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Yo TRD, do you have your fog lights and DRL's matching your head lights? I'm looking for the bright white bulbs, all matching as you described.
I left my daytime running lights stock, and I have yellow Nokya fog light bulbs. The Nokya bulbs work great and have been in the car for 2+ years, and I drive with them on daily. There are a few threads on here with instructions on replacing the DRL's with LED's. I personally prefer the stock to the bright white look, but some of the LED swaps look clean.
Glad you were able to save a pretty penny! It definitely makes buying new headlight bulbs a lot less painful when the time rolls around. I always complained about how weak the headlights were in my car last fall/winter (gets dark really early here in the PNW around this time), but totally disregarded the fact that they were the original bulbs from '08. Night driving has been MUCH better since I installed the new bulbs.
Thanks again for your help on this. Hopefully this thread will take the sting out of the process for some other CL members.
By the way, I have an 06 GS430 with 126k miles. I bought the car certified from Lexus in 2012 with 51k miles. The car was manufactured in April of 2005. I am the second owner and I am pretty sure that these were the original bulbs. The previous owner did all work at the dealership and there is nothing in the service history to indicate that the bulbs were replaced. Pretty amazing that the original bulbs lasted 11 years and 126k miles.
Hey guys. One more quick question. After replacing my bulbs, I've noticed that my headlights don't seem to rotate left and right the way they used to. I can still see that they are moving, but I seem to recall especially when turning left, there would be a pronounced movement of the headlights to the left and then They would move back to center when I straightened out the car. Now, they seem to move but it's just not as pronounced or defined. When replacing the bulbs, I seem to recall that once the connector was on the bulb, I was able to manually move the headlights left and right without any force. Does that seem normal?
Hey guys. One more quick question. After replacing my bulbs, I've noticed that my headlights don't seem to rotate left and right the way they used to. I can still see that they are moving, but I seem to recall especially when turning left, there would be a pronounced movement of the headlights to the left and then They would move back to center when I straightened out the car. Now, they seem to move but it's just not as pronounced or defined. When replacing the bulbs, I seem to recall that once the connector was on the bulb, I was able to manually move the headlights left and right without any force. Does that seem normal?
As long as you didn't hear anything snap or break, everything should be fine. I've never looked into the details of the Lexus AFS system, but generally the bulb is fixed and the actuators that adjust the beam aiming will act on either the reflector or the lens.
Does the beam pattern look different? It's possible that the new bulbs are just casting a more even beam, so the rotation is less obvious. Since they're still moving and there's no AFS light coming on, I doubt there's anything wrong.
EDIT: It's also possible that the aiming was thrown off a bit when you installed the new bulbs and the beams are pointing more outboard now, in which case they won't have to rotate as much.
As long as you didn't hear anything snap or break, everything should be fine. I've never looked into the details of the Lexus AFS system, but generally the bulb is fixed and the actuators that adjust the beam aiming will act on either the reflector or the lens.
Does the beam pattern look different? It's possible that the new bulbs are just casting a more even beam, so the rotation is less obvious. Since they're still moving and there's no AFS light coming on, I doubt there's anything wrong.
EDIT: It's also possible that the aiming was thrown off a bit when you installed the new bulbs and the beams are pointing more outboard now, in which case they won't have to rotate as much.
when I pull into my garage, the beam pattern is absolutely perfect. Dead on straight. I think you may have hit the nail on the head regarding why the rotation is less obvious. I think the new bulbs are casting much more light and therefore it's harder to see the rotation when I come out of a turn.
and no, I definitely didn't hear anything snap or break. What I noticed though, is that when I wiggled the connector, the headlight eyes, if you will, rotated left and right with no resistance at all.
when I pull into my garage, the beam pattern is absolutely perfect. Dead on straight. I think you may have hit the nail on the head regarding why the rotation is less obvious. I think the new bulbs are casting much more light and therefore it's harder to see the rotation when I come out of a turn.
and no, I definitely didn't hear anything snap or break. What I noticed though, is that when I wiggled the connector, the headlight eyes, if you will, rotated left and right with no resistance at all.
Lol okay now I'm a bit confused (not that your description is lacking, just want to be sure I'm clear on whats going on).
So if these three axes are going through the center of the lens (I'm assuming you're referring to the lens when you say "eyes") – the x axis going from left to right, the y axis going up and down, and the z axis going front to back – are you saying that the lens would rotate around the z axis with no resistance?
Also, it's interesting that the bulb output decreases so noticeably as they age – haha I guess I should change mine soon since I'm still running the original bulbs and the beam pattern is looking a bit weaker than I remember. Does it look like there's any discoloration of the glass on your old bulb?
Lol okay now I'm a bit confused (not that your description is lacking, just want to be sure I'm clear on whats going on).
So if these three axes are going through the center of the lens (I'm assuming you're referring to the lens when you say "eyes") – the x axis going from left to right, the y axis going up and down, and the z axis going front to back – are you saying that the lens would rotate around the z axis with no resistance?
Also, it's interesting that the bulb output decreases so noticeably as they age – haha I guess I should change mine soon since I'm still running the original bulbs and the beam pattern is looking a bit weaker than I remember. Does it look like there's any discoloration of the glass on your old bulb?
it rotates without resistance around the Y axis.
And yes, the core of the bulb was completely discolored.
And yes, the core of the bulb was completely discolored.
Ah I see. Well I can't really explain that unfortunately since I don't know the details of how these particular actuators work, though presumably the actuator doesn't lock when it's de-energized. But yours ain't broken, and that's the important thing!
And yeah it's probably all the metal vapor from the electrodes that's been deposited on the inner surface of the glass after several thousand on/off cycles. Interestingly, I also just read that discharge bulbs can lose up to 70% of their output after 10,000 hours of operation.
09-06-16, 06:43 PM
