Gen 1 RC ambient door light
04-28-24, 12:14 PM
#1
7th Gear
Thread Starter
Gen 1 RC ambient door light
Hi CL.
Has anyone ever changed the "bulb" on the ambient door light?
Where do you get these? Lexus states that the entire unit needs to be replaced. I want to have one on hand because as we all know, if one goes out, the others aren't far behind.
This is for the ambient upper door card light, NOT the bottom puddle door card light.
Any help would be appreciated.
Has anyone ever changed the "bulb" on the ambient door light?
Where do you get these? Lexus states that the entire unit needs to be replaced. I want to have one on hand because as we all know, if one goes out, the others aren't far behind.
This is for the ambient upper door card light, NOT the bottom puddle door card light.
Any help would be appreciated.
05-03-24, 11:50 AM
#2
10th Gear
Join Date: May 2024
Location: California
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Its a LED module that shoots thru a diffuser. I havent been able to find a similar chipset/board that is similar to this when I was thinking of making it RGB. But with the way the resistors are soldered on there are designed to last longer. Ive set my ambient to not dim 50% when im in drive and so far its been fine, havent had anything flickering or burning out on me.
Check this thread https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rc-...-lighting.html
I probed all the wires so that's how I know which ones to tap. If you are good with a multimeter it's not hard to figure out which wires are power, ground, illumination....etc. All my tests using the dimming wire with LEDS other than the OEM led module work as it should. Dims the light, fades on/fades out..etc. But I believe it's how Lexus/Toyota soldered the resistors on the LED module board in such a way that it's tricking the system into thinking something is still "on", which it's not. I think they did what they did in order to have the ambient lighting last for a very long time. IE: It would not be cost effective if they had to do warranty work on replacing LED modules because they burned out due to lack or resistors or because they got too hot and burned out. I believe they padded it so that it's the typical Lexus reliability. I would ideally want them to dim/brighten with the rest of the interior lights but I believe I'm doing something that Lexus did not intend with their OEM lighting module. Because I found this out early on with the passenger side wiring, I simply will disconnect the wire that is attached to the dimming wire and attach it to the ground wire. Thus the lights will come on and go off with the headlights just like the interior lights do. With the exception that my ambient lights will stay at their nice full brightness compared to dimming down to 50% if you put it in drive.
-Nigel
Check this thread https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rc-...-lighting.html
I probed all the wires so that's how I know which ones to tap. If you are good with a multimeter it's not hard to figure out which wires are power, ground, illumination....etc. All my tests using the dimming wire with LEDS other than the OEM led module work as it should. Dims the light, fades on/fades out..etc. But I believe it's how Lexus/Toyota soldered the resistors on the LED module board in such a way that it's tricking the system into thinking something is still "on", which it's not. I think they did what they did in order to have the ambient lighting last for a very long time. IE: It would not be cost effective if they had to do warranty work on replacing LED modules because they burned out due to lack or resistors or because they got too hot and burned out. I believe they padded it so that it's the typical Lexus reliability. I would ideally want them to dim/brighten with the rest of the interior lights but I believe I'm doing something that Lexus did not intend with their OEM lighting module. Because I found this out early on with the passenger side wiring, I simply will disconnect the wire that is attached to the dimming wire and attach it to the ground wire. Thus the lights will come on and go off with the headlights just like the interior lights do. With the exception that my ambient lights will stay at their nice full brightness compared to dimming down to 50% if you put it in drive.
-Nigel
05-03-24, 04:28 PM
#3
7th Gear
Thread Starter
Thank you @ ViperX
So I just ordered a used RC200T door panel off from evilbay and I'm going to just swap the whole thing out as my original also has a glue failure recently where the top piece of "pleather is bubbling up. and for the price of the replacement from the stealership I could have bought 2 Alcantarra Gen 2 panels from a Fuji edition SHIPPED from evilbay.
Long story short, I'm also going to cut the old connector and play with single color led strips (Lexus Blue) as an option / science experiment as I have nothing to lose at this point.
More to follow!
So I just ordered a used RC200T door panel off from evilbay and I'm going to just swap the whole thing out as my original also has a glue failure recently where the top piece of "pleather is bubbling up. and for the price of the replacement from the stealership I could have bought 2 Alcantarra Gen 2 panels from a Fuji edition SHIPPED from evilbay.
Long story short, I'm also going to cut the old connector and play with single color led strips (Lexus Blue) as an option / science experiment as I have nothing to lose at this point.
More to follow!
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
RivieraRed
GS - 4th Gen (2013-2020)
4
04-11-23 09:26 AM
