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Yea but eventually all cars will have LEDs as their daytime lights. Like with the Lexus LF-Gh concept: http://www.lexus.com/lexus/LF_GH/index.jsp it's just a matter of time until everyone jumps on the Audi bandwagon...
I just converted my 02 SC 430 fog lights to H3 55w Optix brand HID lights. It didn't work at first. I read that HID lights don't work with daytime running lights DRLs. The dealer was able to connect their laptop and search thru the C-best settings and turn them off. Wammo. Turn on the fog light switch and it was night and day. Here is the link to the c-best pdf files. Only issue is the dash doesn't light up when the fog lights are turned on. https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc430-2nd-gen-2001-2010/23513-c-best-settings-for-your-2002-sc430.html
Last edited by parijss; 11-20-15 at 07:28 PM.
Reason: Update
Just bumping this thread cuz it helped me out a lot. I hope this gives more insight on how to tackle this job. I just did my fogs and city lights a few days ago and it was a huge pain. It took me about 2.5 hours to change 4 bulbs. Well, I did do it the lazy bare minimum way. Here are the steps I took, based on some recommendations from the sc430mods FB group, take off the 2 clips on the bumper right next to the head light and front grill, then the center 10mm bolt in the middle that supports the grill. This allows you to pull the bumper forward and away from the car to get access. Then what I did was take out the 10mm bolt in the wheel arch right behind the headlight plus the Philips that holds the trim piece on where the bumper and fender meets. (I would have gotten more fender liner flex if I took off the second Philips at 12 o'clock of the wheel arch but I was too lazy to take off the wheel + I didn't have a short enough screw driver to take it out as the wheel was in the way) With a pry tool you should be able to pull back the fender liner enough to take off the vertical 10mm bolt holding the top corner of the bumper to the fender off. This allows you to pull out the corner of the bumper, to access the bumper corner lights, its very tight on the driver side due to the head light washer, washer fluid tank, so I also took the 4 10mm bolts on the bottom of the bumper below the headlights off so I can pull the bumper forward and away from the car. I also removed the bulb from the corner lights to get the wiring out of the way. It was near impossible to reach the fogs on the driver side as the head light washer runs right above it and the washer tank is behind it blocking the bulb access. After a lot of blind fiddling I was able to unscrew the fog light cap by reaching in from the corner light/ fender area. I was unable to reach from the top, in front of the head lights. I had to go by feel to release and lock in the new bulbs, maybe it was the led bulbs I used but it was very hard to get the bulb holder to clip. It probably took like 15min each side to get the clip to clip as I was doing this by feel. Also, be very careful when pulling the corner of the bumper away from the car as if let loose the bumper will hit the fender and cause scratches. By doing this and pulling the bumper corner outwards I was just able to reach the city lights from the corner of the fender from below, but same thing, space was extremely tight and I was doing everything by feel. The passenger side was slightly easier as there was nothing blocking the fog light bulb cover, and I was able to get by by only taking one 10mm bolt from under the bumper. However, visibility was still limited and once again I was doing it by feel, as the plug/ cap and H3 wiring was extremely short so I had to wiggle and connect everything from inside the bumper. I do not know why Lexus designed it like this and use H3 bulb, a twist out bulb such as 9006 would be much easier or at least put some access hatches on the under tray. This is a horrible job that I don't wish to do again, but it does make the car much more modern by replacing everything with Leds. Unfortunately, I will have to pull off the bumper corners again once my Led bumper corner lights comes in. Make sure you test the bulb before putting anything back together.
Also, be very careful with your choice of H3 bulb, basically get the smallest bulb you can get, as there is pretty much no space between the cap and the back of the bulb. So HIDs won't fit unless you plan to drill and modify the cap, the connector to plug the bulb in is in the back of the cap, so anything none OEM style will require modification and don't even think of getting a LED bulb with a fan. I wasn't even sure if the bulb I choose will fit, but luckily it does, its the small Auxito H3 fan less LED. I'm not sure if the LED bulb is much brighter than stock, as I haven't driven the car at night but in the garage it does look brighter / much nicer colour than stock halogens.
03-31-11, 03:21 PM
