409 replies to this topic

[Ben_O]

Very neat job with the underlay mate!

 

Well done, great use for it

 

Ben

[1984mini25]

Ah, does it show that I've fitted the odd carpet set or two over the years?

 

I'll get round to doing the same to the other mini, witch could do with a bit extra soundproofing with the cone fitter, single box exhaust and just about everything solid or ploy bushed. Plus I should also have enough good carpet left over for some new stuff to lye on in the garage before the rest of it ends up down the tip.

[1984mini25]

Recently I'd become rather frustrated at the lack of lighting inside the mini from the standard interior light, even with its brighter led bulb.

 

 

 

 

 

So with a bit of thought, and some extra wiring, I've 'borrowed' the later interior light from my other mini.

 

 

[Ben_O]

Good idea!

 

Like the pegs too. My mum used pegs on her old polo choke!

[1984mini25]

Nothing wrong with using clothes pegs lol. The larger one is to stop the heater from rattling too much and for the choke, which I've fiddled with to work perfectly with.

 

And to go one further, recently as I had some left over tins of model paint I chose to pint up a few mini 25 choke pegs. Purely because a normal wooden peg either tends to get rather grubby or mouldy if left in the mini for too long, especially over winter.

 

 

[1984mini25]

And now with a little rewiring (the standard interior light uses 2 earths and one live) I now have a working led replacement for the standard bulb.

 

 

Edited by 1984mini25, 14 November 2014 - 06:49 PM.

[SurreySprite]

Hello, please could you let me know what led bulb you have used here?

Picture is great. Cheers

[1984mini25]

Yep, the bulb I've used is, 18 leds - (5050) http://www.ebay.co.u...20234200&_rdc=1

 

And as can be made out in the pic above, although my wiring colours are non-standard. You need to divert the earths (purple/white being the door switches and black standard earth) with a short section of wire (might need to open up the new connector slightly for it to push on) and an extra wire needs soldering onto the positive tip of the led bulb that then connects to the purple/orange positive feed.

[jccc78]

Hello, please could you let me know what led bulb you have used here?

Picture is great. Cheers

if you ever need any led lights I sell them at my shop  ive also can get hid conversions and now replacement led head light bulbs  

[1984mini25]

As good as led bulbs are, I've personally found that they still aren't as bright (my fog lamps and side lights in particular) as standard bulbs. Not only that but hid kits and led headlamps bulbs aren't tencicaly legal, but the completely legal headlamp bulbs I have fitted are more than bright enough. Although they did need extra relays just to be safe.

 

 

[Craig89]

Nice job with the underlay! How much of a difference has it made to the noise in the cabin?

[1984mini25]

Nice job with the underlay! How much of a difference has it made to the noise in the cabin?

 

If I'm honest, its not really that noticeable. But that's probably more because it's still running a standard air filter in the standard plastic air box and restrictive peas shooter exhaust, so it was never that loud to begin with. But it does seam to be a lot warmer in side and I'm getting less condensation forming.

[Craig89]

Less condensation is always a good thing. I'm trying to come up with the best way to reduce the noise in the cabin, so much unwanted noise from the engine bay 😭

[1984mini25]

Recently I've been playing around with replacing more of the normal bulbs with yet more leds, this time being the 5 T4w's in the 3rd brake light.

 

 

 

Unfortunately just swapping the bulbs over for leds hasn't been as simples. Firstly the T4w type is more commonly used for sidelights witch are normally white and using a white led behind a red lens just doesn't work. As for the science bit, A red lens will filter out all but the red portion on the light, so because a white led has very little visible red light, all but a tiny amount of light would be filtered out. So the only option for the leds to be brighter than standard bulbs would be to find red leds 'sidelight' bulbs. Luckily I found some on eBay for £1.93 for 2, although because the brake light uses 5 I had to buy 3 lots.

 

 

A quick comparison between a normal bulb and a single led, what you cant see from the pic though is the orangeness of the standard bulb.

 

 

 

 

But the next problem was getting the led bulbs to work in a bulb holder that was never designed for them. As the bulb holder in question had been designed for the bulbs to be pushed through from behind and retained but a length of wire that also provides the earths to each 5 bulbs. But as the leds bulbs are fractionally larger and have an extra ring of red plastic, I ended up having to gently fie down the locating pins, push then in through from the front and then glue each one in place.

 

 

The other problem was that this deign of 3rd brake light used a flimsy strip of metal wedged in place to provide power to each of the 5 bulbs, witch has always caused problems. So instead with the leds I chose to solder each bulb together with a length of wire, witch should be much more reliable.

 

 

 

And a quick test before the casing is screwed back on.

 

 

Although since I've fitted the leds, I have had doubts about there durability having already had 2 fail and I've had to replace one back to a normal bulb for the time being. But being as the leds use so little power they do light up a faction of a second quicker and are brighter than normal bulbs.

Edited by 1984mini25, 01 December 2014 - 04:08 PM.

[miniboy1993]

Have I done some think wrong as I have brought the same led but it won't work??