deermake

I am looking for headlight options for my daughters 2010 IS 250. According to the body shop, (it was recently hit by a deer),the headlights have a ballast behind them, so I think they may not be the halogen type, although at least one of the bulbs are a yellowish color. Most of the options I have found read that they only work for the halogen headlights. How do I tell the difference?
Thanks

teaguedp90

A lot of our cars came with HID from the factory and the headlight assemblies come with built in ballasts so it’s likely you did have them. There’s a number of aftermarket replacements. Here’s a link to a thread regarding headlights/foglights

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...fications.html

Since I live in Hawaii and don’t really do anything besides city driving, I decided I would go with the Vland headlights which are LED only but they look good and were a little cheaper than outright replacing the old with OEM.



just checked that thread and didn’t seem like there was anything recent, I didn’t look at all 18 pages.

however, I know there are aftermarket that look OEM if your going for a direct replacement and in the sticky threads you can find a good DIY tutorial for putting in HID’s and what bulb sizes the OEM would fit.

there is also spyder, Spec-d, Vland that have more modern looks.

deermake

Thanks Teague,

I had contacted Ebay about these and they replied that they would fit, but I wondered if that was correct. I'll read the thread.

Were they plug and play? We live in Rural Alabama, and it is my seventeen year old daughters car, so I need ample lighting for higway and rural driving. How much light do the LED's put out compared to HID or Halogen? I'm new at this headlight game, but need to get it up and running. Thanks again.

teaguedp90

they are plug n play, the outer two lenses are the low beams and those work just fine but the high beams aren’t really good, the lens is narrow. On top of all that, you’ll need to aim the headlights after install. Took about a month to get them in since they are coming from China but I’ve been overall happy with the look and quality. My only complaint is the high beam but I’ve never really had a reason to need them other than turn them on and wonder how they didn’t immediately notice the high beam sucked.


disclaimer, they came from China because I live in Hawaii, yours would get to you faster since your in alabama

swfla

iTrader: (1)

He got the LEDs for city driving. OEM HID lights likely put out much more light than aftermarket LEDs, which vary in color and brightness greatly. I think that aftermarket halogens would be cheaper than HID and give much more light than many LEDs. We've been using halogen bulbs for decades before this new generation of lighting came along. Halogen would be a great and affordable solution for rural Alabama and your daughter. Maybe someone here can recommend a brand. I'd look on Amazon as there are some reviews and Amazon's guarantee of a product that can be returned hassle free if it doesn't fit or perform as described. Ebay does as well if you're not buying from China.

deermake

Thanks guys,

She wants the look of the LED running lights, as on the newer IS 250's, but I'd also want her have brighter lights when switched to high beam. It seems that 2010 models are sort of in a class by themselves? I see a lot of lights that say they work on 2006-2009 models, and others that say 2011-2013.

sinister2c has a lot of good posts that I'm trying to understand, I just don't know which name goes to which component of the lights.

deermake

swfla,

Do you know if they make the halogen lights with the LED strip of driving lights along the bottom, or would that look weird having the yellowisk headlights with the white LED driving lights?

A guy at the body shop said I could buy halogens that are white, but they are more expensive. Is that true?

Thanks Again.

swfla

iTrader: (1)

I don't know the answers off the top of my head. I'd recommend that you start shopping on ebay or some lexus aftermarket manufacturers to see the actual costs and the selection of options. It's nice of you to try to give your daughter what she wants and keep her safe too!

bbaugher47

Depo headlights area good option. They offer HID and non HID. VIP motors and SpecD are two other offerings available. Try the classifieds here on the site to see if anyone is selling some used headlights.

deermake

teaguedp90, swfla and bbaugher47,

Thannks for your input. I contacted a retailer for SpecD. They said they don't have anything that will work. I just sent an email to Depot. I'll look up VIP motors also.

I called the dealership with my VIN, and they told me that I have the HID version with adaptive headlighting. I think that is the self leveling feature.

I don't need the leveling feature, but I am looking for a headlight with the LED driving light strip along the bottom of the headlight. I may even convert to Halogen to get the running lights if I have to, or even knew how.

I can't email members yet because I don't have enough posts.

If Sinister2c sees this thread, he might could help?

Thanks again guys. If anyone thinks of anything else, please let me know.

swfla

iTrader: (1)

Looks like you found several options and price ranges. No you can decide which is your preference. I agree with your daughter's desire for LED strip, it'll update the look of the car. There are several youtube videos that show DIY step by step.

teaguedp90

I’m certain that those spec-d headlights will work. I also had factory HID with AFS. You are correct that AFS is the automatic leveling for the headlights. If your ok with losing that function because there isn’t any aftermarket headlights out that will support AFS, then any of the options you’ve researched will work.

if you’ve noticed on the old headlights that your daytime running lights are in the same spot as the high beams but just dimmer, it’s because the stock lights DRL’s are exactly the high beam bulbs running at lower power. I had to go to a Lexus dealer and talk them into disabling the DRL feature. The other tiny bulb in the upper portion of the old headlights is a city light that was useless, just a 194 wedge bulb.

