There seem to be a lot of members here who know a helluva lot more about electronics and lighting than I do, so I figured I'd ask before I start testing out this mod.

Basically what I want to do is light the front emblem from the rear of the grille. I've already got a spare emblem on the way that I plan on cutting out around the H. Anyways here is what I'm looking at getting to do so.
FRYS.com*|*DIGITRON / AEB LHA-06B12-R-00

OR

FRYS.com*|*DIGITRON / AEB LHA-06B30-R-00

The main difference between the two is that one is unregulated 12v and one is regulated 8-30v. Which would be the better option for me here. Also, I assume connecting it to the headlights would be best, or is there a better option with that as well that someone knows of?

Thanks for the assistance,
Indie

 

i'm not totally sure I understand what you're trying to do, but i think you're trying to make the inside of the "H" on the front grill glow?

if you are, honestly, i think there's a little bit of an easier way to do it. get an led strip like this...
Waterproof Ribbon LED Strips
then just cut little slits in the grill to pass this through all the way around the inside of the circle around the "H". I'm not sure if that makes sense in words, but that way it's all one strip, cut to size, and only one set of wires. the light will bounce down into the center of the logo and should make the inside glow. hope that gives you an idea. I'm running with JDM badges, otherwise i'd just go do it to my car and show you.

 

OR!!! you can just stick on and wire up J's racinng LED emblems.

J's Racing The X'tream Honada Ride

 

Yes, that's exactly the idea here. I just spoke with an electrician here at work and we came to the same conclusion that the led strip with slits would be easiest. I'll probably just hook it up to a battery pack with a hidden switch in the grille, unless someone can provide some help on connecting it to the DRLs and if the power level would be ok to do
so.

Is J's really charging $230 for these?! Mine is only going to cost me $10. $60 at most if I decide to get a second grille as well.

 

Cool, post some pics when youre done. And the j's one looks awesome, but $230 is a little high.

 

Oh, and led's take almost no power. Your car won't even know it's there. Literally a 9v battery will work, but wiring to the drl's should be easy too, or just run a wire back to re fuse box.

 

So if I run it to a DRL, do I just connect the wires in with the bulb connector? That the easiest way?

 

Well, yes and no. That's the easiest place to find the wires, but your drl's are your low-beam lights at 50%, so you have to make sure that you tap into the correct wires. I don't have the color codes, but I'm sure a little search on here will help you find them.

 

My bad, not the DRLs but the parking lights. I think the manual actually calls these side markers. The amber ones in the dimples on top. Can I just straight route the wires to that connector?

Thanks a bunch

 

So I tried a direct connection to the parking lights and it shorts out the LEDs, there is just too much power. I've got it all wired up and the LEDs in place for a battery pack that I'll make tomorrow for it. With that I'm going to route a hidden toggle switch resting behind one of the holes in the grille where I can access it to just turn the LEDs on and off. I'll report back with pics when I'm done.

 

What voltage are your LEDs? The car is only putting out 12. Proper LEDs should work

I do not see using a battery pack and a switch being very convenient.

 

They were 3.5v LEDs. I didn't get a strip cause they were out so I just got four single LEDs. I did a test run with one, that may have been the problem.


A switch should be fine. I can just hit it through the grille and then this way I can have it on independent of any other lights as well.

 

Duh. If you had connected in series you would have been OK.

I would still prefer a 12 volt hookup vs a battery pack.

Put up some pics when done. Should look nice.

 

Well I've tested single LEDs on a 12v battery before and they've never shorted out. Usually LEDs are pretty resilient. I was mostly just testing with one to make sure I had the proper connection before jumping into the entire process. I'll try it again tomorrow with more hooked up.

 

So today I tried connecting four LEDs to a parking light and it would only power two, even when it wasn't reconnecting to the parking light. It started getting dark and raining so I packed it up again for the night. Tomorrow I'm going to look into a battery pack, as well as powering two LEDs by each parking light and see if that get's all four LEDs lit.

 

true, i would of bought them already if only it didn't have that lame "J's" logo that showed through also. i know i know its their product and they're a company to be proud of, but its still lame to me and was the deal breaker.

 

Sorry it's taken me so long to get pics up. I thought I had lost the ones I took previous but just found them.

What I ended up going with was a 12v LED strip that I wrapped around the outside of the emblem on the backside of the grille. I'm considering this a prototype since I didn't have the tools to do a clean cut out where the lights shine through. So for now I have rough cuts plaguing the inside portions of my emblem. Not a huge deal to me, but next grille I get I'll definitely do it more professional looking as well as get the lighting more balanced. Anyways, here are some night time pics of the aftermath of my experiment.

 

Good job! It looks like you accomplished what you set out for, and way tp go for following thru on an original idea.

 

Thanks, I can get grilles for about $50, so when I get the extra money I'm going to order some more and do a better job at this. I was thinking of putting a type of film between the grille and the emblem to spread the like evenly. I know they use a certain type of film in LED monitors that does just that. I may experiment with that next time.