Keyhole light

[spoonman]

I have a 99 protege lx auto trans. and I do not have a keyhole light. Instead, it is just a plastic circle. I am thinking about drilling a hole and putting in a blue LED. How would I wire up the LED?

 

[spoonman]

bump

 

[SciFiMan]

I have a 99 protege lx auto trans. and I do not have a keyhole light. Instead, it is just a plastic circle. I am thinking about drilling a hole and putting in a blue LED. How would I wire up the LED?

Do you have dome light that comes on when you enter the car? You could hook it up to that fuse. Otherwise it would be on all the time, or not until after you start the car. Probably didn't help you much...........

 

[p5sundevil]

I have one already in mine and just replaced the bulb, but if you didnt have one already I would drill the hole, put a rubber washer/grommit in there to hold the led and then just use a tester and find a wire that has 24/7 power supply. the reason it isnt a bad thing to have it connected to a 24/7 power line is it is only 1 led, which draws about no power anyway so even if you left your car for 4 days with the led on 24/7 the battery wouldnt flinch. Ive done it.

Then also with the led on all the time it looks like you have an alarm at night =P

 

[spoonman]

I have one already in mine and just replaced the bulb, but if you didnt have one already I would drill the hole, put a rubber washer/grommit in there to hold the led and then just use a tester and find a wire that has 24/7 power supply. the reason it isnt a bad thing to have it connected to a 24/7 power line is it is only 1 led, which draws about no power anyway so even if you left your car for 4 days with the led on 24/7 the battery wouldnt flinch. Ive done it.

Then also with the led on all the time it looks like you have an alarm at night =P

Sounds like a plan. I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me what size led I need. I know superbrightleds.com is a good place. Could you give me some links to the LED and possible a rubber washer? Also, I have done very little work on cars, but I imagine this shouldn't be hard. Where is the closest wire to wire the light on and how do I do it? Just cut the wire and patch in the LED?

 

[p5sundevil]

what i did was take the steering colum apart, I believe the bulb is a #74 led from superbrightleds.com but it is possible it is one of their 194 wedges so I will double check for you.

Now I didnt have to wire anything because I already had a keyhole light, so I just plugged my #74 bulb in and put the steering column back together. If your drilling a hole I suggest using an LED you can buy at radioshack for a dollar or 2. This way it doesnt come prewired into a base. Take the LED and wire a resistor(99cents for a pack of 5 at radioshack) and solder or attatch that to the led. Then ground the negative side to anything and, like for my indiglo gauges, run the positive wire down the steering colum to above where your feet are, there are 2 main connectors there were all the wires go from the dash, I just tested each connection with a ;ight tester and founf which one had power 24/7, I think it was the FAT orange wire. and spliced it in.

and I was done.

I accidentally spliced my gauges into the same wire and had them on 24/7 for 2 days without noticing. lol. then I redid them to a green wire I think which only comes on when you turn your lights on.

sorry about rambling there, but basically
-take steering colum apart
-drill hole
-rubber grommit(optional)(home depot or checker/shucks)
-led - your color choice, radioshack
-resistors - radioshack
wire it all together and try it out.

 

[spoonman]

cool man. I'm gonna attempt it this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes

 

[spoonman]

what i did was take the steering colum apart, I believe the bulb is a #74 led from superbrightleds.com but it is possible it is one of their 194 wedges so I will double check for you.

Now I didnt have to wire anything because I already had a keyhole light, so I just plugged my #74 bulb in and put the steering column back together. If your drilling a hole I suggest using an LED you can buy at radioshack for a dollar or 2. This way it doesnt come prewired into a base. Take the LED and wire a resistor(99cents for a pack of 5 at radioshack) and solder or attatch that to the led. Then ground the negative side to anything and, like for my indiglo gauges, run the positive wire down the steering colum to above where your feet are, there are 2 main connectors there were all the wires go from the dash, I just tested each connection with a ;ight tester and founf which one had power 24/7, I think it was the FAT orange wire. and spliced it in.

and I was done.

I accidentally spliced my gauges into the same wire and had them on 24/7 for 2 days without noticing. lol. then I redid them to a green wire I think which only comes on when you turn your lights on.

sorry about rambling there, but basically
-take steering colum apart
-drill hole
-rubber grommit(optional)(home depot or checker/shucks)
-led - your color choice, radioshack
-resistors - radioshack
wire it all together and try it out.

I was looking at it and it looked like it would require me to take my steering wheel off. How do I do this? Are there any tutorials or anything?

 

[spoonman]

what i did was take the steering colum apart, I believe the bulb is a #74 led from superbrightleds.com but it is possible it is one of their 194 wedges so I will double check for you.

Now I didnt have to wire anything because I already had a keyhole light, so I just plugged my #74 bulb in and put the steering column back together. If your drilling a hole I suggest using an LED you can buy at radioshack for a dollar or 2. This way it doesnt come prewired into a base. Take the LED and wire a resistor(99cents for a pack of 5 at radioshack) and solder or attatch that to the led. Then ground the negative side to anything and, like for my indiglo gauges, run the positive wire down the steering colum to above where your feet are, there are 2 main connectors there were all the wires go from the dash, I just tested each connection with a ;ight tester and founf which one had power 24/7, I think it was the FAT orange wire. and spliced it in.

and I was done.

I accidentally spliced my gauges into the same wire and had them on 24/7 for 2 days without noticing. lol. then I redid them to a green wire I think which only comes on when you turn your lights on.

sorry about rambling there, but basically
-take steering colum apart
-drill hole
-rubber grommit(optional)(home depot or checker/shucks)
-led - your color choice, radioshack
-resistors - radioshack
wire it all together and try it out.

I got everything at radio shack. Ended up getting a 5 volt LED and a 100 ohm resistor and they even had plastic led holders for a 1/4" hole. Perfect.