Does Acura genuinely not put a light under the hoods of their cars? I am really surprised that my 08 tl don't have a engine bay light. This car has everything else but...

 

It'd be nice, it sucks big time when you have a roadside emergency and want to check under the hood and all you have is your phone light and then your phone battery dies so quick due to the cold.

 

install an LED and show pics OP

 

Underhood light? I have yet to own a car with one and have never missed nor cared about it. I carry a phone and a flashlight in my car for this purpose.

 

i ALSO have never had a car with an under the hood light...
why would one wrench on a car at night is beyond me, unless like stated above it's an roadside emergency...but even then you're not changing heads on the side of the road....

the most common thing that would go bad is the battery...and you dont need an under the hood light for that

 

I drove my parents early on and there was under hood lighting, may be an American car thing though. 80's - 90's vehicles. but a flashlight can do very little when you need 2 hands and get that damn angle shadow lol. I imagine it's just a cost saver

 

Never heard of one but it's a good idea. Some bright LED's aimed at the bay that had some sort of shield so it wasn't glaring in your eyes would be perfect. I wonder if it has to do with the heat. Not sure how resistant most lights are to heat.

It would also be helpful when working on the car when there wasn't a ton of light around. You'd probably have to keep a charger on the battery in that case.....

 

Last car I've seen with an under hood light is my parent's 1992 Grand Caravan growing up.

Majority of people these days will open the hood of their car a handful of times during ownership, and even then they'll have no clue as to what their looking at. Even as a gear head, I think an under hood light is useless. I always keep a magnetic LED light in my car for emergencies .

 

Apparently sometime in the 90's is when under hood lights ended. My little 1996 Sonoma pickup I just sold came with a hood light. I was just curious as to why they stopped putting them in. It is a nice option to have...

 

pretty sure the older corvettes, circa 2000, have hood lights as well. always a nice added touch imo

 

Must have been a domestic thing....you know...they were always broken right?

The only vehicle I remember with them were late 80's and early 90's Chevy trucks (vehicle belonging to a friend of the family). I remember opening the hood on one, said hey wow....a light. And then closed the hood...never to be used/seen again. Even back in my teens when I drove older and unreliable GM vehicles, I don't know that I ever would have used an underhood light. I worked on my first two cars all the time...something was always broken on those....but never at night.

 

^my friend has an '86 Monte Carlo SS with an underhood light.
but it's pretty useless, as it's a dim/yellow halogen bulb. and I dont even think it's centered in the middle...maybe offset to the left. We still have to break out our phones LED's to see ANYTHING at night

I like the magnetic LED light idea. I might buy some

 

A few of my early cars had lights and were virtually useless as Justn says; too dim to do anything and always in the wrong place. First thing I always did was yank the bulbs and toss in a flashlight. My 02/03 BMWs have rechargeable flashlights in glove box as an alternative so they had right idea. Plus with all the appearance panels and technology the cars today are virtually impossible to "work on" by side of the road.

These guys were doomed from the start, the wires had to be flexible enough to go along with the opening and closing, the environment was hot, and on a lot of cars there was no belly pan to keep road salt and moisture out, so the bulbs usually ended up grimy, lessening their performance, and the fixtures were often corroded after one or two winters, making the lights inoperative. As a kid I remember floor switches for hi-beams...those went away for obvious reasons too but replaced with stalk controls.

 

I do remember my friend messing with the little light, as the wires become brittle!!

 

Early Datson 240 Z cars had an OEM standard equipment under hood lamp mounted to the top of the passinger side fender well. The light was a relatively small 4"X2" cone shaped affair. The head of this light, when twisted open, revealed an extension cord, which when unwound, allowed the light itself to reach anywhere in the engine room. Most owners probably never used it or even realized it was there. While most OEM under hood lights are somewhat useless for any type emergency repair, I think they add a nice touch to the engine bay, especially for those owners who take pride in their cars. General Motors used to offer an accessory under hood light, which was much larger, 5" in diameter, which also had a coiled extension cord, and was very usefull in assisting with any emergency under hood repair at night.

 

interesting! i'll have to pull on my friends monte carlo hood light to see if it breaks or uncoils. LOL