luxe88

Hello. Apologies if this has already been discussed and i simply haven't yet found the thread, but...

i am not a fan of halogen lights and sought to replace my daytime driving lights (low beam) with something a bit more modern like 6000k led lights.

i ran into a problem when after installing the leds, nothing turned on. however, my brights (high beams) do work.

i found nothing regarding this. a google search has, however, provided me with a link to a walk through wherein the installer used a load resistor. i dont know if this would solve my problem.

any help or input would be appreciated!

willSFP

So if I understand correctly, you installed LED bulbs for your high beam/DRL and the LED's only turn on when the high beams are switched on, but do not work during the DRL mode which is when your E-brake is disabled and your low beams are off. Since the DRL mode is the high beam running at 50% brightness, a LED can only run at 100% brightness or 0% brightness, so you will need a decoder harness to have it running at full power.

http://store.ijdmtoy.com/LED-Daytime...rl-decoder.htm

I bought the R1 decoder from the link above for my mothers car and it works flawlessly with my LED bulbs for over 3 years already. There is a detailed installation guide below too

http://store.ijdmtoy.com/Lexus-RX330...Beam-a/429.htm

There might be cheaper decoders on ebay too, but I don't know how well they work

LexusLadi

So I am curious, how bright are the high beams at night?

I am thinking of going the LED route for my high beams as the yellowish/brown color the stock bulbs put out for the DRL's I think are hideous. But am hesitant as I use my high beams quite often to see at night.

I have done this before for my blinkers with switch backs on a another car. Which turned out great. Albeit a pain in the butt installing as you have to splice wires and add resistors, etc.

I might just buy high quality blue halogen bulbs and be done with it.

willSFP

I recommend to stay away from LED bulbs if you use your high beams. They're basically useless, but they look good

Buying quality blue halogen bulbs will still project yellow light while running at DRL mode (50%), but when high beam mode is switched on it should look nice

luxe88

what?!!!! I did not know this! Thanks for the info. I will probably look into purchasing blue halogens.

chrispham

I've been experimenting with various LED bulbs for my 2007 RX400h. Here is what I've experienced:

LED High beam - (I've experimented with cheap as well as expensive LED bulbs.) Looks very bright when on and also very cool looking. Saying that.... they are completely worthless for actual high beam operation. They just cannot throw enough light to come even close to the regular bulbs. I have yet to test a LED "high beam" or "low beam" bulb that is functional at night.

LED DRL - Yup, experimented with these as well. Here is the best bulb I found for brightness. BUT.... I will go into that below.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-1400-Lumens-T10-High-Power-3535-Chip-LED-White-Backup-Reverse-Light-Bulbs-/331317154872?hash=item4d240a9438&vxp=mtr
So...... These are in fact the brightest I have found for DRL LED's... BUT... don't buy them. They do not last running all the time as DRL. They maybe ok for backup lights but I do stress that they are not reliable. I've gone through testing with about 8 of them and 7 out of 8 have failed. I am expecting the only one working to fail soon at some point.

As far as the fog lights.... I absolutely hate the halogen bulbs. They are yellow and look crappy. I haven't had a chance to replace them yet because it looks like a huge ordeal to replace them and I am not a mechanic. I wish Lexus would have considered making them user friendly to replace the bulb. Very disappointed.

I may give these a try. Has anyone tried these yet? I just found them now on Ebay. It's interesting they do not require the ballast like kits I've seen.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/D2S-55W-6000K-White-HID-Xenon-Replacement-High-Beam-Headlight-Bulbs-Pair-x2-NEW-/171443982005?fits=Make%3ALexus%7CModel%3ARX400h&hash=item27eadb8eb5&vxp=mtr
This brings up what I've seen that works. I've used the HID Ballast kits on my Porsche and they work great! I used the 55w and not the 35w models. I've also chosen the 6000k. They look great with a light tint of blue. Some users will argue the best is the 5000k like the factory Xenon on the 2006 & 2007 RX models. What people fail to remember is after 2008, Lexus tinted the bulbs to give them a 6000k look. It boils down to user preference though. I really like the 6000k but no higher. Any higher makes them look too blue and degrades visibility.

I hope this helps and would also love some feedback on what everyone has tried and used!

robbyk

Color selection is a big part of HID selection. Almost all factory (OEM) HID kits are 4300K but some manufacturers use 6000K. The higher the Kelvin or K rating on a bulb, the lower the light output in lumens. Many aftermarket companies offer HID kits of 8000K, 10000K or 12000K. In my opinion, the only reason one would buy a kit with a Kelvin rating of over 6000K is that they are misinformed or uneducated in the area of lighting. Many people will try to tell you that bulbs with a high Kelvin rating (the bulbs that are very blue or purple) are brighter than those with a color of 4300-6000K. That is 100% false. For visibility purposes do not buy a kit with an extremely high color temperature. You can see below how quickly light brightness declines as color temperature increases.

Here is a chart of K vs. lu
3000K = 4000lu
4300K = 3200lu
6000K = 2900lu
8000K = 2450lu
10000K = 2200lu
12000K = 1800lu

The reason most HID bulbs appear blue

Aside from the natural color of the light at 4300-6000K, which generates a bluish hue, the projector lenses, their curvature, the reflector, etc generate the color. They work together to produce light as optically designed.