I have gone into the house too many times with the trunk not latched but down enough that I can't see it is up, apparently enough to keep the useless, poorly mounted and dim non LED bulbed dual trunk lights on, so that it drains the battery dead overnight.

I was goinog to replace with a 8 ft reel of led "tape" but I fear that alone will worsen the error result.

Has anyone seen a SIMPLE automatic off timer? There's somoething on AMazon but it is said to be diff. to wire. Can anyone tell me where I would cut wires to put this in, and if not that, just a rocker switch to keep them off?

A schematic is ok, but more experience: what do others do? How long a strand of led tape (ten little squrish .1 w ea, or ..10 a foot. Would it do better having 2 4 foot strands, one to each light blulb (stock) pllug?

 

Replace them with LED. Our tailgate is so heavy that if you just let it drop for a foot and a half, it will shut close. Unless you have very strong lift supports....

 

I agree with Mandyfig, replacing the bulbs with LEDs is fairly easy and will likely eliminate dead batteries that result from an open trunk.

 

I did the LED replacement for trunk bulbs myself - pop off cover, take old filament bulb out, insert LED, pop cover back on. Pretty easy. And the lights look better when I open the trunk now.

 

I did the same too. Much better looking and brighter.

Ian B

 

I have never done it before, but you can try wiring these into your trunk lights. That way the lights only come on when you are moving around in front of the trunk.

However, if you forget to close the lid, I bet these will still draw power, so they can sense when there is motion before them. This would NOT solve your overall problem.

 

Here is another option. I got it for my 2018 Camry and worked flawless.


Ian B

 

Get rid of that #194 lamp for the trunk that produces practically no lumen output and replace it with a plug & play LED Board SMD12 cluster card for $14 from Diode Dynamics.

 

Wow, that's a huge difference. Thanks bclexus

 

but this is not sc430 trunk, is it? in sc430 the lights are on the sides, and once replaced by leds are pretty bright, i think i bought 10 for about 7-8 bucks

 

Not sure on the SC430 but on my GS430 I adjusted the torsion bars that assist opening the trunk to a lower level and now my trunk closes tight every time. Another solution would be to get in the habit of locking the car with the keyless before going inside for the night. If any doors or the trunk are open, you won’t be able to lock up the car with the keyless remote. So anytime your going inside and your lights don’t flash, you’ll know something isn’t closed.

 

I just replaced my trunk struts. It’s now little heavier to pull down but the trunk shuts very close. My trunk lights are also LEDs and they are bright.