# Stupid ideas lead to bad things :(



## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

alright...earlier on, I added 6 hyper blue LEDs to my 3rd brakelight (I made that clear). Well, I started to get sick of the blue lights and I took them out. I figured that I have a string of 6 LEDs that I can make useful. Well, I decided that they would look sweet in my cluster. So, I took the cluster and fit them in nicely and soldered the wires to the back of the cluster.

remember LEDs take almost no power, altogether they were taking up less than 120mA.

Driving home from HOPS, all my interior lights go out and it turns out my tails and corners did too. I blew the fuse to them and when I finally located/replaced it, I went back in my car and SMOKE!!!! Ran out of the car, pulled out the fuse and took the cluster back out. A quick look at the back told the story. The wires on the back of the cluster got fried. Here are some pics:

















anyway, I fixed it with a new wire in 1 spot, but th lights are a little dim all around. I think I also fried the dimmer switch. Anyway, this little drawback inspired some future modification I plan on. 

Just to let you guys know, those wires behind your cluster are made to handle only what is on there right now.


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## Gimp (Jun 9, 2002)

Just reading the title I was thinking, "what the hell happened?". I seriously thought you were going to say you were rear-ended when you lights went out. WHEW!!! Good thing that didn't happen. At least your giving everyone else a heads up. Peace!!


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## Katana200sx (May 13, 2002)

damn man sorry to hear that...some indiglos or reverse indiglos would solve that problem


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## metareqa (Sep 1, 2002)

careful dude, u might wanna ask some of us here for opinions next time u have new ideas man. sorry to hear that


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## Katana200sx (May 13, 2002)

atleast you were a pioneer and foundout something not to do..although idont see how it melted anything.if you had higher wattage bulbs i could see it.....weird...


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## PrOxLaMuS© (Aug 11, 2002)

Have pics of what they look like now?


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

you mean the lights? Well, all of my interior lights are dimmer now, I think I fried the dimmer switch b/c all of my lights are at a medium setting not bright, but not so dim I can't see them. If I turn the dimmer switch up or down, nothing happens. I went to the parts dealer at classic nissan and they wanted $43 for the dimmer switch so I think I'm going to do a custom thing with LEDs (that doesn't include the stock wiring).


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## omega (Jun 27, 2002)

ok well I'll tell you what happened, or at least in the theory of LED's you didn't have resistors, in any light bar, or LED's I've stuck in conjunction with an alarm install unless it was the wire coming from the alarm that's desinated for the LED you need a resistor, or else it heats up and burns out, it's like ummm, well if you had an amp and it's pulling lots of voltage through a umm 18 guage wire, it melts, i think that's what i mean to say


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

No man, I made the string of LEDs myself, each LED draws 20mA and using the resistance formula (R=(V-1.7)x1000/mA) I decided to use 550ohm resistors for each LED, otherwise, I would have fried the LEDs instead. It was b/c the power drawn from the 4 bulbs already in the cluster plus the power of the 6 LEDs was too much for those puny girly-man copper wires behind the cluster to handle. I think once the wires fired they short circuited and fried my dimmer as well.


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## omega (Jun 27, 2002)

ohhhh, i guess i didn't realize there were there in addition to the bulbs already in the cluster somehow I had it in my head that they had replaced those bulbs which seemed like it would have more sense to do, but who knows, ok well yea now I understand


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

YAY, they work again. I went to the nissan parts dealer here, and they wanted to rip me off with $43 for a new dimmer switch. Well, I decided to go to a salvage yard yesterday (they have a ton more in Orlando than they do back home). I found a purple sentra that was almost completely stripped. I was able to pull off the dimmer switch, the driver's side kick panel, 2 HVAC knobs, and the corner wiring assembly (all the stuff I've been looking for) for only $35. I put the dimmer switch in there and it seems like the lights are working like new (didn't get a chance to see it at night). Also, I opened up the old dimmer switch and I can see that one of the components got overheated. I can see some discoloration on one of the leads and some plastic melted around it.

Let me tell you guys, PLEASE, PLEASE don't attach indiglos, LEDs, or anything else directly to the existing interior lighting system. If you are going to do these things, make sure you wire it to a safe power source. I suggest you add a relay to your corners and then use the power fed into the relay and definately use inline fuses. If I hadn't checked my interior lights sooner, I could have had a fire.


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## Katana200sx (May 13, 2002)

yep that's how my indiglos are hooked up. using the parking light relay. i was going to hook them up to the dimmer switch, but the instructions said that would damage the indiglos. maybe they should change that to seriously screw up your interior lighting.


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## mscott (Jun 28, 2002)

Well crap, I didn't have instructions,so I just used my dimmer switch. They haven't crapped out yet so I'm not worried,
since I can't drive my car anymore.


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