LLS was born here on CL and I have always tried to help people as best i can. That's why i became a supermoderator. LLS traditionally focus's on Led needles, therfore the backlight is just becoming an LLS specialty as of recently (within 6 months ago). Though we like to roll with the punches and stay current, since the IS doesn't have led needle like all other model Lexus do, we really do not have a lot of interests in the IS models. About the only thing i can do for you is get you on the right track with the worlds best German led's ever made.If you want any, contact me for great Cl deals. Otherwise anything i do by way of the IS will be by special request.
Let's get started on our backlight conversion so you can get your ride hooked up.
Reviewing the following pictures, you can see that the IS cluster is vastly different from any other Lexus model cluster. For one, there are no led lit needles. For two, rather than a strait backlight setup, it is fired with EL Glow* technology. where the cluster is made of a specially molded plexiglass that is designed to carry the light from a single source and spread it evenly over a large area. No other Lexus uses this technology.
Follow the yellow arrows to see that they point to the entrapment spot where light will be fed into the EL molded plastic. This entry point is where it will absorb the light like a sponge and transfer it to another point in the cluster.
Now in this next pic you can see how the led's must be angled to accept the El molding input so that the light will shine directly into the El opening. Why would you do this? Remember the spotting you have heard so much about? If you don't hit that spot where the El mouth opens up, you won't be spreading light properly. Therefore it will spot. All you have to do is simply angle the led's properly and WOOT, the spotting is gone
Another cool trick with the LED's is what we call "Shadow Lighting". I have found it to be very useful in the center gauges where it is harder to transfer light. By using shadowing techniques, not only do you get better lighting in your center gauges, but the effect is very cool at night. Here is an example of Shadowing.....
Lastly, here are some more examples of "getting it right" when aiming the led's. In this first pic you can see where the mouth of the opening is for the El lighting in this pic of the tach. Look on the right side, see that piece angled down? It is right above the input where the bulb used to be.
Now, if you angle the led properly when hitting the mouth of the opening, you can go from just a dull blue glow like i have seen people create, to a brilliant blue that can even be seen during the daytime at high noon!
Look at that!
When you get a few led's lined up in the hole, you can angle them at different angles to hit each mouth of each are. There are several El mouths in each hole, so multiple led's are nessesary. I prefer to use 25, simply because i want it to be as bright and even as possible.
Here is the first hole. This is in the top area of the cluster on the left side. After you are done, you should have this part of your cluster lit. I am doing this as a quickie as i am typing this to you, so i may not have everything perfect...lol.
The proper amount of LED's to do this DIY is 25. I ONLY use top grade German LED's. They are 8,000 to 10,000 mcd hyper blue 4 volt military grade LED's. If you were to purchase these at retail they would run 25 x $14.99 = $375 i will be happy to get anyone interested a set of 25 10k led's for $80 if you just ask. This will include resistors. You can have any color between green, blue, red, or white.
IS Model Dashlight Color Conversion DIY.
Linear Mode
