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I have not driven the car much at night but noticed the ambient lighting on the doors above the arm rests. First I thought it was a slight glow created by the street lights and then saw this soft glow and realized it was not the street lights. My X5 has LED lighting that goes around the dash and doors and can change colors. I looked in the Lexus Unabridged encyclopedia owners manual and there is one blurb on page 428 it says #4 Ambient lights and nothing else. I realize there is not much to them but are there any controls for intensity etc?
The interior of the RC is replete with luxurious details that envelop you in comfort while exhilarating the senses.
Take the unique lighting for example. Featuring a unique up-lit design, the ambient lighting automatically brightens to match your driving style.
Standard On: RC 350, RC 350 F SPORT
I don't recall the lighting adjusting at all.
Has anyone experienced variations in brightness that match a driving style?
I have not driven the car much at night but noticed the ambient lighting on the doors above the arm rests. First I thought it was a slight glow created by the street lights and then saw this soft glow and realized it was not the street lights. My X5 has LED lighting that goes around the dash and doors and can change colors. I looked in the Lexus Unabridged encyclopedia owners manual and there is one blurb on page 428 it says #4 Ambient lights and nothing else. I realize there is not much to them but are there any controls for intensity etc?
Yeah you can adjust the brightness on them. Just increase or decrease the brightness by pressing the button for the intrument cluster next to the Odmeter button.
I have a 2019 RC 350 F-Sport that does not seem to have the ambient lighting in the doors. Has this feature been removed or is there something I need to enable? I checked all the user accessible options and don’t see one for it. Online part diagrams show it, but can anyone confirm it is still around and how to get it working if so?
Amiricles - Sure, rub it in!! (lol)!! If I wasn't so OCD about rattles and such, I would take the door panel apart and see if the harness is there or if this would be an easy retrofit but I am pretty sure it would be more money than its worth....especially that I only have one more year to go before I flip my RC for the new IS in 2021.
hmm and here yet another UK review (famous carbuyer channel on youtube) of a facelift model in wich they state: 'There are some nice touches, though, including strips of white ambient lights on the doors....'
Okay I just testrode a facelift F-sport version (300h)
and it indeed had no ambient lights in the doors
Hoping for some more feedback here, but do you guys think that it could be retrofitted since the panels seem the same?
Its just speculation of course, but thoughts? experiences maybe?
Since this thread was already bumped a couple months ago, figured post some information.
I'm adding this feature on my 2020 RCF. I find it ridiculous that Lexus removed this. They specifically made a plate to block off the ambient lighting. However it CAN be added.
To sum up what I wanted, was to add the ambient lighting in the door panels (very easy to do, it's all just held in with screws. About 30 of them.) You will need to splice into the window control harness. Again easy to do. The ambient lighting modules from Lexus are over $250 each. However, you can buy complete door panels on eBay for about 100 bucks. Any RC will do, just make sure it's not a 2019 or above. I did this and then threw out the door panel since all I wanted was the led module. I wanted it so that when the headlights tuned on, the ambient lighting turned on, and then I could dim it with the controls. In my test videos in the above link everything worked. However one quirk I found after putting everything together is that something is keeping one of the system buses active. When the car is shut off and the headlights turn off the center clock then stays illuminated. It's annoying. I tested with some other led strips I have and it does not exhibit this behavior. So something within the OEM led module is either pulling current, or dropping the ground all the way to zero so that the clock thinks it needs to light up. If I knew what LED was used specifically I would make my own. I really want the colors to match, so swapping out another LED would probably not blend or match the rest of the lighting. However if you wanted to have a completely different color say of red, blue..etc. you'd be fine. I honestly would expect this with janky leds or a half *** setup but OEM that's causing a weird system issue is perplexing.. But, I am also trying to do something not as intended from Lexus, so perhaps this is the side affect.
The other option which is more than likely what I will be doing on Monday after I test something out when I get it, is to simply have the ambient lighting turn on when the headlights turn on or (auto feature), and then shut off when the headlights turn off. The only thing one looses with this way is that you can NOT adjust brightness to dim down or go up with the rest of the lights if you adjust them. In all reality I don't think I adjust lights often. So as much as I would love to have them dim, I would much rather the clock not stay illuminated after the car is shut off..
