Vanity Lights Replacement

I believe you need to remove the headliner first. I was looking at it in my pdf repair manual last week.

 

This is not true. I didn't have to do that when I changed mine. Let go look & I report back.

 

There is a tab that needs to be pressed that's closest to the door.

 

No problem

 

Even with the tab, it feels like you are going to rip it through the headliner. With a very small screwdriver, and making sure you are on the side with the tab, it takes a VERY firm pull. Just make sure you are on the side with the tab. The way that I knew I was on the side with the tab, was to turn on the light. You will see that the bulb is not exactly in the middle of the housing. The bulb will actually be slightly closer to one side. This is the side with the tab.

- TP

 

Good point

 

I would ditch the resistors & go with a LED flasher relay. I used this on both my 06 & 12 Prius.

Toyota Lexus 8 Pin 12V Electronic LED Flasher Blinker Bulbs Relay Fix

 

What did you use? I used something like this - plenty bright.

 

Got some of those on the way as well...

 

I used 2 of these in each map light, 1 in each vanity light, 1 in the door puddle lights, and 1 in the trunk. I used 2 48-SMD panels in the dome light- that's 204 SMD LED's - really nice and bright in there.

 

I'm using these:

2010-12 Toyota Prius Complete 326-Lights LED Interior Light Package

 

mine came in around $15.

 

+1

I spent a total of $7.19 by purchasing cheap wedge bulbs with 5 SMDs mounted on them for all of the lights (.75 each from Amazon), except for the two fuse bulb like lights, where I purchased cheap bulbs with 9 SMDs mounted on them (2.69 for the pair from eBay). They are putting out more light than the stock bulbs, and I can't imagine wanting any more light.

- TP

 

Is there a listing (or do you know and can share here) of what size bulbs go in each location? I had looked at the jdmtoys kits before and had second thoughts not wanting to spend nearly $100 on the lights. But $15ish I could live with.

 

In the interior, there are 6 Wedge bulbs and 2 fuse style bulbs. The wedges that I used are:

4x 194 168 5-SMD White High Power LED Car Lights Bulb : Amazon.com : Automotive

The fuse style bulbs that I used are:

2X 32mm SMD 6LED 5050 Festoon Dome Bulb White DE3175 | eBay

By the way, I just noticed that the fuse style have 6 SMDs on them, and not 9. However, these are brighter than stock.

- TP

 

I tried these at first in the map lights and they didn't shine bright enough, so now they light up my license plate.

Imagine 96 in there

 

I'm sure the lumens of 96 SMDs must equal the output of the sun, but for me, the stock bulbs were bright enough. My goal was to decrease the amps used when running the lights. Also, I had accidentally left one of the vanity lights on one time over night (back when it was stock), and I was fortunate that it didn't run the 12V battery down. With the LEDs I'm running now, I know that won't be an issue. However, if I'm running 96 SMDs, I don't know if there is much of an amp savings.

- TP