jls667

My 2004 LS430 has lots of rear lights. There is a small triangular section that does not work. When I removed this assembly, there is only one removable bulb and that bulb does not pertain to the broken section. The broken section must be hard wired. How do I fix the problem? I have attached a picture. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Lavrishevo

iTrader: (1)

Unfortunately it is not fixable. They are LED's and supposed to last the life of the vehicle. I was surprised to hear this as well. The only way to fix is to replace the whole assembly.

rkw77080

Don't forget to check and see if there is power at the connector.

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

does it light up when step on the brakes?

the JDM taillights are like that, I have that on my car and only the lower portion lights up when brakes are not applied. But once the brakes are applied, all the lights come on.

jls667

That triangular light does work on the left side. Only the one on the right side is bad.

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

then you need to purchase a used inner tail light from eBay.

ZanderZ32

iTrader: (2)

Curious how many miles are on your car and mostly stop and go traffic? LED take so many hours to burn out that I'm kinda surprised.

YoshiMan

Can't say that this is an issue I will face, since i have an 02' with the regular bulbs, but isn't there someplace that can repair these? I know there are places that perform repairs on bad LED taillight assemblys... like I had done on my old Cadillac Escalade

BradTank

Mine is also burned out, same year, same side, same light. Some of the other tail lights on my car also have some burned out individual LEDs but still function (mostly)

Honestly, I would prefer had Lexus gone with simple, old school bulbs like the earlier models. We're seeing that the "long life" benefit of LEDs is pretty suspect. You can easily get 100k miles + with incandescents.

Replacing a rear bulb on most cars is 5 minutes and costs less than $5. If have to replace all the tail lights on this car, i'm probably looking at close to a thousand dollars.

I would love to know if there was a repair besides just buying entire new ones from Lexus.

jls667

It is an 04 with about 100000 miles. I thought LED bulbs last longer.

BradTank

With LEDs, you swap one problem with another.

The LEDs don't have filaments that burn out like regular incandescent bulbs, but things like the circuit board, caps, diodes, resistors, solder connections, etc can all have issues that regular incandescent bulbs don't have.

If I'm going to pick my poison, I'd rather have a bulb that's easily serviceable and cheap, even if it doesn't last as long as an LED.
Also, at least with "old school" bulb systems, most modern cars let you know when it's burned out. I didn't get any such warning with the Lexus LED tailights.

I'm hoping if manufacturers adopt LED they'll at least use more universal style bulbs and connectors that a consumer can replace without buying entire new lighting assemblies through a dealership.

Tom57

Most new car models today are LED rear lights. Having light assemblies built into in the trunk lid itself on the LS leads to light failure with either LEDs or filament bulbs due to the vibration from trunk lid closing. Closing the trunk lid hard (or slamming it) leads to premature light failure in both incandescent and LED light assemblies. This is why the inner (trunk lid) tail lights tend to fail more often (or sooner). I agree with Brad that if they're going to fail, you'd rather have user replaceable filament bulbs. Close your trunk softly.

jls667

I just realized that the LEDs are working some of the time. It must be some internal poor connection.

Galco

Have the same issue with same year (2004) also on the right side. Have noticed it will flicker occasionally, so agree with you, its a connection or circuit board/component issue.

Were you able to resolve?

takimanpgt

http://www.ledfix.com/

I found this randomly and had bookmarked it just in case my lights ever fail. Maybe give them a call and see if they can repair your light before you throw it away. Worst case is you lose on the shipping costs, best case is you find an entity that can repair LED lights ...