triplecore

I have 04 RX 330 and from my understanding my headlight comprises of a HID for low beam, a halogen for the high beam and a smaller halogen for the DRL.

Is is possible to replace the bulb with LED and has anyone done something similar and can post a picture?

Lastly am I am able to easily access the Highbeam and DRL bulb because they always seemed blocked by something.

ps. I have it posted in the lighting section, but no one seems to know, maybe you guys can help better.

boaclub923

um, which lightbulb u want to change to LED?
DRL and high beam is changable...
there is special types LED DRL light bulb
it's been discuss alot in GS350 third generation section with lots pix

bottom line... if u just want fancy looking, go for it
for practical purpose? it's a junk, dont' wast ur money for it

exmeaguy

Replace the driving light with a LED since it is just to illuminate your presence to other drivers, but does not need to project a beam for your own vision.

For the high-beam, if you don't like the yellow-ish tint of the halos then I would only recommend going with Silverstars or another off-brand to make a whiter light, but with some loss in lumens.

yippeeiaye

DRL & the high beam are one light, both from the 9005 bulb. DRL runs at 50% of the voltage of the high beam, that why it looks yellow at half the intensity. If you change the 9005 to LED light, you will lose your high beam. If you don't like the yellow DRL, you could disable the DRL if it's possible. Better to change the parking light or license plate light to LED, which is easy to do for about $13 & doesn't affect any lighting options.

triplecore

I am thinking about the plate lights. The RX headlights confuse me because I am pretty sure I see three bulbs; I ll take picture tomorrow and upload them maybe someone can explain it to me.

Regarding the plates how hard is it to get back their? I read that you have pull the interior on the trunk. And that scares me!

yippeeiaye

The outside lights are your low beam HID if you have them. The inner lights has two bulbs, one at top is the parking light (bulb 168) & at bottom is the high beam & DRL (9005 bulb).

To change the license plate light, you remove the uncarpet hatch cover. Start at one end & firmly pry open the cover. The hatch cover is held by 10 plastic tabs that pop out of holes, so you have to pry it open. Once you get one end of the tabs pop out of the holes & can stick your hand into the cover, it become easy to remove the cover. With your hand in the cover just press down & the rest of the tabs will easily be out. But don't rip out the cover because the trunk light is still attach which you will have to disconnect.

You will notice that the license plate light & parking light both use the same 168 bulb.
But when you buy LEDs for the parking light & license plate light, the 2 LEDs are not the same; make sure it is for the parking light & license plate light because there are 2 sizes. The parking light LED won't fit in the license plate light because it is too tall. The license plate LED is shorter. The license plate LED looks really nice at night compared to incandescent bulb, same with the parking light.

1koolfella

iTrader: (1)

which one do you believe would have an effect on rear view camera? The back up tail light or the license plate bulb.

Adamjeeps

You would want to get brighter back up bulbs to illuminate the area behind you. The plate bulbs fire straight down at the bumper.

neelnaik

I currently have LED DRL's and LED front parking lights. With the DRLs, you basically have to sacrifice your high beam because the LEDs are simply not bright enough. However, with factory HIDs, I don't remember the last time I had to even use the high beams. The only really benefit of LED DRL's is that they look really cool and are unique because not very people do them. I can post pictures of them if you would like. The front parking light lights up the high beam area of the housing when the low beams are on. I switched them to LED to better match the color of the low beam. Also, I have also switched to 6000K HID fog light bulbs for more light output and so all the lights on the front end are the same color(ish). If you want pictures or more info about any of the above just let me know.

mowmow

At 6000k (true light is at 5000K, anything above is useless ) it's more for color show than actual making any difference on the road. I disable my factory DRL and place a strip of flat led as DRL on the light housing instead. I also have PIAA reverse and license plate extreme white led bulb for over 3 years now. So far so good.

Jumper73

^Actually true light would be 4300k at about 3200 lumens (best light output). For fogs you would want around 3000k (which still emitts about 3100 lumens) which would typically be deep yellow in color. This would put out the best "penetrating" light which you would want in fog/adverse weather conditions.

@ 6000k, you are putting out about 2800 lumens which is obviously less output but cooler blue hue.

3000k = 3100 lumens (Golden Yellow)
4300k = 3200 lumens (True White)
5000k = 3000 lumens (White with hint of blue)
6000k = 2800 lumens (Light Blue)
8000k = 2550 lumens (Deep Blue)
10000k = 2200 lumens (Light Purple)
12000k = 2000 lumens (Deep purple)

Comparison:

Candle light = 12 lumens
60watt Incandescent light = 840 lumens

neelnaik

Yes you guys are absolutely right. 6000K does not put out as much light as some of the more yellower colors do, but it is still a huge step up from the halogens. Plus they look really cool.

1koolfella

iTrader: (1)

I'm going to try out the PIAA HYPER DIMPLE SUPER LED which they say is 6000K for the reverse lamps and some other smd LEDS for the license plate that I've picked up from Ebay. I'm hoping the PIAA LED bulb is worth it.

I had already purchased a set of CREE LED 9005 bulbs for the drl/high beam but it wasn't bright enough at all. So I'd modified the housing so that it could fit a 9006 socket which the fog lights use. (although 9005 normally use a higher wattage bulb than the 9006, but figured since they are led & use less wattage it should not burn out the housing.) Now I have cool blue fog lights, not sure how useful they will be in bad weather but right now they look much better than the stock halogen lamps.

neelnaik

Yeah they unfortunately don't make drop in LEDs that are bright enough to be used as an effective high beam (at least not that I know of).

RXHybrid08

How did you disable the DRL? I am thinking to do the same like you with the LED strips too. Did you hook it to the DRL wiring as well?