jxdigital

Does anyone know if it's easy to disable/cut off the side marking lights?

Those 3 LED's facing sidewards on either side are extremely bright, to my first impression they look a little out of place. I didn't notice it that much on other forum members photos. Besides that, they are not required in my country. Not completely sure yet, but think it may look better without the side markers, like the original tail lights.

Also the fitment of these new VLAND (red style) wasn't perfect for me. Like some (but not many) others mentioned in the ISF vland topic, on the left side the outer light is rubbing the light part in the trunk. I now have adjusted the outer light so it's less and not grinding anymore, but it still very slightly touches when trunk is fully closed. I'll try to adjust again soon, maybe it's possible to further adjust the outer light.

jxdigital

UPDATE: Meanwhile I managed to adjust and improve the fitment of my outer left unit, so now it doesn't rub the trunk light unit anymore
Also I'm now getting used to the side-marker leds, but still if anyone knows a quick fix (what wire to cut) to disable them, I'd still be interested!

sinister2c

Most of the fitment is really the rubber gaskets. moving them a little makes difference. I took my outer off yesterday and noticed the foam on back has compressed over time and my nuts were all pretty loose. there is some play in the adjustments but the foam will expand and contract with weather.

For the side marker, you can try and look into the light with the wiring harness and see if there is an easy plug. I notice some two pin plugs inside the light when I looked inside.

jxdigital

Thanks. For me, the VLand trunk light unit itself definitely has a slightly different (bigger) size, compared to the original. It's not as flush with the side of the trunk as the original, causing the fitment issues. Possible the outer unit too. It's pretty close, and really well made, but still ever so slightly bigger/wider than my original lexus unit so beware! We're not talking about something you see with the naked eye when looking at the car, it's just millimetres, but still; it affects the alignment and spacing between trunk and outer light.

You can't really change the alignment of the trunk light part, although I did unscrew it and pushed it as far 'inwards' as possible before retightening it. For the outer part I was able to slightly change the alignment by changing the tension of the tree bolts; tightening the outer most nut with a bit more tension than the inner ones. Also I replaced one of the nuts with a locknut so it won't get loose by itself (wondering why Lexus didn't use locknuts in the first place?). So it's good for now.


BTW one other thing I was thinking about with these VLAND's, they're very nice and all, but what if a light goes down? It's not very practical and as simple as just replacing a bulb like in the original, you'd probably have to replace the whole VLAND unit... I keep the original units at home, but it would not be great when you're on a long trip, you'd have to drive with a broken tail light for days/weeks... Maybe I shouldn't worry too much as LED's have long burn hours and don't break that fast.... Also for the original lights, not a bulb in the whole has ever broke down in the 4 years I owned this car, which is amazing! Huge difference with my previous car! The only lights had to replace in this lexus so far were the HID's because they were getting dimmer. Replaced them with D4S from Osram ("Cool Blue Boost Xenarc") which are very good!

That's also one of the reasons I don't replace my HID headlight units with the new VLAND ones, as you can't simply replace the LED's when something breaks down and you either have drive around with a broken headlight for weeks, or refit the original units which is not as simple/quick job for the headlights.

The VLAND headlights look really cool though! If they'd just add electronic levelling (they REALLY need this!!!!) and a way to easily replace the (main headlight) LED's inside them, I'd definitely get them!