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Hello ,Ive seen a lot of people converting there bulbs to led on here , I spoke with my mechanic about doing some to my 05 LS430 and he told its not a good idea to switch to led if there regular stock bulbs because they draw less power and if can screw up your electrical system and possibly blow fuses, and also I will get warning systems on my dash ? Can somebody chime in on this ? I'm not going to do all lights like this just some of the smaller ones like on the doors and license plate
Hello ,Ive seen a lot of people converting there bulbs to led on here , I spoke with my mechanic about doing some to my 05 LS430 and he told its not a good idea to switch to led if there regular stock bulbs because they draw less power and if can screw up your electrical system and possibly blow fuses, and also I will get warning systems on my dash ? Can somebody chime in on this ? I'm not going to do all lights like this just some of the smaller ones like on the doors and license plate
Draw less power AND blow fuses..? Not a chance. I've got LED's in my interior and in the trunk, and they work fine. Doors and the license plate lamp can be switched over to LED's with no issue. Tail lamps are the ones that will trigger a dash light due to the lower power draw.
You have LEDs already in the tails, so not an issue...
Ok thank you for that info , you don't have to change the Resistors either ?
There are no resistors on that side of the circuit. The only resistor would be the relay that slowly dims out the puddle lamp after it times out. Nothing to do there.
License plate lamps are straight off the main 12 VDC bus, tied in with a few other lamps on the same circuit, so no biggy there either.
Here's some good info on what you're trying to accomplish;
They may have also been recommending against going LED if you were talking about your headlights, because as far as our 2005 Lexus LS430 Lighting Guide shows, they use factory D2S HID Bulbs. While you might be able to find some sort of D2S->LED conversion, you would honestly be looking at a lighting downgrade, because HID is the brighter technology at this point.
As for other bulbs? Like people aside above - convert to LED at your whims. If your vehicle has a 'Light Out' error code for that bulb, you need Resistors. Otherwise you should be good to swap out anything you can find a replacement for.
I spoke with my mechanic about doing some to my 05 LS430 and he told its not a good idea to switch to led if there regular stock bulbs because they draw less power and if can screw up your electrical system and possibly blow fuses, and also I will get warning systems on my dash ?
Your mechanic sounds like he doesn't understand how electricity and electrical systems work if you're quoting him correctly lol. Fuses blow from too much current flow, not less current flow.
As far as warning lights in the dash, either you didn't communicate the scope of what exactly you're trying to do, or he doesn't know about your car in specific. The warning lights in the dash he'd be talking about is the tail lamp failure lights, which are triggered when a tail light or brake light bulb blows, and the system recognizes that not enough current is being drawn, thus indicating a blown bulb that isn't consuming power when it should be. This also happens when you replace incandescent tail/brake lights in cars that don't already have LEDs from the factory, which is what he's referring to. LEDs draw less current and can make the system think a bulb is blown. As 2K said, our 2004-2006 LSs already have LED tail and brake lights (with the exception of the 3rd/high mounted center brake light). So... it's a moot point.
Originally Posted by 2KHarrier
Draw less power AND blow fuses..? Not a chance. I've got LED's in my interior and in the trunk, and they work fine. Doors and the license plate lamp can be switched over to LED's with no issue. Tail lamps are the ones that will trigger a dash light due to the lower power draw.
You have LEDs already in the tails, so not an issue...
Lamp away, my friend... Lamp away...
Exactly, bingo, bingo, and yes.
Originally Posted by johnnylt
Ok thank you for that info , you don't have to change the Resistors either ?
No resistors to change. That's only when you're replacing non-LED tail/brake lights with LED ones and need to 'fool' the system to think that bulbs aren't blown since the LEDs would draw much lower current than the stock incandescent ones.
Originally Posted by 2KHarrier
Here's some good info on what you're trying to accomplish;
I actually just upgraded the following bulbs to LEDs: both license plate lights, the 4 courtesy lights at the bottom of each door panel, both puddle lights under the side mirrors, all 4 map lights (2 front, 2 rear), trunk lights, dome light, and 3rd brake light.
Some things to pay attention to... not all LED lights are created equally. Just because it fits in the socket and lights up doesn't mean it's worth buying. LEDs have different chipsets that emit different amounts of light, and at different temperature. Generally, a 6k light is what you want so that it emits a nice white/very slightly blue light and not a dim looking yellowish light. I rushed through buying cheap LEDs the first go-round and ended up having to return some of them and buy better ones. Check out how bright and white my main dome light is compared to my 2 map lights...
It's not actually blue like the picture makes it seem... that's just because of my camera not knowing what to do with white-balance with the two different LEDs in addition to daylight.
Pay attention to how many lumens the bulbs are. I initially bought 120 lumen lights for my map lights and courtesy/puddle lights which ended up being dimmer than the stock incandescent bulbs.
Also most LEDs are polarity sensitive - if you plug one in and it doesn't work, take it out and flip it around.
