If you’ve gone through the very easy trunk light mod then you’ll be itching to do something with that second LED strip that came in the package. The answer is simple. Give yourself some under-hood lighting in case you ever have a need to admire your Avalon’s engine after dark. This one is more challenging, but nothing that a little patience can’t achieve.
I started with the pin switch. There is a hole already located beneath this plastic trim at the front of the engine, and I chose this location for my pin switch. There are other possible locations, but this one seemed to speak to me.
I drilled a hole through the plastic and mounted the pin switch there. We have to adjust the height of this switch so that the closed hood presses the plastic plunger, which will disconnect the ground wire that we’ll attach later.
Here is how I tapped into the fuse box. We need to select a slot that has constant power, rather than auxiliary power. I found one that wasn’t being used convenient, as pictured. I ran the wire out the back of the fuse box, cutting a little groove so that the wire wouldn’t interfere with the lid snapping in place. I placed a connector on this wire, a few inches past exiting the box.
The top fuse will be for our LED light, and the bottom is not used by anything. I put an extra fuse there in case I need it someday.
The overall plan here is to tap into your fuse box, and run wire to your LED light, which we will mount on the underside of the hood.
We will route the wire from the fuse box underneath the plastic trim on the driver’s side along the engine bay, and then into the long hollow weatherstripping that spans the back of the engine. See the wire loom in the photo at left.
I used string trimmer line to fish my wires through the weatherstripping to the other side of the engine bay. The red (+) side of your wire will connect to the wire hooked into the fuse box, and the black (-) will connect to the bottom of the pin switch (ground).
After coming out of the weatherstripping on the passenger side of the engine bay, secure the wire / wire loom with zip ties. Pass the wire under the hood insulation at the bottom, to come out the top, where we will mount the LED light.
Position your LED light strip in the middle of your hood, in a sensible location. Clean the surface where you will affix the adhesive strip with alcohol before mounting. Connect your wires to the wires of the LED. Make sure everything is nice and secure, double check all of your electrical connections. You may have to adjust the pin switch up or down to get it in the best spot. When you’re finished, you’ll see it’s a classy little mod that wasn’t too hard to do.
Materials I used:
I didn’t care for the hole I made for the pin switch, so I added this little plug / collar to pretty it up just a bit.