I received these LED under hood lights as a Christmas gift from the misses. We don't find ourselves under the hood of these vehicles that often due to how reliable they are but I have been wanting some dedicated under hood lights for use with my compressor in low light conditions. I also figure that as it ages I'll find myself in there more often and they could come in handy for routine maintenance and for other uses as well.
This kit while nice, tells you to simply drill a 1/8" hole and then use a supplied self-tapping screw to mount them but I wasn't keen on a fresh hole in the hood substructure if I could help it. I didn't want to lose the insulating material as a whole nor did I want to cut into it for the lights to be flush mounted to the metal either so I sat around for a few minutes and considered my alternatives. I decided that the cleanest install would be to hide the wiring under the insulating material and then use longer push pins within already existing push pin holes to secure the lights. This would only require a small incision in the insulating mat under the lights to recess and hide the wiring for a cleaner install. I think it turned out great and the supplied labeled toggle switch is a nice piece as well. I made use of a grommet I had lying around to protect the wires coming out of the hood from the sharp edge and it cleaned up the look a bit too. The switch and ground wire are mounted to one of the existing ground junctions on the fender near the battery and the power wire is fused.
Overall I am very happy with how they turned out and they do a great job of lighting up the engine bay. The only thing I might add would be a pin switch that would automatically turn off the lights should I forget to before closing the hood. At $90 the kit includes the corrugated wire loom, switch, harness and lights, for the money I don't think that these can be beat.
This kit while nice, tells you to simply drill a 1/8" hole and then use a supplied self-tapping screw to mount them but I wasn't keen on a fresh hole in the hood substructure if I could help it. I didn't want to lose the insulating material as a whole nor did I want to cut into it for the lights to be flush mounted to the metal either so I sat around for a few minutes and considered my alternatives. I decided that the cleanest install would be to hide the wiring under the insulating material and then use longer push pins within already existing push pin holes to secure the lights. This would only require a small incision in the insulating mat under the lights to recess and hide the wiring for a cleaner install. I think it turned out great and the supplied labeled toggle switch is a nice piece as well. I made use of a grommet I had lying around to protect the wires coming out of the hood from the sharp edge and it cleaned up the look a bit too. The switch and ground wire are mounted to one of the existing ground junctions on the fender near the battery and the power wire is fused.
Overall I am very happy with how they turned out and they do a great job of lighting up the engine bay. The only thing I might add would be a pin switch that would automatically turn off the lights should I forget to before closing the hood. At $90 the kit includes the corrugated wire loom, switch, harness and lights, for the money I don't think that these can be beat.
