Hi everyone,

The "mod" bug bit me recently, as I was perusing pics of other folks' rides . I've been reading up on several old posts about those that have swapped out their fugly interior halogen lights to LEDs and it's time to change out mine, but I have a few questions though:

1. For those of you that have swapped out your bulbs, have you experienced any issues with them (ie. flickering, short life span, etc.) since you did the swap?
2. What are the correct bulb sizes I would need (there seemed to be conflicting sizes in several threads)? I want to do dome lights, vanity lights, door lights, trunk light, and footwell lights - I'll leave the exterior mirror puddle lights, as that seems to be the most challenging. Are these all the same size bulbs?
3. At least for the more quality bulbs, I know some have internal resistors built in to prevent fluctuating voltage from the car and what not. Did you need to do anything else with the bulbs or are they truly plug and play?
4. Which brand or kit would you recommend getting? I originally was thinking of getting from PrecisionLED, but they are way too expensive. I looked at Diode Dynamics too and they seem pricey as well, however I'd rather pay for quality if I won't have to deal with bulbs with a short life span. I am wary about eBay lights even though they may be cheaper and some other Amazon links from older posts no longer work.
5. I looked at the DIY videos to replace the lights and it's pretty straight forward. For swapping the footwell lights, I know the driver side has screws for that plastic piece but are there any clips I need to worry about? The passenger side I know doesn't have screws to hold the plastic trim in place, but am also wondering about clips - I don't want to pull down and break something.

TIA!!

 

order a kit from ijdmtoy and you they deal with all of the questions you have by assembling a kit that works.

https://store.ijdmtoy.com/products/p...29217683832935

 

10 lights for $35? That's a steal. There was another website, they were offering it for almost $120+

 

PrecisionLEDs? Yeah, it was ridiculous.

 

Thanks. That looks like a good price for a combo of lights - do you know of any that aren't insanely bright, but enough? Just looking for something that's bright enough like OEM if our IS's did offer LED interior lighting from the factory, but not so bright that it's blinding.

 

i dunno, the kit that i linked you is the one i used on mine and it looks factory to me. if the car had come that way, i wouldn't think aftermarket at all.

 

Thx... I've been debating between the HP3s from Diode Dynamics and the JDM Astars with the 3 LEDs. The bulbs from Diode are very expensive, like $84 for 12 bulbs. I can get 2 packs of 10 from JDM Astars for $30 on Amazon .

I know some folks here are running the Astars. Are they truly long lasting and no flickering problems? Do they fade after all doors are shut like the halogen bulbs?

 

1. For those of you that have swapped out your bulbs, have you experienced any issues with them (ie. flickering, short life span, etc.) since you did the swap?
   1. It's been a couple of weeks, so far so good. No flickering.
2. What are the correct bulb sizes I would need (there seemed to be conflicting sizes in several threads)? I want to do dome lights, vanity lights, door lights, trunk light, and footwell lights - I'll leave the exterior mirror puddle lights, as that seems to be the most challenging. Are these all the same size bulbs?
   1. 194 LED bulbs
   2. Puddle light is easier than you think. Just grab the bottom corner and feel for the clip, once you pop that clip off, the other bottom one is the same and then the top is a lot easier to get to.
3. At least for the more quality bulbs, I know some have internal resistors built in to prevent fluctuating voltage from the car and what not. Did you need to do anything else with the bulbs or are they truly plug and play?
   1. I used SIR IUS LED bulbs from Amazon - they're extremely bright - so you've been warned haha!
4. Which brand or kit would you recommend getting? I originally was thinking of getting from PrecisionLED, but they are way too expensive. I looked at Diode Dynamics too and they seem pricey as well, however I'd rather pay for quality if I won't have to deal with bulbs with a short life span. I am wary about eBay lights even though they may be cheaper and some other Amazon links from older posts no longer work.
   1. SIR IUS, I had them on 3 cars and zero problems.
5. I looked at the DIY videos to replace the lights and it's pretty straight forward. For swapping the footwell lights, I know the driver side has screws for that plastic piece but are there any clips I need to worry about? The passenger side I know doesn't have screws to hold the plastic trim in place, but am also wondering about clips - I don't want to pull down and break something.
   1. You can't break any of the plastics. If you're worried about breaking this, you'll panic for the dome light!

 

Thanks George! I ended up ordering 2 of the 10-pack JDM ASTARS bulbs from Amazon . The pictures show 3 LEDs for each of the lights so from the reviews, it seems it's decent light output - not blinding light and better than OEM halogen light output.

 

The only lights I had a problem with flickering were the rear passanger overhead light. I did buy a kit from Amazon also, but for some reason the rear passanger light is the only one that gave me any issues. If you do the puddle lights under the mirrors, just know that it's kind of a pain in the *** to remove the housing for the mirrors. I avoided it all together on my ISF.

 

Thanks! Once I get mine, I hope they all work without flickering. I’ll leave the puddle lights for now, but may tackle them later on.

For those that replaced their footwell lights on 2017+ IS’s, I saw a video from PrecisionLED that says to remove 2 screws from a plastic panel under the steering wheel and the panel comes off after wiggling it a little.

The video didn’t go into doing the passenger side but the guy said it’s the same but without screws and you’d just pull down to get that plastic panel off. Can anyone confirm that? Just want to make sure that’s correct so I don’t inadvertently break anything…

 

I love diode dynamics. I've used their LEDs on 2 cars, and they last forever. No issues whatsoever. Definitely less is more in terms of brightness. The first one I got was blinding, so I toned it down with a dimmer set. Gives the car a premium feel with the white color.

 

So today I had my JDM ASTARS LEDs come in so I swapped out the interior lights. I used the PrecisionLED video as a guide, but I found that my car’s passenger vanity light and door light were wired opposite than what the video stated. The guide was for all 3IS models, so I figured that everything would be the same for my 2018.

I found that my passenger vanity light wire harness actually was on the right side when the video said it should be on the left. My passenger door light wire harness was on the left side when I expected it to be at the right toward the edge of the door, per the video. Good thing I was gingerly prying out those light housings, when I realized that so I didn’t inadvertently break anything! Anyone encounter that too?

All in all, very pleased with the light conversion. Pure white light, but not blinding and offers a really nice luxury touch that should’ve come stock. Leaving the side mirror puddle lights alone… knowing my luck, I’d break each mirror lol.

LMK what you think!

Before:



After:

 

Those look really good, can you post a link where you got them from?

 

I paid less than US$10 to swap all my internal bulbs to LED.