Sunday, December 30, 2018

Electricity: Modifying An LED to Install in Place of Stock Bulbs Part 1

Some people know by now that I'm an LED addict. Just today I got this really nice Type S (that's the company) shifter that has blue LEDs and different modes that it works in; going back and forth one by one, strobe, or all five lights on. Anyway, for a long time now I've been trying to figure out a good way to change the stock turn signals and fog lights in particular.


I loved the idea of using simple tinted "off-road use only" LED strips typically seen on trucks in place of the stock turn signals. I also want to hook up my fog lights to the OEM fog light wiring so I can turn all of these things on and off without needing extra buttons.

This is part 1. I made the test light and I'm going to plug it in the Ford Focus (don't want to damage Lexi2 just in case) tomorrow. It is night time right now. I'm making this a two part article because I want you to see how I think and also to see if I am correct that you can do this.

Here's the finished product.


I took the LED from one of those things you wear on your head for light when you're working at night. Originally it runs off of three double-A batteries. I opened it all up, I cut the main wire coming from the LED assembly and also disconnected it from its holder via screw.


Now I had an LED light with just the positive and negative wires remaining. I took those, stripped some rubber off carefully to reveal the actual wire, added copper wire because they were extremely thin, stuck that in an electrical connector, and clamped down hard using pliers.


I also wrapped it with some electrical tape. I did that to both wires, leaving me with an LED that I can connect to anything.


So the theory is that instead of inserting a bulb in the wiring connector for said bulb, I should be able to connect this instead. There's already a fuse for those lights so I don't need to use one. And especially if this works with turn signals, this will be great. If the way those work is intermittently turning the light on and off, it should work.

I also got an on/off (as opposed to one that pops out) button for future projects.

I will be posting the results soon. My plan has been to change the stock lights in some way all along. Part 2 will be coming soon. Maybe I'll have some design ideas in physical form by then.

I've been thinking about the engine as well. What about it? Well, I know I want to supercharge it (maybe turbo) way later on. Before that happens, I'll have the block re-built and I'll be lucky (but it's possible) if I can start on this sometime in 2019.

The whole point is still and always will be reliability. Fun fact; the 1uzfe motor was once tested to see what kind of load it could take on stock internals. Well the engine, which was set up on a stand, ended up taking 50 psi from a turbo with no other modifications before the motor blew. At that point, it was pushing 1,500hp if my memory serves me right. And it's not like they rushed it. They let it run for certain periods of time every time they upped the boost.

So what's my point? Look - in this $1,500 car, I can at least somewhat keep up with some of today's best sports cars including the BR-Z. And my engine needs a tune, not to mention probably a new Coolant Temp Sensor. I think it's 30-40hp short. If I was to run a setup where I was boosting 8 psi, that would immediately crank the horsepower and torque to around 400.

By the way, I can always use help. Although I will say that this year is going to be a thrill. Not only am I moving somewhere I can work on cars but my business is starting to do okay. I was handicapped for some time and forced into it but it worked out. I sell auto parts online now. I always said I'm not going to use this as a platform to advertise that but if you read my 2019 New Year's plan, I hope to get others involved in this build. You see, I hope to take their hard earned parts and time and use their skills to learn, indeed. No but really - again - if you live in Central Florida and don't mind helping me work on the car or something like that, please contact me.

Back in the day we used to call it a spaceship... That Lex sedan.

- Rokas K.

No comments:

Post a Comment

I Call it Blackhorse - My New Project Car

When I first got this Focus, if you have read the other articles, I hated it. The headlights looked weird and it was making tons of noises. ...