My Missing Taillight

My angle drive broke suddenly on the weekend reminding me that I had done quite a lot of work on my car all summer and forgotten to blog about it. It's been pretty dead at dmc&me all summer so I thought I'd update... just as soon as that tumbleweed blows by.

Okay good.

So, why is my DeLorean tail light missing? Because I had to replace the light in my engine bay of course!

Almost ten years ago, when my mechanic was fabricating me some fuel lines (before I even knew there was a DeLorean Motor Company in Texas, and before our local club existed) he left the engine cover open for a number of hours.

During this time the incandescent work light bulb heated up to over 200 degrees, melted the plastic case and then burned out. If you had to do any engine work in the dark, it's a relatively useless light so there was no urgency in replacing it. But I had the parts, and was hoping to perhaps win an award at one of our local shows this summer, so I got to work fixing small things like this.

In order to replace the light case/fixture ($26 from DMCH), I removed the tail light to gain access to the back of the nut/bolt combo. I slid the wires through the hole in and into the white case, seen here. While I was at it, I used the LED bulb kit ($20 from DMCH) to prevent this from happening again. View the bulb here.

Another benefit of the LED light is that it allows me to leave my engine compartment open during a show without draining the battery. That way nobody will miss out on my sexy coolant hoses.

You can see the melted light next to the new light here. It's a definite visual improvement. The only downside to the LED bulb is that it is a cold, harsh blue rather than the warm yellow glow of a standard incandescent. But if you install one and it really bothers you, there are websites where you can custom order a warmer, more natural LED colour.