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Are inside overhead light bulbs LED's?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by claudehayden, Aug 30, 2009.

  1. claudehayden

    claudehayden New Member

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    I accidently left on the right side overhead light after I wrote some mileage notes. I checked the 12v battery after 3 hrs when I remembered I had left the light on and to my surprise the battery read
    12.5 V. which for my 2010 is the normal voltage. I had expected the
    voltage to drop somewhat but since it didn't I am quessing that the
    light bulbs are led's.

    Can anyone comment.

    Thanks!!!
     
  2. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Is that voltage with no load? 12.5 volts is low for a fully charged 12V battery at no load.

    Tom
     
  3. claudehayden

    claudehayden New Member

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    =======================

    That is with no load. (accessory switch on but no radio, navi, a/c etc
    turned on) The 12v batt has always read 12.5 v with just
    the accessories switch on. Car is new on 7/12/09 with 800 miles.
     
  4. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    only the overhead ambient light and the footwell lighting are LEDs. Oh i guess the glovebox light is too.
     
  5. a64pilot

    a64pilot Active Member

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    Doesn't this car have "retained accessory power" or something that removes power after a short time, so that even if you leave things on, the car turns them off?
    And yes if I remember correctly a fully charged 12V battery should show about 13V, of course we and almost all cars have a 14V system, not 12V as most think
     
  6. HI MPG

    HI MPG Active Member

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    Tideland is correct. The other lights are regular bulbs. I did change mine out to LEDs though, which gives the interior a cool white glow. It now matches the LED that spotlights the gear change lever.
     
  7. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Yup. 43 secs. She was referring to the maplight which does not turn off automatically

    Pics? :D
     
  8. HI MPG

    HI MPG Active Member

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    Okay... here are some quick pictures. One shows the difference between the LED and the regular bulb. I didn't have much time to play with the camera to get some better pictures. I'll try to get some better pictures, maybe right after sunset when the lighting is a little better.
     

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  9. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    What did you use for the map/personal lights? I have the bulbs for the dome and cargo light but not for the personal/map light. I'd like to get a set for the licence plate but i don't know what to get.
     
  10. HI MPG

    HI MPG Active Member

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    I went with the WLED x4 (194/188) white bulbs on superbrightleds.com. These are the replacements for the glass wedge bulbs. I think they might be the same for the license plate lights, but seeing that you have to pop off the entire plastic cover to get to the bulbs, I decided against changing those out. Hope that helps.
     
  11. kaptmorgan

    kaptmorgan Junior Member

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    Very Cool I will change mine thanks.:)
     
  12. claudehayden

    claudehayden New Member

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    My thanks to everyone for all the replies. I have the answer to my question!
     
  13. claudehayden

    claudehayden New Member

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    My thanks to everyone for all the comments. I have the answer to my question!
     
  14. Jon S

    Jon S Member

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    you do not have to remove the entire cover to change the license bulbs... inside the hatch are two cutouts with plastic covers that pop right off. You have to pry them off by inserting a flat edge screwdriver on the TOP edge as the bottom edge is hinged.

    The license lamps uses the same one as the parking lights, W5W lamps. the fixture is very finicky to put back as the tabs are a bit hard to align.
     
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