2000 AWD Xploder from Turbo back to NA

[willzilla]

Haha, thanks man.. And yeah... Fix one thing.. Something new breaks... Add a new mod.. Something new breaks... A heartless cycle of futility lol.

 

[TekMan05]

I've been thinking of doing LED swaps on the inside of the steering wheel and dash buttons as well. Looking at the thread it's a different LED style. Now will SMD(Surface Mount Diode) style LED's work in the cluster and buttons? I already converted my puddle and map lights. Have yet to figure out how to do the dome light above the rear seats.

 

[willzilla]

I've been thinking of doing LED swaps on the inside of the steering wheel and dash buttons as well. Looking at the thread it's a different LED style. Now will SMD(Surface Mount Diode) style LED's work in the cluster and buttons? I already converted my puddle and map lights. Have yet to figure out how to do the dome light above the rear seats.

Not sure on the cluster... I'm not sure if I will go that route as it looks kind of like a PITA, lol... Plus all of my cluster lights still work great and I don't mind the green.. I'm doing all of my interior lights red though so I can turn them on and retain night vision and such Plus, they won't be crazy bright and annoying. But yeah I believe you can use any kind of LED in the steering wheel cruise control pods as long as you use the appropriate resistor to bring it down to the correct voltage input to the LED.

The cruise control buttons look easy though from the threads I saw on it a lot of people had issues with even light dispersion and such... I just bought a 5 pack of 10mm (larger than the 5mm that they used) green diffused 6k mcd LEDs [ http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170712294115 ] and 470 ohm resistors... I think being diffused and green (versus white with the plastic cap) it should light up all the lights evenly much better.

I think I got the right resistor size, lol... Is the power on the cruise control lights 5v or 12v? Or something else?

And yeah.. My puddle lights are already converted the white LEDs as well (Justin did that before I bought the truck), and I am getting rdy to toss in some 5k-6.5k white 6 LED (42 lumen) wedge lights [ http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=337 ] for my license plate to replace the corroded out and somewhat poorly executed LED swap that was alrdy in place... Not top of the line LEDs but only $2.50 a pop with pretty decent light output.

I just bought a soldering iron and some other assorted items off Amazon (prime rocks!)... Sad I didn't even have one and I was an avitation & nuclear electronics tech in the Navy for 6 years (2000-2006) and worked on troubleshooting and repairing micro-level electronic circuit boards lol

 

[CDW6212R]

Ah, then you can point me to a good soldering iron. I have had the typical "gun" type with tips that swap, and those do not reliably heat up to the proper temperature often. When the tip does heat up properly, it's easy to apply the heat to terminals etc, and melt the solder. Most of the time though the heat isn't there when needed, and you end up playing with the tips, tightening the tiny set screws etc.

 

[willzilla]

I was mostly a "troubleshooter" and diagnosed down to component level via test bench, test equipment (huntron, o-scope, dmm, digi probe, etc).. Once determine defective part(s) I would dab white out on them, order and send to the 2M shop (certified micro level solder techs) for actual repairs... They had all the fancy adjustable heat solder irons and such lol.. I mostly did spot soldering for non micro stuff.

Anyways... Lol.. I just ordered me a cheap 60w wired iron that had the best reviews on Amazon... I ended up getting the Weller WPS18MP High-Performance Soldering Iron at http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0013U9R1E/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?ref_=pe_175190_21431760_M3T1_ST1_dp_2

 

[CDW6212R]

Thanks, I'll look at that one. I do a lot of wiring from time to time, so the best tools etc, are important. I'm going to rewire my whole 91 Lincoln some day, swapping 99-2000 Mustang wiring into it.

 

[willzilla]

Thanks, I'll look at that one. I do a lot of wiring from time to time, so the best tools etc, are important. I'm going to rewire my whole 91 Lincoln some day, swapping 99-2000 Mustang wiring into it.

