An easy little trunk compliment to your booming audio

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An easy little trunk compliment to your booming audio

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An easy little trunk compliment to your booming audio - 6/10/2007 11:12:00 PM

Joshewuhh

Posts: 1734
Joined: 1/11/2007
From: Hammond, LA
Status: offline

(This was done on a 1999 Eclipse)

Well, I picked up 2 Pilot LED tubes (blue in color) from my local AutoZone.
Gotta say that they really compliment the trunk.
So heres a brief rundown of how much they cost, how to install them, and a picture of the final product.

First off, the Pilot (brand) LED tubes themself cost $37 after tax, so its not gonna break the bank.
I bought blue, but they have many colors available.

(I would have taken more pictures, but this really was'nt complicated, so it was unnessecary)

To do this you will need:
10mm wrench
Wire stripper/crimper
(qty. 2) 12-14 awg 2mm thick Butt Splice connectors
Phillips screw driver

Disconnect the - battery terminal and wait 15 seconds.
Remove the 2 taillight bulb covers.
Unplug the taillight harnesses (white plug with 2 wires).
Remove the spare tire carpet cover.
Unscrew the particle board spare cover and also remove spare tire. (this gives you room to work and to also route the lights)

The green/white wire on the taillight harness is the power wire.
Remove 1/2"inch of the electrical tape and snip the wire.
Strip 1/4"inch of the wire cover to expose the bare wire.
Crimp one end of the wire into the butt connector.
Splice the white/black wire on the light to the other end of the green/white wire and crimp it into butt connector.
(my photographys not great) It should look like this:

The balck wire on the LED light is the ground.
You can ground it to the tail lamp bolt, which are 10mm.
Hide the wires. You can run them behind the trim panels in the trunk, its not hard at all.
Plug in the taillight harness and reinstall the cover.
Peel off the adhesive on the light and attach them in the trunk to a spot of your choice.

Repeat for other side.

Put back your spare, cover, and carpet.
Reconnect battery.

Now, the way these are wired in is so that they are not constantly on.
They only turn on whenever you turn on your lights (park or headlight).

Heres finished results in my car (excuse my sub box for being in the way):

Not too shabby, eh'?

Trouble shooting"
1.)If they dont turn on... check your ground. I had a fight with it.
If in doubt of a better ground, theres a 12mm bolt thats bolted to the chassis, its a good ground also.

2.)Lights flickering... check your power connections/splice, and again, check the ground.

3.)Nothing at all and great connections... bad LED tube.

< Message edited by silvercoupe97 -- 6/10/2007 11:57:46 PM >

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Neah...

Post #: 1

RE: An easy little trunk compliment to your booming audio - 8/1/2007 12:02:59 PM

Lil Evo

Posts: 651
Joined: 7/13/2006
Status: offline

Pretty good wright up. Some other options you have if you're mounting the tubes on or inside the box, attatch your pausitive (+) to the 12v ACC amp turn on (blue wire) on your amplifier and the negative (-) to the amp ground. This will have the light bar turn on whenever your amplifier is on.

Another option for running your wires is something called P&P. It allows you to connect into wires without having to cut them or use butt connectors. Here's what you need:
-Good wire strippers
-Pick tool
-Electrical tape
-Zip ties

1.) Pull back about 1/4" of the insulation on the wire, and be careful not to squeeze too hard and accidentally cut the wire.
2.) Using the pick tool, make a hole through the center of the exposed strands of wire.
3.) Insert the wire that you are wanting to connect (in this case, the 12v power wire), and twist it around the exposed wire.
4.) Use the electrical tape to cover up the bare wire in a neat and tidy fashion
5.) Apply two zip ties to the connection, one directly over top of the connection and one about a 1/4" away from it where the connected wire runs parralell with the original.

This will give you good clean connections that don't come apart over time, and make for super easy un-installation should you ever decide to remove whatever it is you wired in.

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