Made my headlight knob illuminate. Has this been done before?

NewShockerGuy · #1 11-14-2015, 03:23 AM

For the longest time this has bothered me that Ford never put some type of indicator light IN the knob, or use some type of plastic to divert the light from our current 3 icon switch into the knob...

So I drilled a small hole in the knob and was trying to run fiber optic cable from the knob to the current LED... it was a pain in the ass. I was over complicating it.

Ended up simply finding a square led I had and opened the hole into a square. I'm pissed I can't find any red leds here at my house that are square in shape... or else I'd use red, since all the other knobs for the HVAC are red... But, waiting 2 weeks to get some from China really isn't worth it to me. I am only doing this because I am in the process of installing a keyless entry and figured while I have the entire dash apart, might as well do this.

I am tapping of the orange/black and ground wire on the headlight switch because that is what illuminates the current headlight indicator for OFF. PARK, ON... so this will be illuminated just the same. Drill a small hole behind the headlight switch for the wires to go through and one would never know this isn't how it comes from the factory.

Don't mind the dirty knob, I had a spare and will be making the real one look nice... this was simply just to see if I could get it to work.

I haven't seen anyone do this before so I figured I'd post it to show others, it's really easy. It would be even easier if you had a 3mm round led and simply drilled the hole you could then push it through.

-Nigel

NewShockerGuy · #2 11-14-2015, 03:54 AM

YAY, I found a red square LED.. unreal. Now it will be bad ass!

I'll take pictures this weekend once my truck is all back together.

-Nigel

TerrenceStuart · #3 11-14-2015, 06:38 AM

my old 2001 headlight knob lit up.

NewShockerGuy · #4 11-14-2015, 11:17 AM

I have a 2001. I've never seen any ford ranger knob have an indicator light on it.

Unless you mean this:

-Nigel

camodown · #5 11-14-2015, 11:22 AM

Cool

dvrich · #6 11-14-2015, 12:43 PM

If my headlight knob didn't illuminate, I would still be able to locate it.

tredeh · #7 11-14-2015, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvrich

If my headlight knob didn't illuminate, I would still be able to locate it.

^^^^^ mine tends to stay in the same place so finding isn't that difficult. It's still a cool idea though!

Bob C. of Indiana · #8 11-14-2015, 03:20 PM

Nice mod Nigel!

Speedfreak · #9 11-14-2015, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewShockerGuy

YAY, I found a red square LED.. unreal. Now it will be bad ass!

I'll take pictures this weekend once my truck is all back together.

-Nigel

How did you cut the hole so perfect? That would be a good mod for the door swtichs and where can you buy them?

NewShockerGuy · #10 11-16-2015, 05:46 AM

I first drilled a small hole. Then used some tiny gunsmith and jewler's files. Eventually used the square file that I have and the led drops in.

You can get the square leds on EBAY or amazon. Most of the time they are coming from china so you gotta wait about 2-3 weeks. Luckily I found one from all my computer stuff. A circle LED would work and look good too. I only did square to match with the HVAC knobs.

Pictures now since I am completely done with my wireless entry. Which btw is f'ing awesome! I wish I would have done this when I sound insulated my cabin and doors a year ago, it would have saved so much time since I had everything already apart.

-Nigel

Bob C. of Indiana · #11 11-16-2015, 05:48 AM

Nice work!

Mikerider · #12 11-16-2015, 07:38 AM

Very cool!