All Those Mods!!! -> Lights under the hood

[lakewoodbilly]

Hey Guys and Gals, I have been busy doing a lot of the great mods to be found on this site. My wife gave up on me for now for doing any house projects

I installed these lights under the hood. I used an Add-A-Circuit in the fusebox and added onto where the Dome Light circuit comes from. I ran the power out of the fuse box to run my under truck lighting, my hood lights, and my spare 12V socket installed under the hood mostly to power my magnet light I bought at Walmart.
I purchased the LED lights from oznium. I choose the ones already encased in aluminum. I choose to mount these on the sides of the engine compartment instead of on the hood. I'm really glad I did this since the light radiates up off of the hood and provides adequate lighting on top. Plus, you need the lighting on the sides to see what you need to see.
Here are some pics:


Note the little round light above the yellow portable light:


Picture taken indirectly


Because they are so bright!!!


Hood Pin Switch (grounded); as soon as I pop the release in the cab, the lights come on:


Final Result with underbody light kit turned on and under hood lights installed.


Oh ya, I got the multi-color led light kit from VMInnovations:

[missileman125fw]

That's freaking sharp! Damn nice Tacoma.

[w8n4mud]

I wish you were my neighbor. With two tacomas in the picture, our wifes would think we had something going on in the garage. LOL. Dude love the mods. What's next? How about a remote window roll down feature like that of other Lexus models?

[chris4x4]

Looks good!

[06tacomaprerunner]

good job man

[Spacedude]

As an amateur astronomer, I absolutely love the night vision red light underneath. I could read my star charts with that! Very cool.
-spacedude

[eordonez]

nice lights!

[piercedtiger]

Very nice! How's that pin switch working out for you? I have a similar one (smaller contact head that your's) and the damn thing keeps missing the contact point on the hood. So I've had a dead battery 3 times now due to my hood light staying on all the time. I used a portable like your yellow one. What are the lights you used? I've never seen them before.


Did you put some of the VMInnovation tubes in your bed too so you can see in there at night?

[lakewoodbilly]

Originally Posted by piercedtiger

Very nice! How's that pin switch working out for you? I have a similar one (smaller contact head that your's) and the damn thing keeps missing the contact point on the hood. So I've had a dead battery 3 times now due to my hood light staying on all the time. I used a portable like your yellow one. What are the lights you used? I've never seen them before.


Did you put some of the VMInnovation tubes in your bed too so you can see in there at night?

I used this pin switch. The design and placement leaves no room for error. Seems like it is a quality switch.
http://www.oznium.com/pin-switch
Mine has a close tolerance, pop the hood release and the lights come on with just 3/8" opening in the hood. Push the hood closed and off they go.

I got these lights from oznium. They're $15 each, so a bit spendy.
http://www.oznium.com/high-intensity-led-floodlight


I'm not sure what I'm going to put in the bed. I installed a switch in my dash that I bought from oznium (it is for a scion but fits well in my dash. I have a switch that does nothing right now!) Will likely make that the bed light switch. I'm thinking about installing 2 or 3 of the led's I used under my hood. I would probably opt for the cooler white for the bed though. The more yellow for under the hood was for the practical purpose of seeing better to do some work / maintenance item.

I bought some high quality, very small stainless steel screws to install them. Wish I could rivet them, but the holes are small and very close to the body of the light. Just doesn't work.

I see that they are backordered for 5 weeks for the white ones. I think I put the warm white under the hood.


I've been waiting 5 weeks to receive some prewired 3mm LED Orange lights that I'm going to install in my cup holders. I just saw on their web site that these show 1 day lead time? I'll have to bug them as my next mod is being held up waiting for these orange leds.

[piercedtiger]

Originally Posted by apexbill

I used this pin switch. The design and placement leaves no room for error. Seems like it is a quality switch.
http://www.oznium.com/pin-switch
Mine has a close tolerance, pop the hood release and the lights come on with just 3/8" opening in the hood. Push the hood closed and off they go.

