Adding Underhood Lighting - Submitted by Doohickie This is not an appearance mod, but not a performance mod either. It's just something that's really handy. Follow these directions and you'll have a work light attached to the underside of your hood that's always there when you need it, and shuts off when the hood is closed, just like the light in your refrigerator. Your results will look like this (pictures taken without flash): Materials Needed: (1) Lamp socket with 1156 bulb (1) Momentary switch with a paddle (1) Electrical connector that will fit in the fuse box to tap a new circuit (1) Fuse (5 or 10 amp is plenty) (8) Feet ground wire (I used 18 gage) (8) Feet supply wire (18 gage) (8) Feet small diameter plastic conduit (1) Ground lug (4) Pairs of male and female spade connectors (1) Piece of metal to make a switch bracket (1) Piece of galvanized mesh to make a lamp socket bracket The first four items can be scrounged at a junkyard; when I got them, the guy didn't even charge me for them. The 1156 is a fairly bright 27 watt bulb commonly used in single filament applications such as backup lights, brake lights and turn signals. Any similar lamp will do; the 1156 is very common. The electrical connector I used to tap into the fuse box was just something I had laying around; I'm not exactly sure what kind of connector it came from, but it is a fairly common part. If you grab several different connectors from the junkyard, one is bound to be the right type to plug into your fuse box. The switch I ultimately used is a microswitch with a paddle on it that came from a mid-90s Ford Escort heater/air conditioner control. You can buy something similar from Radio Shack for about $2.59. Once you have the materials, there are four phases to this project: tapping the fuse box, attaching the lamp to a bracket, attaching the switch to a bracket and installing the components and running the wires. Tapping the Fuse Box The first step is to disconnect the positive battery terminal. [Disclaimer: I am required by good common sense to say that, but I didn't actually disconnect it and didn't have any problems. But it's a good idea to disconnect it whenever you're doing electrical stuff and I accept no responsibility for other idiots like me who do this mod without disconnecting the battery and screwing something up.] Tapping the fuse box turned out to be very simple once I had the right connector (see discussion above). First I removed the fuse box cover, then used a thin-bladed screwdriver to go around the perimeter of the box to pry back the clips that secure the fuse holder to the base of the box. Once they were all pried back, I lifted up on the fuse box and from underneath I inserted the connector which had a section of wire attached to it. At the other end of the wire, I put a female spade connector. I then reinserted the fuse holder and ran the wire up on the outside of edge of it (see picture). Note that I haven't put the fuse in yet, so the wire is not "hot". Attaching Lamp to Bracket I fabricated a bracket from my favorite galvanized mesh that I used as anti-rock mesh in my grill. If you have none, you can get a 6" x 36" piece at a home improvement store- it's sold as gutter guard- for about $1.30. I started with a small L-shaped piece (about 6 inches long by 1.5 inches wide) and cut a small hole in one end for mounting it to the hood, and a slightly larger hole in the other side for mounting the lamp fixture. The hole for the fixture should be slightly smaller than required to pass the end of the fixture through; then you can bend the jagged ends of the mesh to make the fixture go through, and bend them back to lock it in place. This didn't seem sturdy enough to take repeated slamming of the hood it would be mounted to, so I added a second piece of mesh. I then put a male spade connector on each lead coming from the lamp socket. See photos for details. Attaching Switch to Bracket I had to look around the engine compartment a while before I figured out a good location for the switch. I chose to mount it on a bracket that would be secured to the bolt that holds the forward corner of the fuse box. The switch I'm about to describe is actually the second switch I used. The first one was a door jam switch with a rubber cover. There is enough movement between the hood and body at low speeds that this switch made itchy, creeky noises when I drove slowly and just about drove me nuts. Once I isolated the sound to that switch, I removed it and replaced it with the switch below. I used a piece of 3/4" x 3/4" angle I had laying around from when I put a new garage door in a few years ago; any piece of scrap metal will do. I cut it about 3" long, folded it over on itself so it was flat, drilled a 1/4" hole for mounting the bracket to the car, and smaller holes for mounting the switch to the bracket (these holes will be unique to the switch you select). Then I painted it with touch-up paint for my car so it would not stand out in the engine compartment. I attached the switch to the bracket. The switch had three contacts; I selected the "normally closed" contacts that are opened when you press on the switch. The switch had wires attached to the "normally open" circuit; I removed