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I usually turn my lights on automatic - When its dark out, my tail light indicator on the dashboard comes on. I have had bulbs replaced but the indicator is still on at night. If I manually turn on the the lights for night driving, the dashboard light comes on as well. Any ideas as to why this is happening and how to fix it? I appreciate any feedback before this drives me crazy.
I've replaced the following:
High mount stop
stop lights
rear turn lights
side markers
back up lights
I have had the tail light indicator on for about a year. I have also replaced the high mount stop light bulb but no help. I live with it for now until there is a solid solution.
My indicator is always on not just at night.
Happy New Years !
Tail lights out indicator refers to a fault in any one of these five bulbs:
1x the Center stop lamp, top of rear windshield
4x the Dual Filament Brake / Tail lamps
When you first start the vehicle, the tail light indicator is out.
If you should flip the parking lights On and Off, and the indicator illuminate and extinguish, it signals a failure in any one of the 4 Dual Filaments
On the other hand, when you start the vehicle, and you press the brake pedal and the indicator comes on and remains , it can be a failure in any one of the 4 Dual Filaments or the 1 Center light.
I have read on other threads, the system check for a specific wattage on all those circuits. Only the OEM-specific bulb have the correct wattage to illuminate all bulbs without setting the failure indicator. If you use bulbs which are LED, or even regular style bulbs with a slightly different wattage, the lights should all still work as long the voltage is correct, however due to wattage mismatch that will cause the indicator to come on.
Specifications for the correct bulbs according to User manual:
Lamps Bulb No. Wattage Type
High mounted stoplight 921 18 E : Wedge base bulbs
Stop/tail lights 7443 21/5 E
With all respect: In my vehicle, I have replaced all these bulbs with LED. The indicator has always been on, and I learned to ignore it.
If you are not able to repair it, I suggest you don't worry for it as long as exterior lighting is functioning correctly.
Yesterday I checked all rear light bulbs, none is burnt. Out of my four cars, only this RX300 is so picky about the bulb. During twenty years I have replaced some burnt bulbs with the same types and same specs but never bought from dealers, too expensive. I thought about maybe something else went wrong other than rear bulbs but I couldn't find the wiring diagram.
I have no problem to ignore the indicator. If it really brothers, I can remove the indicator bulb.
Yesterday I checked all rear light bulbs, none is burnt. Out of my four cars, only this RX300 is so picky about the bulb. During twenty years I have replaced some burnt bulbs with the same types and same specs but never bought from dealers, too expensive. I thought about maybe something else went wrong other than rear bulbs but I couldn't find the wiring diagram.
I have no problem to ignore the indicator. If it really brothers, I can remove the indicator bulb.
First determine/ensure if it is a tail light or brake light.
thank u for the explanation, that's exactly what have too, my back-light indicator is on , also the MAP light indicator as well, i just replaced both with led bulbs, and the indicator is still on , i just ignore it, as long as they're functioning.
The light fail system checks for the specified amount of current. If you replace any of the bulb with a different wattage (power draw) [leds fall in this category] the module will throw an error.
I was planning on replacing my light bulbs with LED light bulbs so that I will not need to worry about my lights anytime soon. But before doing that I decided to replace my 2000 RX rear lenses with the more updated look of the 2002 lenses. I made the swap of the lenses but also needed to swap the harness as the original 2000 harness will not insert into the 2002 light assembly.
So I made the swap but when all was said and done my brake light indicator light came on.
I chased this bugger for two days! I want to solve it before switching to LED so that I know that if it triggers again it will be because of the LEDs and not something else. (The LED problem can be fixed with a resistor wire from Sylvania made specifically for LED replacements)
I made sure I was using the right bulbs (7443), all new bulbs but I was still getting the indicator light. I did a bunch of reading on the internet and saw some mention the center brake light. Ahhh. I checked that - it was working but it was also a little "burned" - Great! I decided to change that and hoped for the best.
Nope! Still had the problem. But I noticed something that didn't make sense to me....
When the car lights are on, one set of filaments in the bulbs should come on. When the brakes are hit a different set in the bulb should come on. What I noticed was that the bright (lower filament of the two) filament would come on when the lights were on and the less bright filament (the higher filament in the bulb) would come on when the brake was hit. But that doesn't make sense.... If the bright is on then you won't be able to see the dimmer brake light when it comes on because it would be washed out by the brighter light.
What makes more sense is that the dimmer (higher filament) filament would light when the lights are on and then when the brakes are hit the brighter (lower filament) filaments will light so you can tell that the brakes have been hit.
AHA! I must have switched two of the three wires around when I connected the different harness.
White wire goes to white wire but then green/white stripped wire must go to the green/red stripped wire, not green/orange stripped wire as I had it.
That fixed my problem!
Hope this might help someone else out.
Now to change to LED which I know will cause the indicator to light again but I have a cure for that.
I replaced all my tail light bulbs with led bulbs and including backup lights and my brake light indictor on the dash shows up. I have gotten used to it but having
much brighter brake/ running lights as bright a the new cars makes it safer. Also I changed my rear blinker bulbs to LED and the blinkers blink faster as if a bulb is out.
The LED back bulbs help me see at night since I don't have a camera for that purpose as the new RX350's have. One of the reasons all the new cars have bright LED tail lights
is for safety.
All good but the only down side is, you will have to check that the tail lights are working and the dash would not tell you that one or more bulb is out of service.
The light would come and go, regardless of perfect function of lights. It likes to come on a long time before the faulty light actually blows out.
I replaced all taillights and reverses with LED upgrades and ultimately removed the indicator bulb from my gauge cluster. All lights are still perfect 2 years later haven’t looked back ever since.
Sylvania LED from parts store last long. Nice and bright, No flickering, variable brightness stop lamp feature still works.
12-31-19, 12:06 PM
Tail light indicator stays on
