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I had some bits delivered this morning and decided on my lunch break at work that i wanted to play with some bits on the car tonight..

So i made an engine bay lighting system.

I decided to run this off the ignition line to ensure the switch wont be accidentally left on during the day but after seeing how bright this is, i doubt i'd ever forget that it's on in broad daylight.

It uses leds attached to the horizontal ribs of the reinforcement bars on the bonnet. They are attached to the rearward part of the ribs so when the bonnet is raised, they are facing directly on the engine, and not in your face.

The switch is a jaycar waterproof toggle with a rubber boot over the switch lever. I have the switch beside the PS headlight. The wiring is hidden in the bay, and is also hidden within the ribs of the reinforcement bars in the bonnet.

There are three rows, about 30cm apart from each other. Each row is 50cm, 75cm and 50cm wide, and this broad spread essentially eliminates harsh shadows if i choose to do night works. I initially thought this to be a minimum amount of lighting but it turns out its very overkill. You could easily change a timing belt, cams or remove the head with zero visibility issues with this lighting!
The leds in testing are, shall we say, extremely bright!

Here's a quick video of it in action.


All up, 5 hours of play time. : )

Ha! Excellent! Did you get everything from Jaycar?

I'd be careful about leaving your ignition on constantly

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Agree with the above observation. IIRC with the ignition on, the coil packs are primed - leaving them on but not firing basically causes them to overheat and fail.

So your cheap and effective light system becomes a very expensive repair job.

At least you'll be able to see what you're doing though.....

Just remember to disconnect the coils.

Dann

I think if the op has gone to the trouble of making sure he doesn't accidentally leave the lights on I don't think he will live with accidentally leaving the coils on dann.

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If what the other guys have said is true about living the ignition key on then another option for that is to wire it straight to the battery and have a pin switch for the hood and that should eliminate the problem of leaving the light on while the hood is down

Also you'd flat your battery real quick having it on the ignition wire too

I'd forgotten about this thread!
Yep, i've re-wired the lights directly to a battery line. (have a COPs setup now so the coil overheat concern is minimised)
I've got some magnetic reed switches and metal proximity switches on order so when they're in i'll make a bonnet open sensing switch with them. ;-)

Though i havent measured the draw, i'm calculating it to use about 2-2.5amps. As i'm running a lightweight sealed battery, thats a concerning powerdrain, so the engine is normally running when i have these lights on to preserve the battery. The high current consumption is because these LED strips are the higher power versions (mnodel 5050 type LEDs) as well has being double density strips (with 120 leds/meter vs the usual 600) so it's essentially 4x the current drain of the standard strips.. The light output tho, is 4x brighter and thats where its usefulness outweighs it's current draw! : )

This lighting setup has already been handy doing work in the bay. Still keen to show folk at Melbourne's "The Garage" but never got around to opening my roadster's bonnet the two time i've been there since.

Hi Drew,
Where did you purchase the LED's and can they be cut to length?
Thanks.
Greg.

eBay mate, and yes they can.
They come in densities of 300 led or 600 led strips (in 5 metre lengths). The strips have sections layed out every 3 groups of LEDs which can be trimmed specifically. All you need is 12 volts. (resistors are on the strip already). The trim section areas are easy to solder to as well.

droo wrote:eBay mate, and yes they can.
They come in densities of 300 led or 600 led strips (in 5 metre lengths). The strips have sections layed out every 3 groups of LEDs which can be trimmed specifically. All you need is 12 volts. (resistors are on the strip already). The trim section areas are easy to solder to as well.

Thanks Droo,
You have a PM.
Greg.