You can easily install onto the spec-d tuning headlights an H1 bulb by Sylvania which auto parts chains sell as well as Walmart if I remember correctly.

https://m.autozone.com/parts/electri.../54170_0_18268

this next website sells the spec-d headlights but they also want to push the 35 watt HID kit to come with it. In my experience, it’ll be an H1 style HID bulb in the headlight assembly with a wire that goes to the ballast and then comes out of the ballast and connects to your factory harness. If you did this, you’d need to find a good place to zip tie, 3m dual sided tape, or some way to secure the ballast to the car somewhere to minimize movement and potentially disconnecting. You shouldn’t need to worry about flicker so I would pass on the HID relay. But if you want halogen bulbs, they are H1 bulbs for both high and low beam.

https://www.protuninglab.com/hidxe06...YaAvU1EALw_wcB

this video will show you how to disable the AFS off message you’ll get after installing your headlights. Easiest way is to remove a fuse. The reason everyone is saying the headlight is not compatible is only due to the car having AFS and the headlight not being equipped with AFS.

https://youtu.be/kSQLPQ2WHgs

screenshot taken from 2010 lexus is250 owners manual

deermake

Thanks guys,
So Teague, I think I understand your answer. If I purchase the Spec-D lights, will I have to get a Lexus dealership to turn off the DRL feature? Is there any way I can do this, or is it computer related?

Is this done so that the high beam won't come on at a lower power?

Will the LED strip acoss the bottom power on without any wiring modifications?

Why would i need the H1 bulbs? Are they for high or low beam? Sorry for all the questions, I don't mind purchasing new bulbs at all, I'm just trying to understand everthing before I pull the trigger on the Spec-D's. Isn't your IS 250 a 2010 model also?


PS - O'reilly Auto Parts gave me these part numbers and said they were compatible. TYC 20-9267-01-1 and TYC 20-926-01-1 (right and left headlight). I ordered them, $1,048.00, the body shop plugged them in, but the low beams would not come on at all. Could that have anything to do with the DRL feature not being disabled?
I returned them yesterday. When I ordered them, I thought they had the LED strip running lights, but they didn't, they were actually almost indentical the my factory lights. AND EXPENSIVE.

The ProTuning webpage reads as follows:Vehicle Fitment:

• 2006-2009 Lexus IS250 / IS350 models only
• (Factory Halogen Headlight Models Only)

I trust your judgement, since you have used them on a 2010 model IS 250, just wanted to be sure that they'll work if I disable the auto leveling feature. They do not accept returns if the components have been installed.

Thanks Again

teaguedp90

The spec-d headlights use an H1 style bulb for the low beam and the high beam. stock headlights for HID is D4S style. I mentioned the bulb style in case they send an HID bulb and ballast that you may or may not want.

here’s a pic of my old headlights




forgive my poor Skills in finger drawing to explain. Haha

With the DRL disabled, I could use my high beams when I wanted and not have a yellowish light at all
other times, some people would put an LED in the high beam spot but you lose the high beam function and only have the DRL working, something about the differences in power between DRL mode and high beam mode. There was another bulb in the upper part of the reflector in the high beam spot that would come on when it was dark and I swapped that out with a size 194 led wedge to make it like this.



the dim low beams is just the flash being reflected in the lowbeam projectors, they were turned off. Also, blue like that is illegal in most places so after I got a ticket for that I went to white to match everything.


so the DRL and the high beam is the same
bulb in 2006-2010 model years. The difference being that DRL is on all the time when the ignition is on but it runs the bulb at half power so it looks dimmer so it doesn’t blind people in front of you.

next is a screenshot of spec-d headlights




so with the new ones after installation, your DRL function is still in the high beam and not the LED strip. So you’ll still have the high beam bulb on the new ones at half power.

Toyota and Lexus dealers have techstream and are able to go into the car and modify settings. A Lexus dealer in conchord, ca told me they weren’t supposed to disable it because it was a safety feature but did it anyways. Back in 2013, I remember buying one of the dongles to connect usb to OBD-II along with one of those miniature Discs that had techstream on it but I didn’t have windows xp or vista or something to run it and wasn’t about to try and teach myself how to create a virtual machine on a cheap laptop so I went to the dealer.


the white led strip will turn on for the spec-d headlights when the selector switch is one of these two positions or auto setting when it’s dark enough to turn the headlights on




Not sure why the low beams didn’t turn on when you plugged the replacements in that you had. Maybe bad bulb or ballast but I think it’s unrelated to the DRL.

And the headlights will work regardless of whether or not you disable AFS by taking that fuse out. If you don’t disable the AFS, you’ll get a instrument cluster light that says “AFS off” in orange and you won’t be able to turn it off, but the headlights will work no matter what.

swfla

iTrader: (1)

These headlights look sharp with the LED running lights.