Hello,

I am a little confused because i have been owning the LS400 for 2 years and i have never seen these lights working. I am wondering if mine are out or if there is no use for them?

See picture below.



Thanks!

 

They are parking lights or running lights. They come on when turning the light switch just one click before the headlights. Be sure to also check your amber running lights in the bumper, mine were blown out as well.

When i purchased my 97 both corner lights and bumper running lights were not lighting up. Its an easy fix, they take either 168 or 194 wedge bulbs, about 5 bucks/pair at a parts store.

Be careful when removing the corner lights though, since the plastic can be very brittle.

 

Thanks Losiracer2 for the info!

 

they are parking lights with a small 168 wedge bulb in there which probably burnt out. i recommend replacing it with a 921 bulb so it will be brighter and match the headlight. that's just a suggestion. of course with all bulbs, it's good practice to replace them in pairs as the other will soon go out too.

and yes take caution in removing it as the plastic is brittle. one screw and a pry tool will do the trick. good luck!

 

At least the first gen cars have working parking lights unlike the 98-2000 models which have those non-functioning "dummy" corner lights. To this day I can't believe Toyota got away with this. To me it's inexcusable that such a high-end, ground-breaking car would go to production with these fake lights. I know there was a DOT issue but surely that wasn't so insurmountable that they couldn't take the time to make it right?

 

The 5W "parking" lights (aka "city lights") of the 98-00 LS are integrated into the headlight housings like they have usually been on most European cars. The dummy corner lights you speak of were actual cornering lights in the Japanese market 98-00 Celsior which lighted up with the turn signal. It would have been nice if the 98-00 LS400 and LS430 sold outside Japan had cornering lights for some reason only Japan got them.

It is not unusually for cars sold in the U.S. to have "dummy" lights that are not used. Both the Mercedes 450SEL I drove in the 1970's and the Mercedes 240D I drove though the 1980's had dummy rear lights in place of the rear fog lights that were installed on European market models.

 

DOT compliance kept them from the US.

 

Here is a portion of a photo from a 1998 LS400 sales brochure, snagged from http://www.toyotareference.com , that shows the lower corner lights used as side marker lights. Notice in this photo that there is no separate amber side marker light on the side of the bumper as was implemented when the 1998 LS400 for North America went into production.

 

Yeah, I get all that ^^^^^. I'm just saying if Toyota anticipated this DOT issue why wouldn't they redesign that portion of the bumper instead of leaving the dummy lights in place?...esp. in their biggest export market? Oh well, water under the bridge, right?

 

Because that would require re-crash testing the cars, etc...

DOT changes are intense.

 

*sigh*...yet another gov agency that has mostly outlived it's purpose.