JiniJazz

It has been almost 3 months since we bought our first Lexus, 2011 RX350. It was completely unexpected purchase, and we bought a pretty basic model with only premium pkg. We wanted comfort pkg (rain sensing wiper is the main reason) too, but it was not available at the time of the purchase but we got the really great deal instead. Anyway, I installed Rain Tracker which turned out to be my favorite (both auto & itmd/manual working).

Thanks to many useful information in this forum, I did a bit more exterior LED upgrade - DRL, Parking Light, Puddle Light, and Reverse Light.

[DRL] This picture was taken before the decoder is installed, but I recommend to get one. It makes big difference.


[Parking Light]


One word of caution - LED always look brighter in picture due to its white color, but in reality much less noticeable to other drivers. IMO, LED is not suitable when safety is required. So you may not want LED fog light. (Philips LED DRL kit is best out there, but it's not for our RX)

Finally here is Xenondepot's xtreme HID 4300K kit. Along with Rain Tracker, this is worth every penny, and I can strongly recommend to anyone.







I even compared with OEM HID in my other car, which is one of the best.




As many people said, Steve and his product deserves the highest praise. I won't repeat it here, but I almost felt bad because all my other cars already have OEM HID.

I guess now I am done for the mod for our first Lexus, and I have to thank everyone in this forum for great info. I learned a lot and also noticed fundamental differences b/w German & Japanese philosophy. Again, thank you guys so much for this great forum, and I will stop by again when someone post about HUD mod.

Cruiter

Your light setup looks great and I'm sure you're happy with it. A lot of folks have the LED's and like them. I tried them once on a loaner and they're good but after getting used to the HID's (mine are OEM), I'm sold on them and unless another and better technology is available in the future, I'll stay with them.

I've had lots of cars over the years and even remember changing OEM lights on my Porsche's to Hella halogen's with the German lens (superior). But these HID's not only impress me but those riding with me for the 1st time at night. What a difference. Great contrast and definition of what they illuminate.

JiniJazz

I cannot agree more, Jim.

You have a perfect RX with all the possible options, so I guess there is nothing left to mod. My first mod was fog lenz cover, thanks to your posting.

kitlz

Looks great. And I love the color especially on the DRLs. Bye bye yellow. Funny how the parking light is different than my 450h. It's diagonal to yours on the bottom. Now it's time to change out the interior lights to LED

XenonDepot

iTrader: (11)

JiniJazz,

Thank you so much for taking the time to post some feedback about our Xtreme H11 4300k HID kit. I am glad that you are happy with the product and the results :-)

I can't believe how crisp the cut off line is! Looks like the RX halogen projectors are an ideal candidate for an HID kit upgrade :-)

Steve

afpj

JiniJazz,

You got the xenondepot HID's for the fogs, the headlights? or both? IF for the headlights, did you install yourself. We too are one of the few that don't have HID and have been contemplating the HID conversion with either Xenondepot, ddm tuning, amongst others. It looked easy, but wonder if you need to get a relay or extra harness due to voltage sensors in the cars CPU. Thanks for any info, and great pics. Since there's a shot of the headlight, I'm assuming that you did the HID conversion to the headlights.

XenonDepot

iTrader: (11)

afpj,

The ballasts in our Xtreme HID Kit are true low draw ballasts meaning that you can safely power them directly from the OEM headlight wiring. These ballasts only draw 4.5A on a cold start. You will not experience any error codes when installing an HID kit on your vehicle.

Steve

JiniJazz

Talking about mod bug.

I read all your comments, Anita, so I already purchased all LEDs for interior, but not sure if it's good idea for parchment interior or not. If I have RX450h with all the fancy options like you, I would even think about having blue LED for footwell lights to match with blue theme. Have you thought about it? I believe new Acura ZDX has that option?

For exterior, I already replaced amber turn signals with chrome ones. Not huge improvement, but it adds up.

Thanks for spreading mod bugs.

JiniJazz

I was so tempted to HID fog after having confidence with xtreme kit, but for the safety reason, I am more inclined to keeping OEM or Putco/Nokya yellow halogen bulbs. The last picture shows my other car with Nokya yellow fog light on. I think HID fog defeat the purpose, but I am still debating.

I guess everyone is going through similar research for aftermarket HID kit, and I too narrowed down 2 choices based on reviews. Xenondepot, Philips. I heard Philips doesn't make the kit anymore and so many fake Philips out there, I rule them out. Xenondepot is proven by their customers for decent history and earned their respect by serving their customers right. I am completely satisfied so far, and with 3 years warranty, I like my chances. Steve is very knowledgable and patient enough to answer all question you may have. Talk to him, you won't regret it.

For installation, it's truly simple plug and play, so do it yourself. The hardest part is finding right spot to mount ballast. I had the kit without relay hardness for the first week, it was great as is. Later I reinstalled with the relay (just because it came with xtreme kit), but I don't think it will cause any problem at all without it. As Steve replied, modern cars have been wired with HID in mind, and this kit operates with bare minimum requirement.

JiniJazz

Hi Steve,
All I can say about your product and service is .
As I said, it's too bad I do not have any other cars without HID to purchase more. I am still debating on Putco, so we will see.

XenonDepot

iTrader: (11)

JiniJazz,

Let me know if you want to go with the Putco jet yellow bulbs. I have them installed in my personal vehicle and LOVE them. They offer a nice deep yellow output (Deeper than the Nokya) bulbs. Here is a Putco Jet Yellow vs Nokya Bulbs comparison picture.

HIDs are an option on the RX so Lexus most likely use the same headlight harness for both non-HID and HID models meaning that you do not "have" to use a relay harness. Again, it also depends on the ballast you use and it's power draws.

Regards,

Steve

PS Thanks for the kind words JiniJazz. I can't believe that I have been part of this community for nearly 7 years... Time really does fly.

kitlz

I don't think blue LEDs would work well with a black interior. I like the white LEDs so much that I'm going to order the illuminated sills in white so it doesn't clash.

And I've just been trying to keep up with the guys here with all the mods so blame them for spreading the bug

JiniJazz

X Man,
I always enjoy reading your comments, but this one is tough.
I am not really sure what "squirrel finders". I haven't really pay attention to it, so I guess I have to look at it again. My wife let me drive RX only weekend, so I will take a look. But so far, the brightness, color, stability, and cutoff line all exceed my expectation.

XenonDepot

iTrader: (11)

The X Men,

Judging by cutoff picture that JiniJazz it doesn't seem that the RX headlights have the "Squirrel spotters." Perhaps a closer cut off picture would help but I am honestly amazed as to how nice the pattern is with the stock projectors.

Steve

JiniJazz

Oh don't get me wrong. I never read your comment in negative way. I was not able to reply in proper way due to my ignorance on squirrel finders, now I have better understanding on it after some googling. I don't recall I have seen anything like that when I projected on the building, but I will double check tonight.