Light-bar upgrade for LE and SE

LE and SE don't come with a light bar, which is a huge disappointment, as it ruins the aesthetics of the car at night.

It looks like this could be a very simple upgrade amounting to buying two LED lamps. Perhaps some LE and SE owners could look into this.

LED, rear turn-signal lamp | part # 81965-48030 | Toyota Auto Parts

 

I can't see the actual part numbers for the light-bar LED lamps on Toyota's stripped public parts website other than the 81585 (RH) and 81595 (LH) prefixes. @Hammersmith, perhaps you can see the actual part numbers on TIS.

 

He doesn't need the parts diagrams. He is doing actual observation as opposed to pure theory in that thread. LOL

 

I can't see the rubber grommets, but could you remove them and then shine an LED flashlight through the holes to see if the light bar lights when you do that?

The part number for the Gen 5 Prius/Prius Prime light-bar LED bulbs is 81965-46010, and two are needed.

LED, socket | Toyota part # 81965-46010

Tapping should be trivial. Simply tap each to the taillight in the respective corner using some wire.

 

I have bought perhaps 1,000 parts from the Toyota parts departments to date, and I have seen perhaps tens of thousands of parts diagrams. No part is sold in pairs unless it is specifically labeled a "kit." So, it is not theory but observation.

Moreover, the quantity shown in a part diagram indicates the quantity needed, not the quantity included. So, a "2" in a part diagram means you need to buy two etc.

Screws, clips, small gaskets etc. are typically packaged in bags of ten, but the part number still refers to a single quantity, and you don't get ten of them when you order the part. Occasionally, they will open the bag and leave the quantity you ordered an give them to you in the original bag, and at other times, they will put them in another plain bag. They will put the rest in a labeled bin in the parts department or the distribution center. For example, see the common Toyota OEM oil drain-plug gasket:

 

You are clearly very new to Toyota parts diagrams and lists and you don't understand them.

There isn't "(2)" in the part diagram because they are showing the left and right separately. If they put "(2)," that would make it four needed, like two for the left and two for the right, which would be wrong. It shows as "2 [needed]" in the list and also separately drawn as two in the diagram; so, they are both correct.

The screws on the diagram are shown with numbers in parentheses next to them simply because they are drawn only once. So, that's correct, too.

I ordered many screws and clips in the past, and they are often shown as multiples in the part lists. So, no, if it showed as six clips [needed] in the part list, I didn't get six of them when I ordered a clip—I only got one. Or if I ordered two clips, I got two clips, again not six clips. As I said, they arrive in bags of ten (see my picture above), but you get the quantity you ordered—not six (quantity needed) or ten (quantity in the original bag).

 

No, that is not my interpretation at all.

First, some background: Toyota does not supply parts to dealers. It supplies them to parts-distribution centers. You call the dealer, and they place a "special order" with the parts-distribution center, and the part will arrive from the nearest parts-distribution center. And the part arrives to the parts-distribution center from Japan.

Almost every part, including this LED bulb, is sold as singles. They are neither packaged nor sold as a pair. So, if you order this LED bulb, you will get a single bulb in its original bag or box shipped from Japan, like the following LED bulb (actually this one is from Canada LOL):



The only things that come in multipacks are small parts like clips etc., which come in bags of ten, like my picture of the oil drain-plug gasket above. And, yes, as you said, these small parts will then be taken out of the bag of ten and separated according to the order—either at the distribution center or at the dealer. However, this is never the case with bulbs or bigger parts. Besides, if you put more than one bulb in a bag, they could break.

 

The quantity shown in the parts list is the quantity needed—not the quantity packaged. I have dealt with these Toyota part lists for many years.

I see what you mean though—they didn't bother noting the quantity needed in the parts list for the clips, nuts, etc. but they noted it on the diagram only. That's laziness on Toyota's part.

In any case, we are not only wasting time on trivial things but the thread got hijacked on some back-and-forth on the number of bulbs sold in the package. As I said, I am 100% sure that it is originally packaged and sold as one (1) bulb, but if you are doubtful, a simple call to the parts department will be sufficient. One reason why these parts are packaged and sold as singles is because different cars may use a different number of the same part. The only parts that are packaged in multiples (usually ten but sometimes fewer) in bags are small parts likes clips etc., but they, too, are also sold as singles—you don't get the whole bag when you order one. Moreover, quite often, a customer needs only a single quantity of a part, and therefore, selling more than one at a time would be wasteful.

 

So, returning to the subject of this thread, @Zoomish, could you do the LED-flashlight test I mentioned and let us know? It would be very interesting if this turns out to be an only ~ $100 upgrade involving putting two LED bulbs (part # 81965-46010) and tapping them into the taillights in the corners using some wire.

 

Yes, and some other dealers also put a "free" gasket in the oil-filter box. They cost about a buck each though—perhaps about 50¢ to the dealer. At one point, these gaskets were causing oil leaks because they were made form a very hard springy cork-like material. leading to self-loosening of the oil-drain plug. Toyota eventually replaced them with the blue soft-gasket-material-covered aluminum gaskets I pictured above, which solved the problem. I went ahead and bought a full bag of ten once (it cost me about $10, not about $1 ), and I was able to use less than half of them before my old car got totaled by a hit-and-run driver. My blue 2021 Prius Prime Limited gets a $50 oil-change/tire-rotation/multipoint-inspection service at the dealer under the AdvantageCARE policy every six months.