut about 4 inches of speaker wire, strip the ends of the speaker wire, and solder the speaker wire onto the exposed metal on the top of the light housing. (You can also directly solder the led strips onto the housing, but I didn’t want a mess of wires attached up there.) Using a 9v battery, test the LED strips and see which lead on them is the positive, and which one is the negitive lead. Mark your negative lead with a sharpie. Fish the speaker wire down the top of the light housing, and out of the grate on the bottom of it.
Replug the housing in, and check to see which lead is the positive and which lead is the negative on your newly soldered wires. You can do this by taking one of the led strips and seeing which way you have to have the wires to get it to light up. Once you have found out which lead is negative, mark it with your sharpie.
After you know which leads are the negative ones, solder them all together. This is where the third hand comes in “handy” (get it? It’s a pun!). There should be your 2 led strip negative leads soldered to your one negative housing lead (speaker wire), and your 2 led strip positive leads to your one housing positive lead. After your connections are soldered, wrap them in electrical tape for safety.
Now its time to test.
Take the housing, and plug it into the connector from the car again. This time, the 194 bulb, and led strips should light up. If this works, congrats! If it doesn’t something has gone wrong somewhere..
Now put the housing back into its place in the bodywork, and take your led strips and mount them with the 3m body tape.
I put mine directly to the left and right of the housing.
Now you can swap your 194 bulb for the led one if you want. There is a small tab to get to the bulb on the front of the housing. Pry that open, and throw your new led 194 bulb into it. These are polarity sensitive as well, so if it doesn’t light up the first time, try flipping it around, then it should work.
Now close the housing and push all the extra wiring up the holes in the housing, after that you are done!
Enjoy your new well lit trunk!
Works on: all generation S2000s
Special thanks to Eric Skirzynski for the idea and example
I am not responsible if you hurt your car or yourself doing this, this guide is merely instructional.
Purpose: My goals for this project were to improve the lighting in the trunk, because that 194 bulb just doesn’t output enough light for me. Also I was looking to spend less than $5, because I’m on a tight budget.
Things you will need:
1X Roll Electronics Solder
1X Soldering Iron
1X Electrical Tape
1X 3M Automotive trim tape
1X Wire Strippers
2X Strip LED lights (you can get these on ebay for cheap I paid around 2 bucks for both)
1x 194 LED bulb (I recommend a SMD bulb as they are brighter)
1X Flathead Screwdriver
1X Sharpie
1X 9v battery
Optional things that are nice to have:
1X Roll speaker wire
1X Third Hand
Plug your soldering iron in to warm it up. Then, start by removing the trunk light housing, do this by prying it out using the indentations in the trunk by the housing, and disconnecting the connector for the light. This will be a connector with a tab you have to push in to remove. Your housing will look like mine, minus the wires going everywhere and the solder on the connectors.
Once you have your housing out, cut about 4 inches of speaker wire, strip the ends of the speaker wire, and solder the speaker wire onto the exposed metal on the top of the light housing. (You can also directly solder the led strips onto the housing, but I didn’t want a mess of wires attached up there.) Using a 9v battery, test the LED strips and see which lead on them is the positive, and which one is the negitive lead. Mark your negative lead with a sharpie. Fish the speaker wire down the top of the light housing, and out of the grate on the bottom of it.
Replug the housing in, and check to see which lead is the positive and which lead is the negative on your newly soldered wires. You can do this by taking one of the led strips and seeing which way you have to have the wires to get it to light up. Once you have found out which lead is negative, mark it with your sharpie.
After you know which leads are the negative ones, solder them all together. This is where the third hand comes in “handy” (get it? It’s a pun!). There should be your 2 led strip negative leads soldered to your one negative housing lead (speaker wire), and your 2 led strip positive leads to your one housing positive lead. After your connections are soldered, wrap them in electrical tape for safety.
Now its time to test.
Take the housing, and plug it into the connector from the car again. This time, the 194 bulb, and led strips should light up. If this works, congrats! If it doesn’t something has gone wrong somewhere..
Now put the housing back into its place in the bodywork, and take your led strips and mount them with the 3m body tape.
I put mine directly to the left and right of the housing.
Now you can swap your 194 bulb for the led one if you want. There is a small tab to get to the bulb on the front of the housing. Pry that open, and throw your new led 194 bulb into it. These are polarity sensitive as well, so if it doesn’t light up the first time, try flipping it around, then it should work.
Now close the housing and push all the extra wiring up the holes in the housing, after that you are done!
Enjoy your new well lit trunk!
08-21-2011, 11:12 PM
#3
Registered User
Thread Starter
Link to the LED strip I bought: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_W0QQ...#ht_3705wt_883
Link to the 194 bulb:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_W0QQ...ht_3096wt_1165
Link to the 194 bulb:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_W0QQ...ht_3096wt_1165
03-07-2013, 04:56 PM
#6
Community Organizer
Thanks for this thread. I actually just wired another LED 192 bulb socket to the metal underpinnings from the original trunk light housing. But I think I'll convert it to the LED strip, it should look even better and cleaner with that.
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03-08-2013, 11:10 AM
#8
I just swapped in an LED square with about 16 LED's in it, it is maybe 2 inches by 2 inches, and it plugged into the factory socket without any mods needed. I removed the OEM cover plate but the new LED light takes up the entire space where the cover plate was so it looks fine. Very bright too.
03-08-2013, 11:31 AM
#9
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I just swapped in an LED square with about 16 LED's in it, it is maybe 2 inches by 2 inches, and it plugged into the factory socket without any mods needed. I removed the OEM cover plate but the new LED light takes up the entire space where the cover plate was so it looks fine. Very bright too.
03-08-2013, 04:10 PM
#10
Originally Posted by JFUSION' timestamp='1362773403' post='22390122
I just swapped in an LED square with about 16 LED's in it, it is maybe 2 inches by 2 inches, and it plugged into the factory socket without any mods needed. I removed the OEM cover plate but the new LED light takes up the entire space where the cover plate was so it looks fine. Very bright too.