The PLUS side to wiring it like that is unlike the default mode of "bright" (even thought they are not super bright) , then goes significantly dimmer when you put it in drive, mine would stay at their normal brightness all the time. Which from reading on the forums and facebook a ton of people would prefer them to stay at their brightness setting all the time since people want to see it. I tend to agree with this as even the brightest setting is still NO WHERE near Mercedes brightness and overall interior ambient lighting.
Removing the door panel takes about 3 minutes. It's super easy with a few screws, and all pop clips. I wouldn't worry about rattles because I've now done this bout 5 times and there are zero issues. Just make sure when you push the panel back INTO place you hear the click indicating that the panel is in fact clipped in. Also on my 2020 RCF there was NO wiring harness as I suspect with 2019 and up you will not have any separate wiring harness for the ambient lighting. I found door wiring harness on ebay as well. I think I paid 30 bucks for them and I only needed the OEM ambient lighting connector. With how I have wired and taped everything, it looks OEM. If you did not know my car did not come with ambient lighting you would not know this was an added feature. I doubt even the dealer techs would give this a second glance. Everything looks like it came from the factory., That was important to me. If you don't care for that look you could easily just splice and use generic connectors.
Just a couple pictures. I'm updating my post above so check that if interested.
DONER PANEL:
OEM LED MODULE:
My door panel insert with blank filler plate. OEM led module OEM led module back of oem led module my generic test led strip that does not make the clock stay illuminated. go figure...smh
That's all I got. Hopefully this helps. Lexus should have never removed this feature. It's so wonderfully nice looking and so clean being white glow.
-Nigel
Last edited by nigel821; Dec 12, 2020 at 04:50 PM.
But I am wondering for the second option you'll try on Monday, how will you make it work like that? So have the ambient lighting turn on when the headlights turn on or (auto feature), and then shut off when the headlights turn off with without the brightness availability...what will you do different in connecting compared to option one?
@nigel821
could you show the splicing steps once you tackle the drivers door side please?
If everything else is plug and play except for the actual splicing, that might help for the not so electrical minded among us... as I think that will be the 'hardest' part of this fix.
In terms of having second option. Ambient lighting turning on with the headlights or in the auto mode meaning. If you have the switch in the auto mode and it gets dark your interior lights come on when your headlights do and also the ambient light will come on. They can mainly be turned on or off if you take it out of auto mode or manually put it into the headlight mode above auto (I hope that makes sense). In layman's terms the ambient lighting will come on just like the normal lighting in the car when the headlights come on so you can see them at night, during the day when the headlights are off you won't see the interior lighting or the ambient lighting because they're not turned on.
It's actually very simple I have already probed all the wires in the harness so I already know which wires turn live whenever the headlights turn on. I'll list pictures below but it is the thicker green wire I believe that is only on the one side of the driver's harness switch. (There's more than one green wire but the other green wires I believe are signal wires and they're much thinner you can't miss this thick green wire on the other side of the plug). And the ground is the white wire with black stripe. (I believe above I said it was a black wire with white stripe that is incorrect as you can see in the picture, I wasn't looking when I made the post I just assumed from memory, but I had it backwards..lol)
I can take pictures of how to spice into the wires. It's not a too difficult job and you can go about it many ways. Most shops will probably just use those tap connectors and then wrap it with electrical tape and call it a day. I prefer not to use those type of connectors because they normally fail and or with a vibration of a car they either start to wear away at the wire. I keep my cars for at least 10 years I prefer not to have the car catch on fire.
I will either do two things. First method would be cutting the wire completely in half and then attaching the harness wire onto it and resoldering the wire back together. That way it is one complete wire in a sense and I can completely cover the solder joint in one piece of heat shrink tubing. After that, I would normally wrap it with either the electrical tape or the felt type electrical tape from the factory giving it an OEM appearance look and feel.
