LED lights???

Buy high quality leds

 

They’ll flicker and not last long if buy cheap ones. Not standard because your coming from the future going to back old technology. It’s like Kids asking how come you cant fast forward or jump to the next song quickly on a record like a CD? Because CDs didn’t exist in the 70s.

 

I would love to do this on my Gen2... The problem that's always been in the way of it is no one has bothered to put a kit, or even just a list of every bulb that you need to switch. So one bulb at a time you have to figure out how to switch it out without creating problems from a much lower voltage draw that LED have compared to regular.

 

page 423 of the online manual has the bulbs. You could also go to sylvania-automotive dot com and use the bulb replacement guide. I used that to find the kind of bulbs I needed, then went online.

 

I don't have any incandescent bulbs left on my car. Just make sure you buy quality bulbs (I used Philips replacements for all the 194/wedge base bulbs--dome/map lights, puddle lights, license plate lights, etc., and VLED Tritons for the turn signals and reverse lights) and they should last the life of the car. You'll need to replace the thermal flasher relay with an electronic relay so the turn signals don't hyperflash, but that's straightforward and cheap; there are a few threads on here that go over the process of swapping it out.

 

cost

 

High prices don't guarantee long lasting LEDs. I'm particularly burned out (pun intended) on LED license plate lights that start flickering and burning out in less than a year. They go from awesome to embarrassing and you don't even notice until you happen to walk around behind the car while the lights are on at night.

For lights that are not on constantly (i.e. signals, interior illumination) I'm perfectly happy.

But I ended up putting the incandescents back in the license plate because I don't want to be seen on the road flickering like some kind of chump.

 

I bought a complete LED set online for the interior and learned a good lesson or two.

First, the dome and trunk are different sizes, so the trunk light was useless.
Second, the door lights are not enclosed . . . so they blow the fuse when you try to install them in the door. Useless.

For those, and the license plates, I went higher cost sylvania.

I am super happy with the result.

 

I'll be interested to know if your Sylvania plate lights stand the test of time.

 

I replaced all of mine with vled LEDs. no issues with interior lights other than they are really bright. also did switchbacks in the front blinker. headlight is his. I still need to do the running lights. oh and bought led fog lights that came with housing.

Pixel 3a XL ?

 

Yep, learned this the hard way on my last car where I replaced the parking lights/turn signals with expensive VLEDs that still burned out in a couple years. The always-on lamps on the Prius (license plate, side markers) I'm using name-brand Philips, so far so good a few years in.

 

I also have a combo of Philips and VLEDs. So far, no issues either. I did have issues when I bought that crappy kit from iJDM.. Dont get their LEDs.. awful.

Toyota doesnt do it from the factory because its expensive. Which is why most cars offer and LED upgrade package.

 

I tried the LED's from eBay (supposedly white but they lit up blue) and they ended up burning out right away and flickering all the time. I swapped out to the Philips ones from Walmart. Definitely worth the extra few dollars as they were way brighter and actually lit up white.

 

Or...you could enjoy the reliability and inexpensive operational cost, of the original OEM incandescent and halogen lights, and NOT go through the expense and hoops of adapting a system to accept something it was not designed to operate with in the first place. Which is really going to do nothing much but offer you the relatively hollow "panache" of being able to say you have LED lights.

 

12V LED bulbs are designed to be direct replacements. And they don't "do nothing"; with the different available color temperatures, they completely change the look of interior and exterior lights and allow for a degree of customization; they draw a fraction of the current of incandescent bulbs; they light much more quickly, which completely changes how turn signals and flashers look; and quality LEDs have a lifespan an order of magnitude longer than an incandescent. And in the world of modifying cars, there's not much "expense and hoops" to swapping out a few bulbs unless you're not mechanically inclined at all.

 

Color temperatures mean very little to me. In the end, light is light, I want enough light to see safely. I want enough light to illuminate my interior.
As far as LED's lighting "much more quickly"...I've never found myself waiting for an incandescent or halogen bulb. If LED's are quicker to light, I think we are talking about nano-fractions of a second, so minimal as to be a non-factor.
I'm also not that concerned about the electric "draw". Again the car came from the factory with the bulbs and electrical system it has, it's designed to handle the electric draw.

LED's are the higher end option. I think they are the future. On more and more vehicles LED lights are what comes from the factory. But for me? I'm perfectly OK with the lighting as factory equipped.

If you want to go to the trouble and expense of switching it all out, more power to you. For me personally, it's not a modification that interests me, or that I find is enough of total end value to justify the trouble.

Someday probably relatively soon, we may not have the option, that is....cars will have LED lighting by factory default. But until then, I'm OK with incandescent and halogen. Which I think given reliability and relative economical cost, are maligned unfairly. As a lighting option...it's worked for decades and IMO continues to work.

 

As long as you're fine with replacing them in sometimes awkward positions.... and the dangerous heat they produce... incandescents are still the cheaper option. But wow. LEDs are not the lights of the future. They're the lights of now. In fact they're the lights of the past, but today we're solidly in the LED now.

 

Cadillac was the first OEM to use LED brake lights back in the late 90s; one of their stated reasons for doing so was the faster light time. Also why the Gen 2 Prius has LED brake lights, but incandescent tails--a fraction of a second in response time by a following car can mean the difference between a close call and a rear ender.

It isn't about the wiring not being able to handle the current of incandescent bulbs; it's about using less energy for the lights, energy which ultimately comes from gasoline. Take LED headlights for instance--55 watts for a halogen lowbeam vs. 11 watts for a Koito single-LED emitter. The better distance lighting of the LEDs is a nice side benefit, and as LEDs have come down in price we've seen LED headlights come standard on lots of cars, the first being the 2014 Corolla.

Lots of cars already do, e.g. the Prius Prime's exterior lights are all LED, and the 86, and the Honda CR-V, and the new Ram, and the Mustang, and most Audis, and....

To each his own.

 

As you say, to each their own.
And this is a thread about LED lighting and LED lighting options, so I shouldn't be surprised to find people that have done it, and support the modification.

But I'm not buying this.

I've never read, or heard of any evidence or study that would suggest LED tail lights are safer than incandescent tail lights because of some unproven nano-second response time.
I mean come on, before LED technology existed and moved into vogue, everyone had tail lights based on bulb technology. You press your brake...they nearly instantaneously light up, whether that's LED or Incandescent.
I'm simply not buying that LED's are appreciably "safer" in that situation or application.

I've never heard a rear end accident defended because a driver said they pushed their brakes but their incandescent tail light was too slow to light.

Even though incandescent bulbs are the older technology, and I believe probably on the way out, even a incandescent bulb tail light is not a radio tube that needs to warm up, nor is it a whale oil lamp.

I'm just not buying the premise that LED tail lights are safer, because of what I would believe MIGHT be a nearly imperceptible difference in response time. It's the HUMAN response time, both in pressing the brakes and reacting that matters.
If there is a difference in response time for the LED's vs. Bulbs , it has to be so minimal as to be a non-factor.