Cruise control LED installation...

[Nicholas]

During the Emerald Coast Smart Car Club get together yesterday at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, a good friend (Bum-bling-B) installed John_H's cruise control LED modification on my wifes' car. I can't say enough good about John's LED kit...it was a great quality set-up and makes the troublesome problem of being able to notice if the cruise is really on due to the paddle shifter blocking the stalk LED red light. And I truly want to thank Alan for his knowledge. After watching him, I think I might of been able to handle it but to be truthful...I was scared of screwing the wife's car up and do realize that I have to be able to sleep with her and really hate sleeping with one eye open. I'm sure other people on this site understand the feeling? Once again, thank you John_H for a great kit and expecially thank you Alan for your help, I truley appreciated it!!!

[Kermit]

You're quite welcome Nick.

OK kids - I'll fess up something here. I've pulled the gauge pods in these cars probably 50 times minimum in an assortment of cars and never had a problem so I never thought much about it. Yesterday something happened - the clip on the plug that attaches to the pod wasn't turned 100% as far down as it could go resulting in it not connect even though it latches in and "looks right" it still made the pod look like it was fried. I won't disclose the amount of time I fiddled with it thinking I had screwed it up - but I wasn't happy and I think Nicholas might have learned a few new words despite our age difference. Just the same, I've done a LED install before and it was a breeze thanks to JohnH's excellent video plus I paid extra careful attention not to screw it up since it was someone else's car.

The light is awesome IMO! Hope you guys enjoyed the ride back home with it.

[RussBarnes]

You guys are probably talking the 451 CC, but let me jump in and mention I installed the remote LED for my MDC today. EZ into the brain box, just plug and play. I think I am going to put the LED next to the door lock button, came here to get the instructions to pull that panel. Looks like all it will take is about a 1/4" drill. If I had done it before I estimate it would take all of 15 minutes, and most of that to find the drill.

The multicolored LED is nice, shows if it turns off by brake pedal, then if I try to bump it up at too slow the green goes to red and shows it's OFF, couldn't tell that before.

[John_H]

I'm glad everything came together just fine despite the momentary connector snafu. Having the LED on the instrument cluster is a joy for me and I wouldn't have had it without the area451parts.com posting about adding a secondary LED. I love that others can experience the same glee (honest, that's how I feel) when the light comes on and not have to fret about color or intensity or installation messups.

Just keep smiling!

[Kermit]

John - you are sooo right about the joy of it. Really, everytime I see that light up it makes me happy it is there instead of hidden on the stalk.

Russ - yes, it was a Area451. I like the pre-existing cruise control icon on the dash being utilized, but that's just me. Nice it has an red/off-green/on setup. That sounds neat.

[Woody14619]

Originally Posted by RussBarnes

You guys are probably talking the 451 CC, but let me jump in and mention I installed the remote LED for my MDC today. {...}
The multicolored LED is nice, shows if it turns off by brake pedal...

Russ, I found mine also does the tri-color flash when the door is open, which means the MDC module apparently detects that too, where it's not documented to. (And I have an old pre-sprint booster MDC module.)

I installed my MDC LED into the console cluster, where there's a hidden cruise symbol in the second slot down on the right on most 451s. You'll find the line is probably too short to install in the door. It was almost too short to install in the instrument panel for me. I plan on getting a quick-release keyed 3-prong connector to re-wire in-line before my next service visit, just in case they take the console head off during the 2.0 service. I can't think of why they'd need to do that, but... I'd rather have a quick release just pull off than a hosed module from the wire being ripped out.