I wonder why my mechanic, who has always treated me right and is a longtime Toyota mechanic, thought it would be so difficult? I will revisit this with him. Thanks!

 

I have had halogen, halogen with HID kit, the AFS HID lights (with and without STi lenses) and the 2011+ LED DRL HID lights in my car. It's all pretty straightforward.

Pinout:


Halogen:


AFS HID:


Jeff

 

Fog lamps aren't designed to illuminate much more than 100 feet of road at best (brand new condition). In other words, fog lamps are good for driving the speed limit when the speed limit is 25 MPH or less.

I suspect that the body shop replaced the light with a typical aftermarket, crash-replacement grade headlamp, and not an OEM headlamp. New aftermarket headlamps are $300-400 a piece all day, every day. New OEM headlamp is easily $1000 and up. Not a hard decision for a body shop. Take a good look at your headlamp lens and see if you can find the manufacturer on it. Aftermarket headlamps are exactly as you described--pretty poor, and haze over quickly. The OEM ones haze over as well, but slower, and are pretty okay when new.

You can still adjust the lamps with a screwdriver. "Screwdriver adjustment" is a feature mandated by law and hasn't been "replaced" by anything. If your mechanic can't find the screwdriver adjustment, then I would find a new mechanic.

The problem here is likely an unholy combination of old headlamps, aftermarket headlamps, yellowed/hazy/sun-damaged headlamps, old HID bulbs, and some misconceptions about effective lighting. HID bulbs that are merely a few years old are at 75% of original lumen output, and most people neglect to replace their HID bulbs until they fail to fire. HID bulbs will continue to light up well past the point where they've lost 25% of their light output. The other points have been discussed above.

1) Identify whether your replaced lamp is OEM or not. There is text in the boxed area. If it says "Koito" (among other things) then it's OEM. If it doesn't then it's aftermarket.


2) If it's aftermarket, replace with a OEM one. Like this one. Then you'll at least have one high-quality, OEM headlamp assembly that hasn't turned yellow yet, and since it's OEM, it's required by law to withstand 3 years of weathering--in other words, it shouldn't turn yellow/hazy for another few years. Unlike a typical aftermarket headlamp, which looks good rolling out the shop and typically turns yellow/hazy in a few months, because aftermarket doesn't care about the law (there's practically 0 enforcement in the aftermarket).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2006-2009-L...YAAOSw38BaXP2e

You can use this eBay link to search for the other side's headlamp. I just typed in "is250 headlamp oem" and found plenty of results. It appears that your budget is $200 for both sides....that's a bit low...but you might be able to find some gently used OEM lamps that haven't started hazing over yet, which would still be better than most aftermarket parts.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...p+oem&_sacat=0

3) Philips XtremeVision H11 bulbs

 

Jeff,
is there any particular brand of housings you’d recommend? I’m sick of staring at the ever-yellowing lenses of the HIDs on my Gs430. I would like to replace them with gs300 halogen housings and upgrade to LED bulbs, but I am skeptical about plastic’s quality.

 

any update on your conversion to halogens? Did you replace the entire housings? I’m looking to do the same.

 

Also looking for some help here. Sick of replacing ballasts and bulbs. Looking to go fully halogen or LED 05 RX330!

 

sorry for bring this thread back after a few years. just recently purchased a 2006 rx400h and the driver side headlight assembly has condensation. the car has the Stock HIDs with the AFS. Driver side has a dying HID bulb or ballast. Passenger side seem to be working fine but the lense is a bit hazy.

have any of you folks gotten new halogen headlight assembly, remove the ballast, and installed halogen or LEDs? sure that i'll need to mess with the power from the ballast to connect to the LEDs.

as for the AFS, where is the AFS fuse or ecu?

thanks in advance.

 

HI Jeff,
Thank for your answered. Could you please consult me on my case:
My Lexus 2010 RX350 original come with HID headlight assembly. Can i switch to Halogen assembly? if yes, how to re-connect the wire and plug?

 

The HIDs are worn out. Outdated, Also LEDs/Halogens now are brighter and more cost efficient. Thats why. Would love to swap out the HID headlamps with stock halogen or LED harness.

 

Mine are converted to LED. Very easy to do, and much better than the old HID setup.

 

Hello. I have a 2010 rx350 with 225k miles. I love this car and want to keep it. My drivers side headlight went out. Mechanic quoted me $2200 to replace ballast (I’m assuming the entire headlight assembly). It’s not the bulb, we already checked. I have the HID AFS system. Can I switch to LED by purchasing new headlight assemblies for both sides? Is this something I could do myself? I’m not handy but good at following directions. Also, if I can switch to led, does anyone have a recommendation where to purchase? Thank you so much!

 

The ballast can be replaced I would not go back to that mechanic
https://www.japan-parts.eu/lexus/us/...101_headlamp/2

 

I've been replacing my own ballasts since I was about 19 years old, and I'm a girl who doesn't even know a whole lot about cars (lol). It's super simple. You can get the part number usually off the ballast itself- search it on ebay or other store to find the matching part (I get mine on ebay and out of about 20, only 1 was no good which was refunded)- and order the ballast. When it comes in, unplug your old ballast and plug the new one in. You got this! $2,200 would a NOPE from me! If you aren't sure, the ballast is usually the little silver (metal) rectangular box that your headlight wires connect to. Make sure the car is turned off. It has high energy output.

 

Does that fuse support anything else?