Yeah.. I hope to put the new iron to use this upcoming weekend... I swapped in the new license plate house/lens and TRIED to put in my new 6 led wedge lights ( http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=337 ) but they kept popping my stupid 15A fuse :-/ Not sure if it would be safe to bump up to a 20-30A fuse or would I be risking blowing up something? lol... Not sure why they are popping it tho, they are rated:

10-16 Volts DC
0.35W
42 lumen

I had some single LED wedges (way less bright) that I was able to throw in until I figure out what I'm able to do with the new ones. The temp ones I am using that do not blow the fuse are:

194 168 W5W 2825 Frosted Lenses
Super white
http://autolumination.com/194.htm
12-14 Volts DC
0.18W

Blah :-/

 

[CDW6212R]

Don't change the fuse size, it sounds like there is a short somewhere.

 

[willzilla]

Don't change the fuse size, it sounds like there is a short somewhere.

Yeah... Not sure where... Going to take the DMM to the LED circuits and see if one is jacked up or something... Currently running with the frosted single LED and it lights up the license plate pretty good and probably is more than fine but still want to figure out the other ones since I paid for them if one is defective I'll want a replacement lol

 

[TekMan05]

Hey wiz here's a few pics of my lights that you asked for.

View attachment 275911

View attachment 275912

 

[willzilla]

Nice.. Those look good... clean!

How much of a PITA was it to wire everything up with HIDs inside?

 

[TekMan05]

Nice.. Those look good... clean!

How much of a PITA was it to wire everything up with HIDs inside?

Not too terribly bad. You may want to trim the fiberglass piece behind the assembly area to fit the headlights in snug against the grille. Granted for Gen 2's Retrofit would obviously provide the best light output overall but if you pair these kits with a quality set of ballasts and take time to aim them properly you can make these give good light output. I have driven on the highway in the open road at night without need to turn the fogs on with no issues overall.

 

[drifte]

Looks awesome. I was going to install HID's into my 00' mountaineer lights. Then I noticed the bulb reflector had fallen and is rattling around in my headlight housing...not really sure what to do now :/

 

[willzilla]

Not too terribly bad. You may want to trim the fiberglass piece behind the assembly area to fit the headlights in snug against the grille. Granted for Gen 2's Retrofit would obviously provide the best light output overall but if you pair these kits with a quality set of ballasts and take time to aim them properly you can make these give good light output. I have driven on the highway in the open road at night without need to turn the fogs on with no issues overall.

Sweet... Does not sound too bad.. Price on them does not look bad either... Why would you recommend the ccfl over the led halos? JW.

 

[willzilla]

Never-mind.. Looks like the ccfl's are brighter and look better in daylight and such... Awesome, awesome

 

[willzilla]

On an unrelated note.. Brakes were changed a month or two ago... Randomly... lately... and not all the time.... If I lightly brake I get a weird loud harmonic type sound from my brakes.. Lol... Anyone have any ideas wtf is going on??

http://youtu.be/qB0DBNwFSy0

 

[TekMan05]

On an unrelated note.. Brakes were changed a month or two ago... Randomly... lately... and not all the time.... If I lightly brake I get a weird loud harmonic type sound from my brakes.. Lol... Anyone have any ideas wtf is going on??

http://youtu.be/qB0DBNwFSy0

What type of pads did you put on?

 

[willzilla]

The same exact cheap ceramic pads that they replaced lol.

 

[willzilla]

It's weird too in that... for days.. they won't make a sound.. then.. for a single trip on one day.. they will make that sound but ONLY when I am lightly braking.. If I'm braking fairly hard or just driving normal.. No sound... Then.. For days... No sound at any time.. then... repeat... a single trip on a random day... light braking = sound. Lol. Odd.

 

[CDW6212R]

On an unrelated note.. Brakes were changed a month or two ago... Randomly... lately... and not all the time.... If I lightly brake I get a weird loud harmonic type sound from my brakes.. Lol... Anyone have any ideas wtf is going on??

http://youtu.be/qB0DBNwFSy0

Do you have any drilled or spot faced rotors?

That sounds more like a typical squeal more than the whirring of drilled rotors. Avoid using that amount of brake force, use less or more to keep it from doing that.