one of the soldered wires and soldered it to the other contact to get a "normally closed" switch. I then put a ground lug on one wire, and a male spade connector on the other. Installing the Components I had to run wires from the hood to the engine compartment. On the right side of the hood, the windshield washer tubes are routed through the hinge as shown here: I thought this would work well for running my wires on the other side. I snaked the conduit through the hinge toward the body of the car. I had to use the end of an old fishing pole to hook the conduit and fish it out to where I could grab the end; see picture (and I apologize for the blurriness). Once I had the conduit started, I inserted the supply and ground wires in it and pulled them through with the rest of the conduit. On the hood side, the conduit runs under the hood lining to the front left-center push fastener which I used to attach the lamp (discussed later). On the body side, I ran it by the foam stuffer block and over to the fender lip. I tucked it under the lip for a ways, then routed it under the fuse box. To remove the fuse box I first removed the air filter box to get better access: there is one bolt on top of that weird little plastic cover that attaches it to the air box, then two clips on the forward edge that pop off. I loosened one one of the hose clamps on the intake between the box and the engine and eased it out of the way. This made accessing the fuse box much easier. I loosened the bolts on the fuse box (two of them, I believe, on the front left and rear right corners). and lifted the fuse box up to get access underneath it. I routed the conduit under the fuse box, and connected the supply wire from the fuse box to the supply wire in the conduit (after attaching a male spade connector to the supply wire in the conduit). I tucked all the wires into the conduit as best I could. The ground wire and conduit continued forward past the front corner of the fuse box to the switch mounting location. I reinstalled the fuse box bolts, attaching the switch bracket and the ground lug for the switch to the forward one. I reinstalled the air box as well. I purposely made the switch bracket with a single mounting bolt hole; that way it can be pivoted to adjust the switch height and is locked when the bolt is torqued down. Don't worry about getting the switch adjusted yet; that will come later. Once the switch is installed, attach a female spade connector to the ground wire in the conduit and attach it to the male connector on the switch. (Note that the routing picture shows the door jam switch that was later replaced because it made noise when driving.) To route the wire on the hood side, I removed the two the push fasteners on the left side of the forward edge of the hood lining. Be very careful when trying to get these fasteners out or this will happen to you: (I later went by the Hyundai dealer, bought an oil filter and oil plug gasket and asked about the push fastener. He gave the fastener to me for free and also gave me two extra gaskets! "$1.11 is too much for just one gasket," he said.) Anyway, I somehow got the other one out without breaking it. I used the left-center push fastener to mount the switch bracket. You can see where the wires were routed in the earlier picture that shows the wire routing for the fender and in the following picture. The wires at the lamp end were terminated with female spade connectors and the lamp was plugged in. I used some slightly larger conduit to cover up at the end. I made the wires coming from the lamp at the same distance from the lamp and it got pretty crowded; I would recommend staggering them (i.e., make one of the wires coming from the lamp socket 2 inches long and the other 3 inches, or something like that). At the lamp end of the bracket, I attached the bracket to the hood lining by poking a small piece of wire (okay, a straightened-out paper clip!) into the hood lining in two places on either side of the bracket to hold that end of the bracket more securely. It's a little hard to see here, but maybe you can make it out: So now comes the magic moment: Insert the fuse into the fusebox where you tapped into it. Does the lamp light up? Great! Push the switch. Does the lamp go out? Even better! To adjust the switch position, tighten the bolt holding the bracket such that it is firm but you can still move it with moderate force. Angle the bracket up to about 45 degrees and slowly close your hood. Close it all the way. Is the light out? You may have to look under the car or along the edge of the hood to see if it's lit up or not. If it went out, open the hood and tighten the bolt without moving the bracket. Open and close the hood several more times and make sure it reliably goes on when the hood is open and goes off when it's closed. Because of the noise issues I had with the other switch, I put just a dab of grease on the paddle where it touches the hood. Here is what the installed switch looks like: It took a while, but you're done and you'll never have to hold a flashlight between your teeth again when you're working under the hood. Click here to discuss this Do It Yourself Guide.

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