The second way is slightly stripping away the insulation from that same wire (if you don't go with method one) and wrapping and soldering the wire around it. This is the least evasive however you cannot put heat shrink tubing on it because there's no way to slide the heat shrink over it. In this method you would use electrical tape to wrap around the solder joint and then you could then use electrical tape or the felt tape around the entire harness again. I did it the first method only because if you pull back all the electrical tape and felt tape you still have heat shrink tubing covering the solder joint which to me is the proper way of doing it. Zero way of wiring getting rubbed through or having a bear solder joint. You don't want bear wires touching metal obviously that's how a car catches fire..lol. Some people just are not comfortable cutting wires in half and I don't blame them. I've had the car for less than a month and I already cut some wires to do some things but you never know unless you took everything apart. Everything I've done looks completely OEM. In fact I dare say if someone removed my door panel and saw the harness they would think that it just came from the factory like that. It doesn't look janky in the least or like some backyard mechanic splice and wires together using those tap lock connectors and called it a day.
Those part numbers you listed are correct and as you can see they are expensive AF! There was no way I wanted to spend $600 on something not knowing if it was even going to work. It would have been a complete kick in the nuts buying those, removing my door panels only to find out that there was no removable insert and the door panels were completely changed. Tere'd be no way of even returning the modules since it's an electrical part, and I doubt if you tried to sell them here on the forum anyone would buy them honestly, not at that cost. I even specifically looked on eBay if I could find just the LED module thinking "oh I'm sure people take these off and sell them because they know what they are". The fact is they aren't, buy they're selling the entire door panel. You can buy the entire door panel way cheaper than just buying the LED module which is crazy. You could in theory even buy the door panel if it's in any decent condition, remove the LED module, sell the door panel and you actually make out in the deal. I thought about that for the first panel, since it was in such pristine condition when I got it from eBay but I just don't have the time to list things and wait for them to sell, etc.
I have to go back to my passenger door on Monday remove the wire that's connected to the pink and attach it to that white wire with a black stripe and then that will come on when the headlights come on. Shouldn't be a hard fix honestly since I already know which wires and what needs to be corrected. I just wish I didn't have to do that I'd love to have them dim with the rest of lights but if it's causing a small quirk then it's not worth it. At first all I wanted was ambient lighting to turn on and off with the interior lights and I accomplished this the first time but then I kept probing and when I found the dimming feature I was like oh this would be nice. I'm bummed but at the same time I shouldn't be because I had no ambient lighting at all now I will have ambient lighting. and in fact when you read the forums in Facebook most people want the ambient lighting to stay at the bright setting all the time rather than dimming down to about 50% and being hardly able to see it at night. These aren't bright even in the bright mode but I think I will enjoy having them stay at their normal brightness since the rest of the interior lights are brighter than these by far especially the gauge cluster. so I'm actually getting a feature that most people want that don't have but they could change it if they wanted to and then they could also have it stay at the single brightness all the time.
Here are some pictures that I have.
Here is the window switch connector on the driver side. On the top row the second wire on the left is the ground. That pinkish wire to the right of the ground is the dimming wire. This is what I initially had tapped and wish it would work however it's creating interference making the clock come on when the car is off. Such a bummer because ideally this is the wire that you would be tapping to get the cool dimming feature. Just a little bit closer picture second wire top left row. White wire with black stripe is the ground. This is the same connector except turn so that you can see the other side. Here you will see the thicker green wire notice it's the only wire on this side. This is the 12-volt wire that will become live when you have your headlights on. Disappear to be the same wires going out to the mirror which I can assume is probably powering the auto dim feature on the driver side mirror I have not probe these yet I'm only showing the colors but these colors match the colors as well in the harness. I can post more information once I probe these as well so this would be also be a possible tap point if you did not want to have to undo some electrical tape. This is the part number on the driver's side. LED module.
-Nigel
Last edited by nigel821; Dec 13, 2020 at 06:53 AM.
Ambient Lighting
as I think that will be the 'hardest' part of this fix.
