₦airaland Forum

Trying to fit it in there, if it would fit. It sure did fit well in the car's grill

Had it traced with a permanent marker

Here, I have removed the logo, and have traced and cut through a fretboard, to give me the shape of the stock logo.

That's the front Infiniti logo

Like I have said in the concluding part of this article, my next project, is on removing all the Infiniti logo on the car, and making them ALL LED driven.

That's the design calculations.
I got some of the forward voltage and forward current from LED datasheets online.
Some resistors in a polythene bag by the right side of the paper.

Yes, rebuilt it myself, with assistance from couple of colleagues.

Consumption?! oh my God you want to start again? I'm joking though.

City traffic, its not cool.

But on long journeys to the east, and North, with AC system on, full tank is #13k.

From Lagos to Lokoja, Kogi state, full tank takes me without topping up.

Lagos to Ibadan, I used only 1/2 tank, to and fro.

I only used the car for my job when going for jobs outside Lagos, etc.

Em, I bought the car first of all, as a project car.

A client of mine sold the car, when it overheated so badly, that the engine could not turn over.

I had to tow the car to the shop, and disassembled, the engine, rebuilt it from scratch, to the way it is right now.

Setting the timing, took me few days to get.

I like the car though.

05 M45

For those wanting the designed calculations, I'd upload that later in the day.

That's the setup of the batteries with the jump starter cabling.

There are times when one has to think outside the box, when faced with some vehicle issues.

Some months ago, the battery of my car was so weak(10V), that it could not start the car.

I had no donor battery from any car readily available, but got some cry hybrid modules which I decided to jump start the car with.

The Camry hybrid modules, were dead, which meant they weren't useful anymore in powering the electric propulsion system.

MODULES SPECIFICATIONS
Each of the pair of modules were nominally 7.2V, and at a capacity of 6.5mA.

Combining these module pairs in series, I got 14.4V, which when paralleled with the weak 12V, would start the car.

Serialized connections of the modules, means that the +ve of one module, is connected to the -ve of the other module, whilst a paralleled connection, meant the remainder of the +ve and -ve of the modules are connected to the positive and negative poles of the 12V battery.


HOW ITS DONE
1. After the serial and parallel connections of the batteries, using jumper cables as above
2. Get a helper to crank the engine, while you ensure the batteries are firmly held.
3. After the engine starts, allowed it to idle for awhile, before putting off, driving away.

Here's a link to the video:


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtGlXPUBZTrTeUhIZzKyKdQ


PS: if you're not comfortable working around cars, do not attempt this pls.




Regards,
Joseph (08066643532)
DW Nig Ltd
Isolo,
Lagos

In the opening part of the writeup, I had already stated the availability of those LEDs in the market.

I'm just the kind of guy that likes reverse engineering stuffs, if I can do them.

Spending such a time on what I have put my mind to do, no matter how formidable it is, does not bugged me down. I think the most important thing is time management, what I want achieved, and priorities.

Stuffs like these makes me better understand how some computations were arrived at, and how to practically implement what has being theoretically designed.


PS: @Automotech. You seems to pretty much understand the concept here.


Regards,
Joseph

Na just the design calculations to give me the right resistor values to use in limiting the forward current to 20mA, sir.

Number plates also fitted

All doors with LEDs

Front roof lights

Shows the rear roof cabin LED fitted

I wanted to use the stock bulb casing for the retrofit. This particular one has its bulb dead, and so was a good candidate for it.

Testing the prototype LED lighting.
Here, I was using some dead Camry modules I had in the shop.

Design phase, mounting some LRDs on a fretboard

The removed stock bulb

One of the doors opened

BEFORE retrofitting LEDs.
That's the roof rear bulb

I know some of these interior cabin LEDs are available in the aftermarket parts store.

I just decided to change the interior lighting of my car from the stock yellow(maybe tungsten) ones to a more brighter white colour.

Advantage is that it consumes less juice from the battery, about 20mA(not a problem, if the doors are left ajar for hours).

Next plan is to replaced the car's Infiniti logo at the front, with an LED setup.

Just in case you'd want to listen to how the steering rack makes that awful noise, here's the link over here!

https://www.facebook.com/767933589982123/posts/2149874898454645/

Steering rack on a worktable

Exposes most of the steering rack components.
A: drive belt.
You could see such a belt arrangement on CVT transmission systems on Hondas, Toyota, Nissans, etc.

B: electric motor gear.
In this vehicle, the electric motor is fed a 12V source, unlike Toyota highlanders we've work on, with about 54V going through the motor.

C: reduction gear from the steering rack solid shaft.
Its driven by the electric motor's small diameter gear, which transmit the output to the steering shaft for controls.

Looking at the exposed components, and the brownish colouration instantly tells one the root causes of this problem was water intrusion into the steering column.

Here's the rack, already for disassembled.
I was just curious to know what exactly was making that horrible noise.

This was how the steering rack boots looked like when it was removed. You could see how widely ruptured it was.