Okay guys, before I get flamed, I have read many threads about interior LED light mods and have a few basic questions that I did not get clearly from the threads.

First: does converting to interior LED lights (basic swap of the dome and door lights) cause any problems with warning lights or electrical issues?

Second: IJDMtoy has a kit for my 2007 TL for the domes and doors. I am too lazy to look up everything and order by the bulb and just want simplicity. Has anyone every used these before?

Thanks for the help.

 

The first answer is no.

I am not sure about the second

 

For your second question, I just bought these lights separately, but JLC has a kit for the interior.

http://www.jlclightings.com/Super-Br...sku_pkg013.htm

 

I just got a kit from ebay for the domes doors and trunk for 30. They work great and super bright

 

can you supply the link for the lights you bought?

assuming you got white, how is the color?

 

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewi...id=40172534321
They're super bright and very clear. I love it. Looks much more luxurious in my opinion.

Edit. I'm on my phone so I'm not if the link would be correct if your on a desktop. But I searched "04 tl led interior lights" and it was the first option

 

No warning lights or electrical issues. I used the SMD kit from JLC. Bright white lighting, it'll definitely make you happy. The kit has enough bulbs to change out the door lights, front dome, and rear dome. You'll need more LEDs if you want to change out things such as the vanity mirrors, glove box, license plate, etc.

 

thanks for the update...fyre flys is the seller i was looking at.
sucks they cant just add 2 more for the vanity lights

 

Here's what I did 5 years ago using SuperBright LEDs and the bulbs have worked well:

Quantity: 2
Product: 921-x9 Wedge Base LED bulb $ 1.95 (each)
Options: Blue 1.50
==> Front Door puddle lights

Quantity: 4
Product: 921-x9 Wedge Base LED bulb $ 1.95 (each)
Options: White 1.75

==> Domes - I'm sure there are better choices now but these work fine for me


Quantity: 3
Product: 74 Wedge Base LED bulb $ 1.19 (each)
Options: White

==> Trunk & License

I had problems with flickering for the license plate last year and now have these:

Qty | Product / Options | Price/ea |
================================================== ==========
4 | WLED-xHP High Power LED bulb | $ 4.95 |
Cool White WLED-WHP

Now I have a couple extra and much brighter license plate lights

 

Youll be fine. I went with IJDM i think. One of their 9led ones for the front door is messing up a bit - 1 of the 9 leds flicker a bit. But other than that, very easy install. Really cant go wrong.

 

I wish they woulda thrown in 2 extra for the tag lights! I'm not real.concerned about the vanity lights. Plus my girlfriend said she likes the led lights but didn't want me to do the vanity because she wants to be able to check her make up under more "sun light color" light so that her make up would look the same in every light blah blah blah blah...women...

 

I ordered IJDMtoy wide angle led interior lights and also the license plate LED's (pure white).

I'm looking forward to the led look. My previous car, BMW 325i, had led lighting and it looked great.

 

got a link??

 

Yes: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...2FWLED-xHP.htm

 

^^ does it also bright up the rear bumper and the ground?? i need sth really bright

 

^These do a decent job and is noticeably brighter than my original bulbs. I bought it because of the brightness and these bulbs are lighter than my originals. Now that you have the link you can compare lumens to other choices because there are probably even brighter bulbs now offered. I liked the <$5 price.

I think slamming the trunk 100's of times might affect certain LEDs based on my last set- they started flickering after 3 years so that was probably 1000 slams of the trunk for me.

 

I don't know I found this funny for some reason.

 

Installed the IJDM ones yesterday. They look good. The license plate ones are brighter than the stock bulbs and help the backup camera image a little at night. Thinking about doing the reverse lights now. I'll do a little searching, but do those need any decoders or are they plug n play?

Thanks.

 

Pretty sure the cree reverse lights from jlclighting.com are plug n play. I just ordered a set for mine along with license plate bulbs

 

Does anyone think if this white LED interior kit would match up well with a tan TL interior? I was thinking maybe a blue LED kit to match the gauges of the vehicle as well. Thoughts?

 

If you want light that IS NOT USABLE to see things in the car at night, than go for blue. Also, all blue interior lights looks like a teenager modded the car. Looks lame imo. Keep it simple, put blue LEDs on the doors so it lights the ground up blue when you open the doors. Keep the interior white, so the interior lights up white when you need to use the light to read something at night, or find something that fell on the floor.

Blue everywhere gets out of hand and looks corny, but I could see how some folks thinks it's "cool"

 

Yeah I agree with viet. Don't get the blue ones, you wont' be able to see anything. White has a nice look to it. I just bought the ones from firefly's they work awesome. When you drop something in the car at night you WILL SEE it lol.

 

Which specific license plate lights did you go with (from the JLC website)?

I saw a few options (all 168, but not sure about if the 6-bulb will fit in the housing):

Single-LED bulb
http://www.jlclightings.com/T10-168-...0111502-02.htm

6-LED Bulb
http://www.jlclightings.com/T10-168-...0111502-01.htm

I found some other W5W bulbs but they were 360-degree lights (unnecessary with an angled license plate light like on our TLs), so if those are worth looking at, I would love to know which ones.

And do you have a picture of how it looks after you installed yours? I can compare that to mine and see the difference.

