Just like to say Hi after joining the forum.

Technically I am not in UK, but live and work in Dubai, though I still have a house in UK.

I have just brought a MK 2, 2006 1.6 Trend Focus, German spec, automatic, to run back and forth to work as my wife has taken over my Ford expedition.

I have been reading this forum for a while now and found it to be a great help, best forum for Focus on the internet.

So far I have carried out the following mods after reading about them here.

Foot well lights,

Wireless reversing sensors.

Upgrade to interior light.

Boot LED's.

Replacement double din stereo.

Rear boot power socket addition FYI, I found the red thick wire on the other side to what is mentioned in the guide here..

Next on the list is tinted windows, which out here we need to keep the heat down inside, especially when it is 50c outside

I found all the mods very easy and the longest was the reversing sensors at 1 1/2 hours only because it got to dark to finish the job.

The radio replacement was so easy using the complete kit from ebay, took minutes to do once I spliced the new looms together.

My question is this:-

I replaced the single boot light on the R/H side with a 24 bulb LED unit, which just plugged straight in using the supplied adaptors.

I then spliced in an additional wire from the live feed at the point of entry to the existing light and ran it across to the other side. I then connected up another LED unit with a separate earth. Both LED's work fine, but, when I close the boot lid with all doors closed, the new left hand LED remains on, after the others have switched off. It remained on for an entire 40 minute journey last week, and sometimes goes off about 1/2 hour after the other lights.

Swapped the units over and it still does it.

Any explanation? as it has the same feed as the right hand unit

Thanks for a good forum.

Darryl

..

Hello and welcome to the forum!

LEDs will still work even with a tiny amount of residual current, so may still stay on when a "regular" (incandecsent) bulb would have gone out

For example, I had to leave one regular bulb (out of 5 = 1 regular/ 4 LEDs) in my high-level brake light, otherwise it would stay on after i took my foot off the brake pedal - i decided to use a bulb instead of a resistor because i thought it would be better/ more efficient to use the power to light up a bulb than heat up a resistor, (+ its easier to impliment) although LEDs are generally more reliable/ last longer than regular bulbs

Try a regular bulb in its place to see what happens, if it goes out when expected, your wiring will be ok, and you could aquire LEDs with resistors built in, or add a seperate resistor to the circuit, (to add a "load" ) if it does not go out with the regular bulb fitted, you may have to look at your wiring again

For the boot light , connect using both wires , and not the live and then down to earth as it may be negative switching.

So use both the wires from the boot light and all should be fine.

hi and welcome to the forums.

Agree with pree dont use a seperate earth but run both existing wires to the other side the adaptor for the led is running from those wires

Hi Guys.

thanks for the replies.

If I get time this weekend I will change the earth and see what happens.

Darryl

Hi Guys.

replaced the earth wire to the second LED, using the original earth to the 1st LED as recommended, and it all works fine now.

Both LED come on together, and go off when boot lid closed.

Thanks for the help.

Darryl

Hi Guys.

just a follow up to the boot LED installation.

I found that after a week or so the LED lights would not come on full, only glow very weakly, then after a while they would go full bright or stay dim.

I replaced the lights to no avail and managed to trace the problem to the boot latch which has a micro switch built in to activate the lights.

The lock mechanism is pushing the switch contact in and bringing the lights on, but the switch is worn so if the plunger is depressed more than the initial contact it turns the switch off again.

So the actuating arm on the lock mechanism is pushing the micro switch plunger in to far so making then breaking the contacts.

I removed the latch mechanism but the micro switch is sealed, I packed around the plunger with a piece of thin wood to limit the actuating arm movement and this works occasionally.

I have just ordered a new latch mechanism and hopefully this will fix the problem.

Just thought I would post this for info in case anyone else has come across this.

Darryl

Always useful to post problems others my come across it