Mbodall and Robert thanks for the help .I'm learning a lot today ,what I would like to actually replace are mostly the 194 bulbs let me know if these should be ok with no probs, License plate bulbs, Truck lights inside trunk , ,puddle lights under mirrors (if I can get to them ) lights on all four doors, maybe ashtray and gearshifter bulbs, also I see there a little expensive 10-12.00 a bulb so will see ,Also Mbodall I see you did your puddle lights is it easier to pull down the lense underneath and go thru there ? less chance of breaking the mirror
thank you Gents
Pro Tip: If you're not sure if a light has an Error Code indicator (meaning you would need some Resistors), try just pulling a bulb out and start the car up. If you get an error message, you need a resistor for that light. If you don't get a message, you don't need a resistor. For what it's worth, 194s are small bulbs and are rarely used in applications where they are going to have error indicators (unless you have one of those vehicles that basically has an error indicator for Everything). If you're in the market for interior LEDs, there are lots of good 194 LED Bulbs out there.
Mbodall and Robert thanks for the help .I'm learning a lot today ,what I would like to actually replace are mostly the 194 bulbs let me know if these should be ok with no probs, License plate bulbs, Truck lights inside trunk , ,puddle lights under mirrors (if I can get to them ) lights on all four doors, maybe ashtray and gearshifter bulbs, also I see there a little expensive 10-12.00 a bulb so will see ,Also Mbodall I see you did your puddle lights is it easier to pull down the lense underneath and go thru there ? less chance of breaking the mirror
thank you Gents
You definitely will not have any problems replacing the 194s... no issues whatsoever and there are no malfunction indicator lights linked up to any of these interior bulbs. I very easily replaced all of the lights you listed with the exception of the ashtray and gearshift bulbs, but the instructions on how to replace all of these bulbs are in the "HOW TO" thread that 2K shared.
There are also instructions for replacing the mirror puddle lights in that same thread, both by the OP as well as other contributors further down in the thread, I believe. These instructions can be found in other threads as well if you search the forum for them. Note: there are two methods of doing this. You can either partially disassemble the mirror housing, or just pry the lights out of the housing from the bottom with the mirror still in one piece. Watch some YouTube videos of people doing this as well as read the instructions in the link provided by 2K and decide which method you're most comfortable with.
I opted to use the 'pry the lights out from the bottom with credit cards/screw driver' way. My personal experience was that it wasn't too difficult, but time consuming since I wanted to be sure I didn't break anything. I used the flat head screw driver included in the Lexus tool kit in the trunk, as well as credit card size cards from a local car wash. The instructions say to use a credit card, but I wouldn't use a credit card that is still valid and you actually plan to use afterwards... I ended up bending/messing up the cards that I used pretty good in the process of getting the lights out and putting them back in. As the instructions say, you just have to be very, very careful with the mirror housing so you don't crack/break it. You want to dedicate up to an hour (maybe more) of time to removing and reinstalling them... it's not something you want to try to rush through when you have to leave or do something else in 20 minutes. It's very easy to break things when you rush.
in the mail today and will be installing them shortly (today). It's a 10-pack for $15. I'll let you know the results and maybe post some pictures comparing them to the OEM incandescent bulbs as well as the cheaper, crappier LEDs I bought the first go-round.
MBODALL thank you very very much for your time and I will take my time as I rush a lot trying to do things and get frustrayted cant wait to see your pics
Alright, sorry I'm a few hours late posting this... here's the comparison pictures of the new LEDs that I just received today vs the old LEDs and some pictures comparing them to the OEM bulbs. The first 12 pictures were taken during the day with a very bright sun out, so it's not as obvious, but you can definitely still see the difference. The rest of the pictures were taken at dusk when it was still somewhat light outside as you can see in picture 21. In pictures 21-23, you can see just how bright these LEDs are with all the bulbs turned on, even through my reasonably dark tinted windows as you can see in my signature picture as well as picture 23.
I haven't yet installed the new mirror lights since I was kind of pressed for time and didn't want to rush the delicate procedure of taking them out. I also haven't received the 3rd brake light and reverse lights yet (should arrive later today). I'll post more pics in full darkness when I have those installed.
1. Left is the new LED that arrived today, right is the OEM bulb.
2. Left is the new LED that arrived today, right is the first LED that I bought a week ago.
3. Both map lights are the new LEDs, center is a super bright dome light LED array.
4. Old LED in trunk lid with cover installed.
5. New LED in trunk lid with cover installed.
6. Old LED in trunk with cover installed.
7. New LED in trunk with cover installed.
8. Old LED in trunk lid with cover removed.
9. New LED in trunk lid with cover removed.
10. OEM bulb in door courtesy light.
11. Old LED in door courtesy light.
12. New LED in door courtesy light.
13. LED license plate lights.
14. New LED courtesy light at dusk.
15. New LED rear map light ONLY (dome light turned off). Look at how much light comes from that one little bulb!!
16. All new LEDs turned on... it's like daylight in the car now lol
17. All new LEDs turned on.
18. All new LEDs turned on.
19. All new LEDs turned on.
20. All new LEDs turned on with doors closed.
21. All new LEDs turned on with doors closed.
22. All interior lights turned off for comparison.
07-12-18, 08:25 AM
regular to led bulbs
