The award for innovator of the year... That's awesome! *NM*

Aloha All

I just competed this MOD and thought I would share since I don't think it's been covered on this board; it's been covered a few times on other boards.

I've always thought that Porsche should have outfitted our 986 Key FOB light with an LED instead of the incandescent bulb that hardly ever works or too dim.

Here's the original Key FOB (non-remote), and imagine that it doesn't work at all, so no light:


Here's the end result after the LED mod:




Parts from Radio Shack, which cost about $20, but you can get the LED much cheaper from China via eBay:
- 2x 1.55V batteries, #389 type (Radio Shack sold it in a pack of 3) - these are smaller than the original battery.


- 1x 5mm White LED (available in many colors), as shown by the package below; one per package. Make sure you don't get the flashing LED.

Buy extra if you feel you are prone to make a mistake; I took a chance and only bought one and managed not to break the wires when assembling the mod. Others that did this mod noted that they broke the LED wires by twisting it too much, so be careful.

Directions:
- carefully pry open your Key FOB and remove incandescent bulb and the loose copper siding; you will not need the copper siding. Keep the small gray rubber piece handy to help keep LED wire in place, as shown in pic below.
- remove the original battery from button cap
- tape (optional; I used duct tape) the 2x #389 batteries together along the side to keep them from falling apart; make sure the positive side is up when you assemble them in series: -/+//-/+
- NOTE (this is important) that the short wire from the LED is negative polarity, and the longer wire is positive
- LED short wire (negative): route this wire between the gray rubber stop and the short copper tab, as shown in pic and clip excess wire; be careful and not break it from the LED itself.

- LED long wire (positive): carefully bend this wire so that it does NOT touch the short copper tab, next to the rubber stop, and route it on top of the positive side of the taped batteries, as shown in pic above and below. You shouldn't need to cut any excess wire; at least I didn't have too - all depends on how you bend it.

- place the button cover over the wire and batteries and reassemble the key FOB. NOTE: you can do a test prior to reassembling the key FOB by pressing the button; this is how I noticed, initially, that my long wire was touching the short copper tab and the mod did not work. As soon as I put a gap btween the long wire and the short copper tab, it worked!


Your LED and battery should last a very long time.

Enjoy and good luck!
Kimo