What's next? Well, I've addressed all the pressing issues. It's time for something more frivolous!
LEDs!
I started simple with the interior lights. No dome light on these things, just footwell lights. As soon as I started mucking around with it, it stopped working altogether.
Pulled it out and found the + connection solder joint had come off, even though nothing I had done up to that point would have put any strain on it. Also discovered someone had butchered one of the wires and when he crimped it back together, he tangled it in the main wiring harness, so even unplugged, you couldn't pull it out. Had to pull said wire apart to do it.
Before:
After:
And finally with an over-sized bulb pressed in:
Said bulb is pinned in place between the tabs and the light's plastic body, and isn't going anywhere. It's 39mm instead of 31mm. Why? Because it was the brightest that I had on hand. You have to have access it from the back as well as the front to get it in there like that, or it will end up slipping out through the hole in the back.
And, for comparison's sake, LED vs incandescent:
Great for seeing your feet in the dark!
And this morning it was on to exterior lights. Not that I have the bulbs that I need, but there's something to be done first...modify the flasher unit.
You need to swap out this little 5.6kΩ resistor, R1:
For a 1MΩ resistor. Thus:
And viola! Your flasher unit no longer cares if there's too little or too much resistance/current going through the bulbs. It will just flash at it's steady rate, whatever bulb is or isn't in.
And, hey, it works! Even if I only had 2 bulbs on hand to put in at the moment.
