I have been itching to do some LED work on my car and the easiest place to start was the map reading lights. I took apart the panel up by the rear view mirror and took a look inside. I was surprised to see a few SMT LED's with lenses, I was expecting 10mm dome shaped LED's.













vanity lights FTW if I need more output...




I was dissatisfied with the results, the LED's are not bright enough. So, I ordered some high power half watt LED's and I'm waiting for those in the mail... should be a huge improvement. I'll post updates.


Function: Red LED's are less distracting and less visible from outside.


Lexus used 4 pin SMT LED's that had two + and two - inputs. About 6v into the LED, then the two sets of power inputs were wired in series. I'm guessing they used dual chip LEDs, giving about 3V to each chip.

 

ugh.. nice but I'd rather stay with the stock colors.. which is perfect imo.. don't know why people complain

it's one of my fav part of the car's interior

 

props for being original and willing to do something different. not my cup of tea; like whlkev said, i like the stock colors too. but if red makes you happy, clap your hands

 

dude am down if it flashes different colors like a rav lol :P talk about distractions lol

 

Nice write up illumin8n, I always wonder what kind of LEDs were in there. I am surprise they use SMTs in there as well. The idea of brighter LEDs for the dome light is a good one, I am not sure if I would pick red though, it kind of looks like a darkroom now. None the less, good job on the mod

 

Very interesting mod!

I find it interesting that all the lights are LED-based (at least in the 08+) but the lights for the vanity mirrors are incandescent. Actually, "interesting" isn't the word I'm looking for. "Strange" is a more apt description.

 

So I got a package in the mail today. 10mm half watt LED's. I took out the assembly again and the LED's fit perfectly in the stock lens bracket. I cut a piece of proto board, stuck red reflective tape on it, some magic , a few clicks and here we goo .... results are beyond expectations

 

the two inner small lights are the stock white LED's... for comparison