I installed LEDs for my backup and license plate lights last year, but the license plate light is incredibly dim (I tested and it's apparently working normally) so I was hoping to replace it something a lot brighter. Mine is only a single LED, which might be the reason.

(I think part of the issue is that pictures taken at night obviously make the lights look brighter than they actually are, since the camera has to keep the shutter open longer)

Oh, and one last thing: I found these backup lights on here and it looks like they blow the pants off my PIAAs (the ones I currently have are here: http://www.autobarn.net/piw2xtremsup.html).

Here are the new ones:

http://www.jlclightings.com/CREE-Q5-...11502-01cr.htm

Thoughts? Obviously those will be coming last since they are pricier, but it definitely caught my eye.

Thank you! What a great thread.

 

You are shopping at the wrong websites for LEDs. Those LEDs you linked suck @$$

If you want good quality and bright LEDs, skip PIAA and skip JLC lighting and go to www.v-leds.com

Get these for your interior - http://www.v-leds.com/Exterior-LED-B...22412-1-2.html

Get these for your license plate lights - http://www.v-leds.com/Interior-LED-B...64848-1-2.html

Notice how the ground behind the car even lights up.


SuperBrightLEDs, JLC Lighting both sell LEDs but are not bright and are too expensive.. The bright ones are SMD/SMT style LEDs which V-LEDs only carries. JLC Lighting carries the outdated LED technology and are not bright. Their Cree LEDs are bright, but those are for reverse lights.

Also for reverse lights, here is my comparison of JLC Cree LEDs vs V-LEDs 5k 19LED 8W bulbs
JLC Cree LEDs ( http://www.jlclightings.com/CREE-Q5-...11502-01cr.htm )

V-LEDs 5K 8W LEDs ( http://www.v-leds.com/Exterior-LED-B...07296-1-2.html )



If you don't have a back-up camera than ignore the pictures... I don't think either of them will help you much.

 

I didn't mean to suggest that this was my only option- I was more checking the fit of the items, so if I find something similar I don't have to cross-check again.

But I do appreciate the heads-up on the different websites. Definitely helps

A few questions (since you've obviously got experience with these):

1. For the interior lights from VLEDs, I would need eight of them, in four pairs (two map lights, two for the rear dome light, and one for each door puddle light)?
2. The license plate flank LEDs, I assume you don't need to modify the lens that would cover them?
3. And on that third picture...is that a different kind of bulb altogether? I didn't see a description for that one.

Again, thanks for the info and heads-up! You have been tremendously helpful.

 

1. For interior lighting you will need (2) for front map lights (2) for rear map lights (2) for your front doors (2) for each vanity mirror light (1) for your trunk (2) for your rear license plate light. Total of 11 bulbs. They all are the same size (194/168/2825) If you see any bulb listed as either of those 3 sizes, it will work without a problem.

2. The license plate flank LEDs are direct plug and play. The reason you go for ANGLED flank style LEDs and not just 360-style LEDs is because the way the bulb is positioned in the license plate socket, it only allows the LED to light up the license plate by aiming light STRAIGHT FORWARD. Therefore having a 5-LED 360style bulb in your license plate would be pointless because only 1 LED is facing forward while the other 4 are shooting off to the sides in different directions. I used to have 5LED 360-Style V-LED bulbs as my license plates and recently switched to the 6LED Angled Flank Style and there is a massive difference. See for yourself. Also you DO NOT need to modify anything. It's the same as removing your PIAA or whatever bulb you currently have in there and replacing it with the flank style bulb. No modifications necessary.
THESE ARE THE 5-LED 5K 360-DEGREE STYLE V-LEDS


THESE ARE THE 6-LED 5K ANGLED FLANK STYLE V-LEDS


Again... Look at the ground and you will really notice the difference in terms of brightness between the two.
My rear bumper is even lit up!

The 360-Style only has 1 forward facing LED, while the flank style has a total of 6LEDs facing forward to light up the whole license plate. Since you use 2 bulbs, it's a total of 12 forward facing LEDs vs 2 LEDs.

3. The 3rd and last picture is also a picture of the 5k 19LED 8W V-LED reverse lights. The reason why it looks brighter is because it was rainy and wet that day. Moisture on the back-up camera and water on my reverse light housing made it look very bright and blurry. It still lights up a lot more of the ground compared to the V-LEDs that only lights up 1 spot dead center.

 

Fantastic! My license plate lights definitely look like the 5-LED light picture you posted, so 6 is clearly the way to go. The logic behind the lights makes perfect sense- that's why I was originally concerned with the bulbs that had LEDs on all sides. So much wasted light. I hadn't looked into LEDs much, but the angled flank LEDs were definitely new to me and make much more sense.

And thanks for catching the numbers on the cabin/interior LEDs- I would've totally forgotten about the trunk and vanity lights. Many thanks.

Your comments have doubtless ended the debate on what to get, number of bulbs, and how to get the lighting I was looking for personally.

Thank you for your time and patience in answering my questions as well!

 

Check out my cold cathode license plate light DIY in my sig

 

I see where you are coming from. Based on what you mention I think I would keep the interior lights stock. I don't think white LED lights would contrast well with a tan interior. If it was black or grey I would consider it.