I got these lights from oznium. They're $15 each, so a bit spendy.
http://www.oznium.com/high-intensity-led-floodlight


I'm not sure what I'm going to put in the bed. I installed a switch in my dash that I bought from oznium (it is for a scion but fits well in my dash. I have a switch that does nothing right now!) Will likely make that the bed light switch. I'm thinking about installing 2 or 3 of the led's I used under my hood. I would probably opt for the cooler white for the bed though. The more yellow for under the hood was for the practical purpose of seeing better to do some work / maintenance item.

I bought some high quality, very small stainless steel screws to install them. Wish I could rivet them, but the holes are small and very close to the body of the light. Just doesn't work.

I see that they are backordered for 5 weeks for the white ones. I think I put the warm white under the hood.


I've been waiting 5 weeks to receive some prewired 3mm LED Orange lights that I'm going to install in my cup holders. I just saw on their web site that these show 1 day lead time? I'll have to bug them as my next mod is being held up waiting for these orange leds.

Thanks. Maybe I just need to relocate my switch... Your's is closer to the headlight than mine...

[lakewoodbilly]

Originally Posted by piercedtiger

Thanks. Maybe I just need to relocate my switch... Your's is closer to the headlight than mine...

I put mine as close to the inside and to the front as possible. It catches the thicker part of the hood.

[piercedtiger]

Originally Posted by apexbill

I put mine as close to the inside and to the front as possible. It catches the thicker part of the hood.

Yeah, I thought mine would too, but it just flexes to the side enough to not get pushed down..... So I think tomorrow I'm going to steal your location idea. And update my cheap/free thread....

[lakewoodbilly]

Originally Posted by w8n4mud

I wish you were my neighbor. With two tacomas in the picture, our wifes would think we had something going on in the garage. LOL. Dude love the mods. What's next? How about a remote window roll down feature like that of other Lexus models?

Next up are Orange LED's for the cup holders, under seat LED's, center console light, 2 rear 12V outlets, TRD Skid Plate.

[Marc M]

Not to be an a$$, however, I'm guessing your underhood lights are just for looks, because I don't see any benefit for under hood inspection or repair if needed. Unless that was your intention to light the underside of the hood.

Marc M

[piercedtiger]

Originally Posted by Marc M

Not to be an a$$, however, I'm guessing your underhood lights are just for looks, because I don't see any benefit for under hood inspection or repair if needed. Unless that was your intention to light the underside of the hood.

Marc M

So how do you see to hook up jumper cables at night when a dumbass buddy left his lights on too long?

Or, in my case, clip my air compressor leads to the battery.

[mvega1969]

Originally Posted by Marc M

Not to be an a$$, however, I'm guessing your underhood lights are just for looks, because I don't see any benefit for under hood inspection or repair if needed. Unless that was your intention to light the underside of the hood.

Marc M

You are right, a proper inspection will no be able to be done with this lights positioned on that place, the product is great, I'm ordering it to replace my tilt lights they really flood my underhood area, but at least one of them start to fail (they are from a GM truck -junkyard-) and I already removed the bulb from it to avoid any death battery on the future. I have not find any replacement until now. Great mod, not a good location to apply it.

[longbow]

man alive....now something else that is neat and I have to do.
I had thought my list of mod's to do was getting smaller, but noooooo, it growing.

ps. how do you guys keep under the hood so clean? or are these newer rides. I clean it up, but a day in the wood ands its a complete mess again.

[lakewoodbilly]

[quote=mvega1969;149039]not a good location to apply it./quote]

The picture doesn't show how much light is on top. You have plenty of light on top and all around and extra light on the sides.

[lakewoodbilly]

Originally Posted by longbow

man alive....now something else that is neat and I have to do.
I had thought my list of mod's to do was getting smaller, but noooooo, it growing.

ps. how do you guys keep under the hood so clean? or are these newer rides. I clean it up, but a day in the wood ands its a complete mess again.

Mine is a new, well 4 months old; I already have over 10k miles on it. Towards winter, I'll clean it up to almost new and will try to keep up with it for a few years. Eventually, it just won't come clean without disassembling stuff so I will lose the battle of "new looking".

[CraigTRD]

Wow, that is pretty cool man. I didn't think that a Tacoma could look so pretty. I try to make mine look mean and nasty. Good work!

Cheers!