they can not be removed with taking a part the light assembly. only the reverse lights are twist ons. i took removed the assembly from the trunk before.

 

only the bulbs for the turn signal and reverse light are easily accessible--the LED brake lights, mounted on circuit boards, require removal of the whole assembly. I think one of the reasons IS's LED brakelight does not resemble those of G35 or 3 series is the complex shape of the housing, cramming 12-24 LED's in the curved housing would look strange.

 

In that case, there's little question that they're LED's. Standard bulbs have to have easy access, because they burn out pretty frequently (relatively speaking). I've never seen a normal set of taillight bulbs that were hard to get to.

 

this all is making more sense now. I do know what LED stands for, btw to the poster above

 

saw a IS early in the morning with tailights on the light emitted was a highly concentrated red from a small spot, has to be LED

 

LED taillights activate quicker, don't lose illuminance with time, never need to be replaced, and are brighter upon illumination. It's not a matter of style, but rather safety and common sense.

 

This is pretty much exactly how it is designed on the RX400H. Those LED taill lights stand out big time. Maybe Lexus is trying to make a statement with the RX400H though

 

frankly.. i think this is a waste of a thread. You should be able to distinguish LED's and Reg. Filament bulbs by how they turn on/off and even how they look. No point in removing the housing at all just my .02

 

They personally don't look like LED's to me, but I saw another IS tonight, and when he applied the brakes, they lit up just like all the other LED's light up, so I'm inclined to say that yes they are actually LED's.

And not to be bashing the sales people on the board, but I picked up my car from JM Lexus in Margate, FL. I specifically asked my salesperson if the car came standard with HID's. He said yes. Well, I come back in a couple of hours to pick the car up after the PDI and since it was already starting to get dark, the lights automatically came on. He goes and tells me that that's the newer technology HID's that kinda have a yellowish white to them. So don't believe everything the sales people are telling you.

 

Hey ECR, was that Todd at JM?

He mentioned the same thing to me and when I asked to give me that in writing and betting him $500 that the cars didn't come with HID standard, he said that they had an special arrangement with Lexus and all their cars (IS) came with HID direct from the factory. What a load of crap. Also they didn't bulge from MSRP and wanted me to pay for the car in full to guarantee availability..... say what!????

JP

 

I think you are wasting your time. We are not.

 

come on guys...if you cant just see how the lights turn on and off then it shouldnt even matter to you if the lights are LEDs or not...

perhaps if people knew how LEDs worked then there wouldnt be so much confusion.

 

No, the guys name was Jay. I mean don't get me wrong the guy was really nice. It was a no pressure sale, but I picked up my car during the last week of December, so the place was rocking!! He didn't even try to push any of the packages, he was justing trying to dump what was on their lot. He did cut me a deal however. I told him I wanted Navi and didn't really need the ML audio. The only car they had on the lot in the color I wanted had both on it, so they just threw in the ML audio system at no cost (supposedly)

 

the Light Emitting Diode type? LED's will be seen more and more in auto lighting and even home and industrial lighting for the same reasons. The brake lights are also LED's. When you look into the amber lense of the turn signal you can see a bulb. That is what the parts guy is seeing in his computer monitor blow up picture of the assembly. The reverse lights are not the tail lights. So there is a combination of bulb/diodes used for lighting at the rear of the car. The tag frames are illuminated with two white LED's. The little ceiling spotlights in the interior are white LED's.(sometimes called blue LED's).

The standard headlights are Halogen bulbs. The foglights and high beam/daytime running lights are always Halogen. Optional with the Lux/Sport package are the BiXenon High Intensity Discharge low beams that have auto leveling and a steering feature that when turning at speed the headlamp on the side you are turning to will swivel in that direction and the other headlamp remains straight ahead. This gives a wider path of light in the direction you are turning. HID's also use less energy (30%)and make a light spectrum that is more like natural sunlight. There are 3 diferent reactions going on in the HID bulb and this combination gives off a brighter more natural spectrum light. The BiXenon low beam lowers its shield when the high beams are on and adds its light to the total making better high beam illumination as well.

Recently in our area the Police cars are equipped with the brightest red and blue lights on the top of the cruisers. These will almost blind you if you look directly at them. I'm not seeing the flares anymore because they wouldn't even show up against these newer light sources...BTW a diode only allows current to pass through in one direction so they won't work if the wires are crossed.

Rock

 

From Lexus' Chief Engineer on Car & Driver's "Ask the Lexus Expert" forum dated 9/27/05:

Q) Do the new IS's employ LED brake lighting or conventional lamps? I await with much anticipation the rollout of these cars in mid-October. Thanks so much for addressing these questions and I look forward to your reply!
A) Yes, the new IS has standard LED tail lamps and brake lamps.