lexus997

The bulb warning light on the dash was on - walked to the back of the vehicle [2008 RX350], and the left rear parking light was out. I decided to just replace all (4) #168 rear bulbs (parking and brake lights) with Sylvania 168R LED bulbs.

• All four rear lights (parking and brake) are working as expected, but the warning light on the dash is still illuminated
• The rear backup lights work as expected
• The rear turn signals work as expected

Do LED bulbs trigger the warning light on the dash?

Does the warning light on the dash get triggered for anything other than rear bulbs?

DennisMik

LED lamps cause the warning light to come on. The car monitors the electrical current that flows and led lamps use a lot less electrical current so the car will "think" that you have burned out bulbs.

You have to get resistors and wire them in so that more electrical current will flow. The place you bought the led lamps from should be able to help you with this.

Lexuswiz

iTrader: (1)

I play with LEDs on many different cars. All my cars are LED in easy to do places.

I'll tell you this, Toyota/Lexus CANBUS monitors:
Turn signals
Brake Lights/Running Lights

Does not monitor:
Interior
Reverse
License Plate
3rd/Center Brake Light
Front Running Light
DRL

lexus997

Thanks for the feedback.

If I were smart enough, I could probably lower the threshold current for the monitoring circuit ........... or just add the load resistor(s).

ukrkoz

We drove for years with aftermarket bulb in our RX300, all lights working fine and yellow "bad bulb" light in the dash.
If you were smart, you'd take a piece of tape and place over that light. That adjusts current for your eyes just fine.Or, place SO small pic over it, will work as lightening ground for her moods. See, honey, I love you so much...

lexus997

So, here is twist

• When the dashboard warning light was on, I walked around back and it was one of the inner rear 168 bulbs that was burned out - "inner" meaning, one of the rear lights on the lift gate [not the ones located on the body]

However,

• After replacing all 4 of the rear 168 bulbs with the LED 168R bulbs, I just noticed the other night that the running lights are not operating on both outer rear lights - the ones on the body
• These same "outer" bulbs illuminate when the brake pedal is depressed, but the running lights are not operating
• Perhaps this weekend I will find some time to look into it more
• Could be coincidental ........ but my first thing to try will probably be to put the incandescent bulbs back in the outer rear lights

mnewxcv

sometimes the LEDs act funny, or even the car might have an 'if, then' action if it senses burnt out bulbs (like making your rear running lights only work as brake lights if it thinks your brake lights are compromised). Pure speculation there. However, I put LED brake lights in my accord and they worked fine, except when I stepped on the brake I would get static on the radio if it were on. Was the weirdest thing, but replacing the LEDs with regular bulbs fixed it.

ToledoRX

This, LED lamps have a different current and resistance characteristics from halogen lights, which is what triggered your warning lights to come on. Most of the cheap aftermarket LEDs don't have a circuit to regulate the current or voltage. I would try to source a replacement OEM halogen light bulb or pay extra for a Lexus/Toyota replacement light bulb if the warning light bothers you.

perfctreig

Answering an old thread...

...what resistor would one put on to trick the sensors into thinking the LED tail lights were standard? The previous owner put in LED tails, brake, and reverse lights. I could remove them and put in halogen, but was wondering if there was something that would easily intercept the signal to make the car think lights were on.

Nevermind - just found the answer on the next page: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/per...300-sc400.html

molposedra

I've never encountered a problem like this before. As soon as I bought my RX350, I immediately replaced all the bulbs with LED bulbs. The error did not light up on the dashboard. You may have installed LED bulbs that do not fit your car. Try swapping them out or installing other LEDs. If that doesn't help, contact an auto electrician. It may be a voltage issue, as the commenter above wrote. You should also take that into account when choosing LEDs. When I was buying an extra LED strip in my car

Amazon

Amazon

I first made sure that it would work from the voltage supplied to the cigarette lighter.

cfh13427

I've read and been told the if Canbus Type Led bulbs are used, then a Resistor is Not required and the dash Warning light will Not come On.

CPTSOLO

My 2001 GS300 kept showing the tail light error warning on the dash when brake pedal is pressed. Turned out 1 out of 5 small bulbs in the high mount brake light burned out. Lexus spec says bulb type 2825 drawing about 0.4 A, rated 5 watts@12.9V. I could not find this bulb in stores or in eBay/Amazon.

I installed a 168 LED drawing 0.05 A, rated at 0.6W. The bulb worked bright but the tail light error light kept lighting on the dash, apparently triggered by the current drawn reduced by 0.35 A or power consumption down by 4.4 W. I need the dash light to show if any brake bulb burns out, so just swapped in a 194 bulb drawing 0.3 A rated 3.9 W.. That worked. It shut up the dash indicator.

LED bulbs are not recommended for long cycle, heavy duty use like the tail lights or DRL as the heat in the bulb is conducted into wires not radiated like incandescent or Halogen, eventually crack or burn the insulation. It happened in my other cars. LED bulbs in momentary use, like brake light or turn signals, should be OK as they don't stay on long and heat up the wires.

A good auto electric tech warned me that he had seen a lot of problems caused by LED bulbs in cars. He showed me the wires in my LED tail lights cracked up and crumpled, exposing copper wires. He had to tape those wires up. Use LED bulbs only where they don't stay on long time..

Margate330

Hi CPTSOLO, I see this is your first post and posting helpful info so +1
Welcome to Club Lexus!

CPTSOLO

I am glad to share my experience so other car owners can avoid problems and headache.

LeX2K

Have you tested this? What is the wire temperature difference.