mjeds

not really, frankly I have seen a lot of LED tail-lights from Toyota, Audi, GM, and others with LEDs out, missing strings of light etc. the sucky part is that the whole unit has to be replaced not just a bulb..

my wife's former 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid had 2 of the 9 LED brake/tail lights on one side go out. $114.00 to replace, vs. a $2.99 bulb.. The most common LED tails I see go out are the Cadillac's and depending on year an model $350 -$1100 for the tail light.

Chrysler/Dodge just issued a TSB for 2010 - present: 300s, Chargers, Challengers, Durango's and several others for LED tail light failures.

I do think the LEDs are a vast improvement over bulbs, but for me the jury is still out on their longevity and cost of replacement.. My whole house is LED now and has been for 5+ years, and I have had a few fail in that time, thankfully they are guarantied for 20 years so they are replaced at no charge.

Aron9000

^ I'm sure if you're handy with a soldering gun and a testing meter, you can take apart the tailight, get the circuit board out, and replace only the burned out led bulbs, instead of replacing the whole unit.

mjeds

yes, but that is not really the point.. the average person can't do that, and cars are sold to more than just mechanically inclined car guys.

SW17LS

I've actually not seen a lot of Toyota/Lexus vehicles with burnt out LEDs.

Aron9000

Same here, gets back to Toyota using quality parts on all their electronics. Even old Toyotas, all the buttons, switches, windows, lights, displays, etc usually work.

Getting back to just replacing the LED's instead of the whole taillight, I'm sure your mechanic could do that for you if the part was just stupid expensive. Indy mechanics have work-arounds for stupid expensive repairs and parts, I know my local guy makes a killing off of doing coil over suspension conversions on air strut cars like the expensive upper line Mercedes.

Toys4RJill

I agree. Most people are not going to be able to do it.

Toys4RJill

I would much rather have bulbs for all of my exterior lights than I would LEDs. With the exception of the actual headlights. (My Corolla LED can be changed like a regular bulb).

I cannot tell you how many burned out bulbs I have a changed over the decades of driving that I have done. Changed a least one or two for my cars each year and it's either a turn signal, brake light or a headlight. I cannot imagine how pissed I would be if I needed to change the entire light assembly of my 13 year old 4Runner, but luckily I have bulbs where one year later they went with LEDs.

For the interior, I think they gone to LEDs across the board for most cars. I am sure they are much more reliable. But the fun of DIY is kinda gone, our adopted LX450 has all kinds of dash bulbs which we have switched out periodically. Can't do that today. Can't imagine if the whole guage cluster on one of my new cars goes out (knock on would they don't)

mjeds

probably the difference in where we live, I drive through Los Angeles. the area I drive they claim have 1.4 million cars go though it daily.. I've seen my fair share of cars with LED brake and tail lights out or missing a diode here an there.. as stated experienced it with the Wife's Camry as well

Toys4RJill

I have seen a few Camry's and a few 4Runners. Nothing to be alarmed about. But I would rather have bulbs all around except for the headlights whereas I see a great benefit to having them.

Toys4RJill

Looking through some Ford booklets.

1978 Thunderbird could be had with factory installed initials on the drivers door.
Something I also never knew was that 12 month/7500 oil changes were for the 1978 Thunderbird. And lubrications were set for 30,000 miles. I must say, I never knew that the longer intervals were here and then gone and now have come back. A few other Ford models like the Fairmount had 12mo/10,000 mile oil change invtervals in 78

Aron9000

That's crazy, considering the oil technology of the time. I still think these extended oil change intervals now days are a bad idea. You never know if one of your customers is that guy that drives 1 mile a day to and from his office in Buffalo NY, his oil is going to expire WAY WAY WAY before the recommended 7500 or 10k interval.

Oil changes are cheap anyways if you DIY or shop around. 1992 SC300, 5 quarts of Mobil 1 5w-30, about $25. Oil filter from Toyota dealer, $5 and change. Takes me about 45 minutes to do taking my time, plus I get to crawl around under my car, look for leaks, check all the fluids, tire pressures, check the suspension, just gives me a good time to visually asses the car and find any sort of problems early on.


Getting back on topic to the thread, what is the first car you remember having a "service indicator". My 1999 Camaro Z28 had the "Change Oil" light that would pop up every so often, even though I stuck to 5k intervals. I think it calculated number of RPM's done to determine when to turn on that light, but I could be wrong. I remember to turn it off, you turned the key on, but didn't start the engine. You stomped the throttle three times and that would turn off the "Change Oil" light.