LED Upgrade Guide
Intermediate
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 494
Likes: 5
From: MA
Jin,
How do you replace the fog lights? Is is not plug and play like the DRLs? Some said yes plug and play, other said need to do something with the ballast. I'm confused. I hope they are easy to replace like the DRLs.
How do you replace the fog lights? Is is not plug and play like the DRLs? Some said yes plug and play, other said need to do something with the ballast. I'm confused. I hope they are easy to replace like the DRLs.
Intermediate
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 494
Likes: 5
From: MA
Hic hic. I wish i can have any color like you guys suggest. No only white fogs, white parking lights. I got couple tickets because of colors for the outside. I'm in MA so only interior ok to be colorful. Where should i have interior red/purple LED? Should i change every door light to different color instead of all green now?
No, I don't play soccer!
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 6,652
Likes: 177
From: NJ
sweet, I was only busting ya. I appreciate your colorful RX 
I have 6K HIDs in mine, they're super bright white, no hint of blue. I can see an ant cross the road at night
You should be fine with 5K. The 4300K OEMs are too yellow for me. My installer put in ballasts with the new bulbs. Overall the bulbs are not hard to change out. You can go through the bottom too.
Go ahead and change the interior bulbs to different colors. That'll be wild.
I have 6K HIDs in mine, they're super bright white, no hint of blue. I can see an ant cross the road at night
You should be fine with 5K. The 4300K OEMs are too yellow for me. My installer put in ballasts with the new bulbs. Overall the bulbs are not hard to change out. You can go through the bottom too.Go ahead and change the interior bulbs to different colors. That'll be wild.
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 23
Likes: 0
From: CA
Well, I've finished int/ext light facelift. Hopefully this is the end of my mod bug. After some trial and errors, I came up with the best combination/match of bulbs for RX, so I liked to share. This posting is about the "type" of bulbs, not about instructions (which you can find them here, here, and here). Thanks so much for very useful information in the links.
[Interior Light Bulbs]
In general, all you need is small thin flat bed driver (cover the blade with some maksing tapes). Carefully insert the driver, put some pressure sideways and pull out the lenz at the same time. All similar and easy to do except vanity light which you want to pullout the housing per Anita's instruction (see the last link above). I simply summarized what other members posted here and there in this forum.
1. Dome(Type:194/168/2825) Front (x2) vs Rear (x1)
Front Dome Light takes two bulbs and pointing downward, while rear takes only one projecting sideways. By having two 4xSMD for front, and one 6xSMD as in the picture, interior looks and feels more balanced.
2. Vanity(Type:194/168/2825) (x2)
The vanity bulbs point sideways and the bulb is similar to rear dome bulbs shown above except it has 4 SMDs instead of 6. The right lumen for this kind of LED is 70, but most of them in ebay are 40 or less. That's perfect for vanity lights, since it lights in front of your eyes. You don't want them too bright.
3. Footwell(Type:194/168/2825) (x2)
or
Footwell bulbs point downward, and I personally used the 8xSMD. This area tend to get dirty, so if you don't want show how lazy you are, then 4xSMD may be better choice.
4. Door(Type:194/168/2825) Front (x2) & Rear (x2)
You want the brightest output possible for door lights. 13xSMDs
5. Cargo(Type:3175 or 3528 Any Festoon with right size will do) (x3)
These are the only non-194 type bulbs for RX interior, but 27mm-29mm is the right size. 31mm can do with a bit of modification as shown in the link above.
[Exterior]
1. Puddle(Type:194/168/2825) x2
Puddle lights point sideways, so obviously this bulb is most efficient. With proper manufacturing, this should produce 125 lumen (vs 70 lumen for 4xSMD). You want the brightest output possible for puddle lights.
2. Parking(Type:194/168/2825)
or
If you use high lumen LED (ie 8xSMD), you may get purplish light due to the reflection and coating of the lenz. This problem only exist for parking light. I personally chose 4xSMD one, which turns out more pure white and matches better with HID. There are no LED bulbs which can do perfect color match with your OEM HID. Philips offers 4100K OEM HID match LEDs, but I haven't tried them.
3. DRL(Type:9005)
This is 102xSMDs which rated at 460 lumen, which is the best I've seen. I recommend to use decoder with this bulbs. Even if this is the best solution I can find, but it's still nowhere near Philips LED DRL (stick like shape, which you can find from latest European cars, BMW sells this as OEM part. One of my car has this, and it's crazy bright). Other than that, I am happy with the solution. I've seen some members use blue tinted bulbs for DRL, and that's great alternative only if you are OK with the blue hue reflection when off.
