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LED Light Bulb Replacement

70K views 85 replies 44 participants last post by  4rapid 
#1 · (Edited)
Ok, so I'm slowly going through the vehicle figuring out what the bulbs are and how to swap out. Wanted a place to document this so others can reference if they also wish to change out.

So there's another thread (www.ghibliforum.com/forum/electronics-audio-lighting/10985-rear-plate-light.html) where I found the rear plates use 36mm festoon LEDs so won't get into that too much, but the ones I have are these:
6411/ 6413/ 6418/ C6W LED 36mm (5000K) - $20.00 : AZN Optics, Your SOURCE for Automotive LED and HID Lighting!

The interior trunk uses two 194 wedge bulbs and are a simple clip cover that slides off by shifting the cover to the side. The inner region of the bulb cover flips/pivots off. I've swapped them for bright white LED version which does a better job illuminating the trunk space. The ones I have are these:
194/ 168/ T10/ 2825/ 2821/ W5W LED (5000K) V3 [194 168 T10 2825 2821 W5W] - $19.00 : AZN Optics, Your SOURCE for Automotive LED and HID Lighting!

OEM:


Popped cover out:


Pivot open cover to access and remove bulb:


Swapped for bright white LEDs:


Comparison between OEM on left and LED on right:



Under the front and rear side doors are your puddle lights which help illuminate the ground before you step out of your car and can save your shoes from stepping in something you'd rather not. These use four 194 wedge bulbs and utilize the same clip cover as previously mentioned. You probably didn't even know you had these puddle lights and that's simply because the OEM bulbs just aren't bright enough. Put in bright white LEDs and functionality becomes obvious. Once again, I used these from AZN Optics:
194/ 168/ T10/ 2825/ 2821/ W5W LED (5000K) V3 [194 168 T10 2825 2821 W5W] - $19.00 : AZN Optics, Your SOURCE for Automotive LED and HID Lighting!

Popping off cover and pivoting to gain access to the OEM bulb:


OEM light as reflected on ground:


Replaced with bright white LED:


LED Light as reflected on the ground:


Captured comparison between front door with LED and rear door with OEM:
 
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#7 ·
As someone who works in the lighting industry and with LEDs though not automotive I have reservations about installing LED "lamps" in place of conventional ones unless they have been approved by the manufacturer of the car and the lamp.

Perhaps you will have no problems but there are so many low quality Chinese LEDs on the market that unless you know what you are doing it can be a minefield.
 
#9 ·
One thing I forgot to mention... These 194 wedge bulbs are polarity dependent so when you plug them in, you have a 50/50 shot of getting it right the first time. If the light doesn't come on, just take it out, flip it, and plug back in.
 
#12 ·
Yeah, not hard. It just pops off with a flat head screwdriver or a pick tool. I think the plate, door puddle, and trunk are the easiest to replace. Going to start looking at the rest slowly now and see how easy or hard to replace. I'll post success/failure here on this thread as I go along.
 
#14 ·
Yes, I work with them. There are cheaper options out there, but like most things, it's what's on the inside that counts. Although exterior chip layout might look similar, components are different. The SMDs used are strictly CREE and Toyoda Gosei and assembly is done in Japan.
 
#17 ·
I am interested in putting in white bulbs for the interior lights that are under the dash under each front seat, does anyone know where to get the bulbs for that and which ones to get? I looked down there and they are really small lights so they probably are special kinds of bulbs?
 
#22 ·
Many thanks to aznwhip for the LED bulb sized. I swapped out the bulbs in about 20 minutes. A couple of helpful hints. Each plastic bulb cover has a slit that you can use a flathead screwdriver to easily pop the cover off. You should not have to force any of the covers off! Second, the OEM bulbs get very hot, very quickly. So I recommend using a cloth while taking out the original bulbs.

Question for those who have replaced the license plate bulbs. Have any of you gotten a license plate light warning on your steering wheel screen? It comes up for a second and then disappears. I've checked several times and the bulbs are lit properly.
 
#25 ·
Hi, does the car give any error messages once they are swapped in the cabin? Also did u swap the trunk lid lights? I know someone who change the bulbs in the trunk lid that illuminate the licence plate, and car gave him an error code... Have you changed those yet?
 
#27 · (Edited)
Ok... had a couple hours to kill so took a look. Played around with the footwell, could reach behind to where the connector was, but couldn't figure out how to disconnect the bulb by touch so would have to remove the bottom plastic shield which didn't feel like figuring out for now so went on to the rear dome as that seemed like the less daunting of the interior.

With a plastic wedge tool, working around the edges, it was fairly easy to pop the housing off:


As you can see the rear dome housing is held by 6 clips (2 on each long side, and 1 on short side:


There are three bulbs in there that can be removed from the rear plug by the twist knob (I removed the center one to show):


All three bulbs use 194 wedge bulbs and plug right into the twist socket as shown here:


Now here's the tricky part and took me the better part of 2 hours trying to puzzle this back... The housing unit is attached by clipping into a metal floating bracket that clamps it down between the headliner. The problem is, the bracket is floating and without being able to get my hand behind to brace it as I push the housing back in, I couldn't catch the clip. I tried all the tools I had... angled pick tool was very close (and sliced 3 fingers), but couldn't get all sides to clip in.


Took a frustration break to step back and look at it again and decided to try dental floss. I looped dental floss on all the clip holes, pulled down and pushing the housing up. 6 extremely satisfying clicks later, finally was done.


I'm going to assume that the front dome is similar and also uses 3 sets of 194 wedge LEDs as the housing looks fairly similar. For the front dome, I might be able to apply back pressure by way of opening the moonroof and see if there's a gap to the bracket. Project for another day.

Anyways enjoy.
 
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