Under-hood LEDs & Radiator Cap
07/31/2023
Good news first — and it’s actually really good news:
I was scrolling through Yota Nation and noticed their under-hood LED kits were on sale, so naturally, I couldn’t resist. And wow, what a difference. The install was pretty straightforward, though I didn’t exactly follow the directions to the letter (shocking, I know). I added a bit of tape to the push pin since I didn’t love how close it sat to my headlight harness—probably going to reroute that later just to be safe. I also ditched the supplied wire mounts and ran the harness through the hood instead. It just looked cleaner, and honestly, I couldn’t think of a single reason not to.
Now for the bad news…
A while back, I had a small coolant leak that I traced to the rear left of the manifold. I didn’t want to tear the whole thing apart again after doing the valve covers, so I gambled with a little Bar’s Leak Seal. And, surprisingly, it worked—the leak stopped completely.
Fast forward to today, while I was installing the LED kit, I noticed the radiator return hose was sucked in. Weird. I popped the overflow cap off, and it was completely plugged with that same sealant. Of course, my next thought was, “Please don’t tell me it’s all in the overflow tank.” Spoiler: it was.
So I pulled the tank, cleaned it out, and got things back to normal. Then, because the universe has a sense of humor, the radiator cap snapped when I opened it.
New cap is on the way, and I’ll be doing a full flush soon. Lesson learned—shortcuts have a way of catching up to you… usually right after you fix something else.