4. Reverse(Type:921)
102xSMDs rated at 460 lumen.
5. Turn Signals(Type:992) Front(x2) Rear(x2)
Chrome coated bulbs - just to get rid of amber. Don't overpay for this. You can find cheapos easily and they last long time in my experience.
6. Fog(Type:H11)
For fog lights, I am only interested in color matching with 4300K OEM HID, so I installed Putco Mirror White (which is advertised 4100K). I heard good things about HOEM Xenon match bulbs too, but I prefer lighter blue tint in Putco. (To be fair, it's not a big deal, since there is virtually no blue/yellow hue reflection thanks to the location of fog light housing and their recessed shape) For those who want usable light output in foggy situation, aftermarket 3000K HID kit or Putco Jet Yellow should be right choice. This kind of blue/yellow tinted bulbs are notorious for short lifetime, but Hoen and Puto have built their solid reputation. We will see how they will hold up.
If you buy from the right place, the cost is very reasonable. My total cost was under $140.
[Interior Light Bulbs]
In general, all you need is small thin flat bed driver (cover the blade with some maksing tapes). Carefully insert the driver, put some pressure sideways and pull out the lenz at the same time. All similar and easy to do except vanity light which you want to pullout the housing per Anita's instruction (see the last link above). I simply summarized what other members posted here and there in this forum.
1. Dome(Type:194/168/2825) Front (x2) vs Rear (x1)
Front Dome Light takes two bulbs and pointing downward, while rear takes only one projecting sideways. By having two 4xSMD for front, and one 6xSMD as in the picture, interior looks and feels more balanced.
2. Vanity(Type:194/168/2825) (x2)
The vanity bulbs point sideways and the bulb is similar to rear dome bulbs shown above except it has 4 SMDs instead of 6. The right lumen for this kind of LED is 70, but most of them in ebay are 40 or less. That's perfect for vanity lights, since it lights in front of your eyes. You don't want them too bright.
3. Footwell(Type:194/168/2825) (x2)
or Footwell bulbs point downward, and I personally used the 8xSMD. This area tend to get dirty, so if you don't want show how lazy you are, then 4xSMD may be better choice.
4. Door(Type:194/168/2825) Front (x2) & Rear (x2)
You want the brightest output possible for door lights. 13xSMDs
5. Cargo(Type:3175 or 3528 Any Festoon with right size will do) (x3)
These are the only non-194 type bulbs for RX interior, but 27mm-29mm is the right size. 31mm can do with a bit of modification as shown in the link above.
[Exterior]
1. Puddle(Type:194/168/2825) x2
Puddle lights point sideways, so obviously this bulb is most efficient. With proper manufacturing, this should produce 125 lumen (vs 70 lumen for 4xSMD). You want the brightest output possible for puddle lights.
2. Parking(Type:194/168/2825)
or If you use high lumen LED (ie 8xSMD), you may get purplish light due to the reflection and coating of the lenz. This problem only exist for parking light. I personally chose 4xSMD one, which turns out more pure white and matches better with HID. There are no LED bulbs which can do perfect color match with your OEM HID. Philips offers 4100K OEM HID match LEDs, but I haven't tried them.
3. DRL(Type:9005)
This is 102xSMDs which rated at 460 lumen, which is the best I've seen. I recommend to use decoder with this bulbs. Even if this is the best solution I can find, but it's still nowhere near Philips LED DRL (stick like shape, which you can find from latest European cars, BMW sells this as OEM part. One of my car has this, and it's crazy bright). Other than that, I am happy with the solution. I've seen some members use blue tinted bulbs for DRL, and that's great alternative only if you are OK with the blue hue reflection when off.
4. Reverse(Type:921)
102xSMDs rated at 460 lumen.
5. Turn Signals(Type:992) Front(x2) Rear(x2)
Chrome coated bulbs - just to get rid of amber. Don't overpay for this. You can find cheapos easily and they last long time in my experience.
6. Fog(Type:H11)
For fog lights, I am only interested in color matching with 4300K OEM HID, so I installed Putco Mirror White (which is advertised 4100K). I heard good things about HOEM Xenon match bulbs too, but I prefer lighter blue tint in Putco. (To be fair, it's not a big deal, since there is virtually no blue/yellow hue reflection thanks to the location of fog light housing and their recessed shape) For those who want usable light output in foggy situation, aftermarket 3000K HID kit or Putco Jet Yellow should be right choice. This kind of blue/yellow tinted bulbs are notorious for short lifetime, but Hoen and Puto have built their solid reputation. We will see how they will hold up.
If you buy from the right place, the cost is very reasonable. My total cost was under $140.
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