Ever since I bought the car the left side of the climate control unit didn’t illuminate at night. Having done some research on CL it was evident that this is fairly common, so I’d thought it’d be beneficial to have a DIY.

 

You can find LED's that fit properly by going to : http://www.autolumination.com/74.htm And, scrolling down to where it says I think I may just pick up 2 bulbs from my local Lexus dealer as with the 20% off coupon that I found, it will cost the same as buying them from online and paying for shipping.

 

Good work! I would like to replace mine with LED's but am wondering how the light output would be compared to the green bulb.

Do the LED's have hotspots, or is it evenly distributed? Does it look much nicer and brighter in white? Would be great to get the radio to match.

 

Warning regarding these LED's and others like them...

They may or may NOT last long Mine went out after 3 months, they flickered until they all died. The only ones that still work are the ones in the climate control display.

I'm thinking the dimming effect puts these bulbs through hell and eventually leads them to die.

 

These LED's actually did not end up fitting, they are 1mm too wide. The original bulb is 4.1mm, while these are 5.1mm.

I'm thinking I may just get OEM bulbs for now, because of what you mentioned. I want the radio and this to look the same. I can't put the bulb cover over the LED for obvious reasons so the light would be super white compared to green right now. I'd have to take apart the radio and change those bulbs too, and that's a project for another day! LOL

 

^ Good to know. I'm looking for LED bulbs to start the conversion on my Solara's HVAC, and then eventually the radio. I don't want to touch the Lexus just yet

 

I completely forgot to update this thread, but the bulbs you can use for this climate control unit can be found over at : http://www.autolumination.com

You want to purchase the Neowedge Item# Incandescent , Color: Amber , Lens: Type B (T4) , these bulbs can be used for the buttons (all 5 of them ).

I didn't experiment with the bulbs for the LCD, however I suspect they are Type C (T5). Don't take my word for it though, best to do some research.

 

Everything looks great now. Couldn't be easier. I got the parts form Lexus, $7 each. $35 total.
Thanks!

 

Awesome! You're welcome!

 

Holy F, I finally found the actual bulb. The bulb identification/part number is what people are always looking for. If you want to save money and just buy the bulb, its bulb # 8640. In Google search for "automotive bulb 8640" and you'll find results. $10 for 10 bulbs on Amazon or even Ebay for 'CEC industries' or Eiko. Compare that to $5/bulb if the base is included.
Steps once you've taken out the bulb with the plastic base - pretty simple, nothing complicated: Carefully take off the green plastic caps. They're delicate. Carefully use a tiny screwdriver or pointed tool to loosen the wires on the base, and straighten the two leads of each bulb so you can take the bulb out of its plastic base. Insert these new bulbs. Polarity doesn't matter for these filament bulbs. Twist the wires around routing them properly as the original wires were routed. For that you might need the same small screwdriver to maneuver the wires into place. For cutting excess wire use a wire cutter or nail cutter. Carefully place the green caps back on. Repeat for other bulbs as necessary --All done. There's 5 black bases and 3 white ones. I just replaced all the 5 black ones. I also had a digital meter to check continuity between the leads of the newly assembled bulb. As long as it reads something other than infinity, its good.
How I found the bulb: I had to search really hard to find the bulb, like 40 different browser windows. Finally I went to the website for CEC industries which was one of the Amazon sellers of these kinds of bulbs and they had a size selection tool. I finally landed on the right one. The diameter is 4mm so its an exact fit. The original bulbs are also 4.0mm. The calliper can read 4.1 if you measure with light force but apply some force and it will read 4.0mm and the size is correct as the original plastic caps fit both of them.
The voltage is correct, 14V (slightly over 12 is good so it will last longer). Bulb shape is T-1 1/4, or on some websites T1.25. Go by the bulb number. Some bulbs of the same number seem too short in length. CEC industries seemed ok. Rated life for the CEC bulbs is 1000 hrs which doesnt seem much. If these bulbs burn out early I will try to find something else. I think they should last longer than 1000. That number is conservative and this is the best bulb I can find. I couldnt find any long life versions of this bulb number. I found one bulb with 30k hours but it was some other size. Sylvania long life bulb 168 (some other size) was just 2500 hours so I think this 1000 hrs bulb will be fine. 2 other brands for this bulb number had the same hours (Eiko, topbrand best source).
Tested and installed in an ES300 2002 and they work fine.

 

Many thanks to all in this thread (especially hypervish) for the info which helped this decidedly non mechanical dude.

Bought our 05 ES 330 seven years ago and watched the climate control lights slowly go out. After living with it for awhile came across y'all and after worrying about totally shorting out the system with my incompetence, decided to invest some dough in Lexus bulbs and dove in. As of today all seems to work.

Any idea why these five bulbs seem to blow out before the rest of the lights in the dashboard? It's possible others were replaced before we bought it but still seems a bit strange.