How To Add An Underhood Light
There's another HowTo on how to do this at
Neons.org, but it has no pictures and isn't terribly
detailed. It's also inaccurate for cars from at least 1998-99, as
I found out too late!
The How-To mentions to get P/N 4221150, which supercedes to P/N 05093198AA. This is the standard Chrysler underhood light, as I found out when I got it. This is the same underhood light they've been using since at least 1985, as I found one under both my '85 Lebaron's hood, and my '88 Shadow parts car. This really annoyed me because the part is $23, or $20 from Buymopar.com, and I had it under the hood of my parts car! DOH! Thus, if you want to do this on the cheap, go down to the local pull-it-yourself yard and unbolt it from under the hood of any '80-90 Chrysler. If you do so, and have a car that doesn't have the proper connector, I'd also grab the wire that goes from the light down to the driver's side strut tower, as much as you can get, and take the sheet metal screw that holds it in. If there's a bulb in it, make sure it comes out (it could be corroded in) by pushing in gently and twisting. It should pull right out. For pictures of the light fixture, read the How-To below.
(Click For Larger Image)
The How-To mentions to get P/N 4221150, which supercedes to P/N 05093198AA. This is the standard Chrysler underhood light, as I found out when I got it. This is the same underhood light they've been using since at least 1985, as I found one under both my '85 Lebaron's hood, and my '88 Shadow parts car. This really annoyed me because the part is $23, or $20 from Buymopar.com, and I had it under the hood of my parts car! DOH! Thus, if you want to do this on the cheap, go down to the local pull-it-yourself yard and unbolt it from under the hood of any '80-90 Chrysler. If you do so, and have a car that doesn't have the proper connector, I'd also grab the wire that goes from the light down to the driver's side strut tower, as much as you can get, and take the sheet metal screw that holds it in. If there's a bulb in it, make sure it comes out (it could be corroded in) by pushing in gently and twisting. It should pull right out. For pictures of the light fixture, read the How-To below.
Tools/Parts Needed
- For '95 cars or if you want to take the risk of having to solder it in to a later car, underhood Lamp P/N 4221150 (or the superceding P/N 05093198AA, which is what I got from buymopar.com) If you have a newer car, you might call and ask the dealer for the part number of the part, since then it will hook into the harness without modification!
- 1cm or so long sheet metal screw. Don't go too long, or it
risks punching through the hood!
- If you have a '98-99 car, a 3-4' length of 16-18 gauge
wire. (If you get this from a donor car as mentioned above, you
don't need this)
- 10mm socket with socket wrench.
- Soldering iron, solder and electrical tape. If you want to do a really nice job, get some heat shrink tubing as well instead of the electrical tape. Not needed if you have a car with the proper connector already.
The Process
On many cars, up to '97 cars for all I know, there's a single pink wire, a few feet long, in the wiring harness near the driver's side strut tower. This has a single female connector on it. If you have this connector, you just saved yourself a whole lot of trouble. Order the above part number and the rest is simple. If you're like me, you don't have that connector, you have this:
(Click For Larger Image)
This is part of the wiring harness
between the firewall and the PCM. Note the pink wire (12v
always-on) and the black wire, which is a ground. You can verify
this is 12v hot with the car off or on with a multimeter, like I
did. This is the only connector it could be on my '98 Highline, I
even went as far as pulling the wipers off and unscrewing the plastic
cover over the wiper motor and HVAC intake. Nothing but this
sucker, and the pink wire matches with the earlier cars wire color.
This leaves you in a hard spot since the wire is way too short for the old style light to work. This is where your ability to problem-solve kicks in. I recognized the light fixture, so I went out and popped the hood of my '85 Lebaron, and it was identical. Then I walked through the woods to my '88 Shadow parts car, and found it had the same fixture. So I ripped off the hood insulation and followed the wire all the way back to the driver's side strut tower and unplugged it there, and took the entire fixture with it's hardware and wire back to my Neon. If you're not this lucky, you can accomplish the same thing with a length of plain old wire and a couple more solder points.
Here's a picture of the fitting, just so you know you have the right part, or what to look for if you're going to the junkyard:
(Click For Larger Image)
The new ones have the lightbulb slot filled with grease. This is to prevent the bulb from corroding into the socket under the wet/dirty underhood conditions. Not the small male connector on the wire and the metal tab and hole on the mounting bracket.
Even if you have a newer car, the old style will still mount to the hood in the exact same way, as I found out. There's a spot with a slot and a hole in the middle of the hood. You'll spot it easily since there's no underhood insulation there. You'll find that the fixture slides in easily, then when you push it flush to the hood, the hole in the fixture bracket lines up. Use the short sheetmetal screw to bolt it in place. Be careful, as if it's too long it can dent/punch a hole in the hood. I used a factory one from my Shadow parts car, so there was no problem. The one I used was about 1cm long with a 10mm head.
If you don't have the length of wire with the proper female connector on the end from a donor car, you need to snip the male connector off the fixture and solder in that 3-4' length of 16-18 gauge wire. Make sure you heat shrink tube it or electrical tape the connection to keep water out and to keep it from grounding out to the hood.
When it's bolted in, it should look like this:
(Click For Larger Images)
This leaves you in a hard spot since the wire is way too short for the old style light to work. This is where your ability to problem-solve kicks in. I recognized the light fixture, so I went out and popped the hood of my '85 Lebaron, and it was identical. Then I walked through the woods to my '88 Shadow parts car, and found it had the same fixture. So I ripped off the hood insulation and followed the wire all the way back to the driver's side strut tower and unplugged it there, and took the entire fixture with it's hardware and wire back to my Neon. If you're not this lucky, you can accomplish the same thing with a length of plain old wire and a couple more solder points.
