No engine bay lighting!!!

[Rudsther2435]

So the other day I was driving and taking some back roads using navigation and my Ford Touch powered down and turned black. I was in the middle of nowhere and unfamiliar with the area, to make it worse I had no cell service. I stopped at the nearest gas station (of course it was closed) but it was lit up. I though maybe disconnecting the battery for a few minutes would reset the unit, luckily I had a socket set in the back. I open the hood until it d come to find out no hood lighting!!!!! I would think with any new car this must be a standard option, it's never been missing on any of my other vehicles. Luckily after disconnecting the battery for a few minutes and re-plugging in, my ford touch powered back on.
So,
I decided to install some hood lighting, $25 worth of parts and half an hour work, hopefully it will help anyone else that wants to do this.
I got the lights here, they are really bright and low profile, they look factory.

Step 1: Remove the heat shield underneath the hood by popping out the big black round clips, they pop off with a clip remove, or even your hand.
Step 2: Remove heat shield by pulling it towards you and out of the factory clip.
Step 3: Mount lights and wire the lights down and have them meet the factory wiring already underneath the hood going down the side to the engine compartment, zip tie them alongside. (I also wrapped my wires in wire loom to keep the factory appearance and protect it against heat since I live in the desert.
Step 4: put the heat shield back in place and open and close the hood to make sure wires go up and down properly with hood.

 

[JETZ]

Tip

In 'photobucket' selecting the IMG code, and pasting it in your post will display your pics without anyone clicking on a link.

 

[langla4]

Are these switched? Were these wired to a fuse link and then to the battery? They look great and I have it on my list of modifications.

 

[Rudsther2435]

powered on

"]

I connected them to the hood status wire on the DB-ALL piece I'm using for the alarm. It has 12 volts constant and recieves ground from the module when the hood is opened. I didn't go to the hood switch because the vehicle has a "0" voltage read when it is open, not ground like older cars. i was suprised these things were really bright!

 

[The Cheat]

Looks great - nice mod!

 

[CDN_Explorer]

This is a sweet mod!!never even thought of this! Might do this too. Thanks for sharing

I embedded the other 2 pics for you:

 

[Joe Dirt]

Nice work!- that is nice and bright!

Sadly, it's not that with a car that new it would be standard, it's quite the opposite- those were one of the first things to go in the cost cutting of the late 90's... Plus, not that many people really fumble around under there anymore, they just take them in for service or never go under there in the first place.

 

[EcoPowerParts]

Great mod!

 

[nnichols]

This looks fantastic. Did you use the 1.2 watt panels or a different model?

 

[Rudsther2435]

yes

These were the 2.4w panels, 2 of them is all you need. I also added 2 of the 1.2 in addition to my reverse lights to get brighter output and they look good. Will put up pictures when I get everything done.

 

[WOLFexplorer]

Step 3: Mount lights and wire the lights down and have them meet the factory wiring already underneath the hood going down the side to the engine compartment, zip tie them alongside.

Are these the wires thats running down hood on passenger side? could you post a picture on what wires u connected to?