Here's a picture of the fitting, just so you know you have the right part, or what to look for if you're going to the junkyard:
(Click For Larger Image)
The new ones have the lightbulb slot filled with grease. This is to prevent the bulb from corroding into the socket under the wet/dirty underhood conditions. Not the small male connector on the wire and the metal tab and hole on the mounting bracket.
Even if you have a newer car, the old style will still mount to the hood in the exact same way, as I found out. There's a spot with a slot and a hole in the middle of the hood. You'll spot it easily since there's no underhood insulation there. You'll find that the fixture slides in easily, then when you push it flush to the hood, the hole in the fixture bracket lines up. Use the short sheetmetal screw to bolt it in place. Be careful, as if it's too long it can dent/punch a hole in the hood. I used a factory one from my Shadow parts car, so there was no problem. The one I used was about 1cm long with a 10mm head.
If you don't have the length of wire with the proper female connector on the end from a donor car, you need to snip the male connector off the fixture and solder in that 3-4' length of 16-18 gauge wire. Make sure you heat shrink tube it or electrical tape the connection to keep water out and to keep it from grounding out to the hood.
When it's bolted in, it should look like this:
(Click For Larger Images)
As you can see, I've already installed a
bulb in mine. The bulb part number should be in your car manual,
or you can look it up in the book at the parts store. I was lucky
and had a good bulb in the fixture from my '88 Shadow parts car, so I
just re-used it.
You can see how it fits into the slot in the hood, and has the sheetmetal screw to bolt it in place. Make sure you have it firmly in place, as the wire is only a +12v source, not a ground. The light grounds to the frame of the hood via the bolt/sheetmetal screw. There's a built in gravity switch, so when the hood is down it turns off.
Next, for cars that have the long pink wire with the female connector by the strut tower, run the wire under the insulation up to the male connector and plug it in. The light should come on. If so, you're done, and you're one of the lucky ones.
If you're not so lucky, you'll have to either run the wire you soldered to the wire of the light under the insulation down to the drivers side strut tower, or plug the wire from the donor car into the male connector of the light and then run that wire under the insulation down to the strut tower. It's not hard, as the insulation is pretty flexible.
Once you get it there, DISCONNECT THE BATTERY! You don't want to work on the next step with it connected, since you'll be playing with electricity if you do.
Next, you have some choices. The easiest, sloppiest way is to snip off the existing connector and solder the wire from the lamp to the pink wire. I wanted to keep the factory connector and damage the factory harness the least, so I spliced in to the pink wire before the connector. Here you can see how I've stripped away a bit of the wire to enable the splice:
(Click For Larger Image)
Alternately, you could use a tap-splice to splice into the wire and do even less damage. I didn't have one handy, though, annoyingly enough.
If you don't have the tap-splice, just solder the wire from the light to the stripped portion of the pink wire, then wrap in electrical tape.
Reconnect the battery. Listen for any crackling noises like you've wired something wrong, etc. If you have a bulb, the light should come on. If not, drive to the parts store and get one. It just slide in, you push gently against a slight spring-load, and twist clockwise to seat it.
This works fine, as you can see from this picture:
(Click For Larger Image)
This will be quite nice the next time I pop the hood at night to check the oil, or perform some other similar function! If anyone knows or finds out the proper part number for a '98 up car please let me know, I'd like to add it to this page!
You can see how it fits into the slot in the hood, and has the sheetmetal screw to bolt it in place. Make sure you have it firmly in place, as the wire is only a +12v source, not a ground. The light grounds to the frame of the hood via the bolt/sheetmetal screw. There's a built in gravity switch, so when the hood is down it turns off.
Next, for cars that have the long pink wire with the female connector by the strut tower, run the wire under the insulation up to the male connector and plug it in. The light should come on. If so, you're done, and you're one of the lucky ones.
If you're not so lucky, you'll have to either run the wire you soldered to the wire of the light under the insulation down to the drivers side strut tower, or plug the wire from the donor car into the male connector of the light and then run that wire under the insulation down to the strut tower. It's not hard, as the insulation is pretty flexible.
Once you get it there, DISCONNECT THE BATTERY! You don't want to work on the next step with it connected, since you'll be playing with electricity if you do.
Next, you have some choices. The easiest, sloppiest way is to snip off the existing connector and solder the wire from the lamp to the pink wire. I wanted to keep the factory connector and damage the factory harness the least, so I spliced in to the pink wire before the connector. Here you can see how I've stripped away a bit of the wire to enable the splice:
(Click For Larger Image)
Alternately, you could use a tap-splice to splice into the wire and do even less damage. I didn't have one handy, though, annoyingly enough.
If you don't have the tap-splice, just solder the wire from the light to the stripped portion of the pink wire, then wrap in electrical tape.
Reconnect the battery. Listen for any crackling noises like you've wired something wrong, etc. If you have a bulb, the light should come on. If not, drive to the parts store and get one. It just slide in, you push gently against a slight spring-load, and twist clockwise to seat it.
This works fine, as you can see from this picture:
(Click For Larger Image)
This will be quite nice the next time I pop the hood at night to check the oil, or perform some other similar function! If anyone knows or finds out the proper part number for a '98 up car please let me know, I'd like to add it to this page!
Last modified: 09/17/03
