Light bulbs for Land Cruisers

[yooper]

Very useful information yooper and well documented.

The reason the dimmer red LEDS in the side marker lights actually look brighter is due to the fact that White LEDS actually put out a lot of BLUE light which the red lense filters out very effectively.

Yes I know and I alluded to that above.

The white ones put out more total light than the red or amber of course. I was interested to see whether this or the filter function of the lens was the greater effect.

Through the amber lens the white bulbs are much brighter than amber bulbs but through the red lens the red bulbs are much brighter than white bulbs.

I suspect the red lens is a more narrow band filter and more closely matched to the red LED's output spectrum compared to the amber lens and amber LED. Also the difference in total output between the amber and white LEDs is much larger, i.e. amber LEDs are pretty dim in general. I won't be buying any more amber LEDs.

 

[Trollhole]

Very nice writeup. I was wondering when someone was going to refine my old post and make it more up to date. It's amazing how much LED's have changed in the past few years.

Don't forget the BA7 bulb behind the headlight switch. It uses a green filter so only a green or white bulb works well. Maybe one day someone will make the filters in clear and we can use whatever color we want.

 

[yooper]

Very nice writeup. I was wondering when someone was going to refine my old post and make it more up to date. It's amazing how much LED's have changed in the past few years.

Don't forget the BA7 bulb behind the headlight switch. It uses a green filter so only a green or white bulb works well. Maybe one day someone will make the filters in clear and we can use whatever color we want.

It's a BA7? I'll add that to my next order of LEDs. Mine works right now but it's awfully dim. I think green will look good, I wonder what a blue LED behind the green filter will look like? I might get an extra blue one just to try it.

 

[Trollhole]

Blue bulb.

 

[yooper]

Those long exposures are hell! My gauge pics are all 2 second exposures.

I like that color though, I think I'll do that.

 

[surfpig]

Marshall; this is a great write up...........any idea of how these would crossover to the fj55s?............TIA;

Lou

It should be just about the same. I'll let you know.

 

[surfpig]

It should be just about the same. I'll let you know.

Almost exactly the same. There are a few additions/changes I would make. Overall: well worth it.

 

[yooper]

turn signal, incandescent. These were actually fine with the factory bulb

turn signal, LED (WLED-G6).

FAIL: They are WAY TOO BRIGHT! I'm blinded when I activate the turn signals now. I will go back to the factory bulbs I think, or get some dimmer LEDs. This is a 6 LED bulb. I have a dimmer single LED one installed in my XT225, so I might switch that one in as a test and actually having a super bright one on the XT is a good idea because it will remind me to switch it off.

Update:

I have now replaced the turn signal indicators with a single LED, much less bright bulb: WLED-x (194 type) Wedge Base bulbs Specifications

They are juussst right.

 

[yooper]

Here is the mixed bag, with a couple fails.

Instruments, incandescent:

Instruments, LED (WLED-6 in white, blue, and green)

FAIL: general illumination of gauges. I think this is due to my choice of LED bulb specifically, they don't have enough side illumination. Also I did not remove the shrouds.

WIN: the high beam indicator. I can barely tell when it's on with the factory bulb, now it's nice and bright. In this case the bulb is directly behind the blue lens so the LEDs are shining straight through it.

UPDATE:

I got some brighter LEDs with a 360° pattern that work really well, much better than the factory or the CCOT incandescent bulbs. Each bulb has 5 high power SMD emitters. I used cool white. The green would work well too I think.

High Power SMD WLED-xHP5 (194 type) 360 degree Wedge Base bulbs Specifications

 

[yooper]

TrollHole, how do I get the bulb out of the headlight switch? Do I have to uninstall the switch, or can I just pull or twist the bulb out the back? I pulled on it a bit and got scared I was going to break something.

I bought both white and blue BA7 LEDs to try in there...

 

[surfpig]

TrollHole, how do I get the bulb out of the headlight switch? Do I have to uninstall the switch, or can I just pull or twist the bulb out the back? I pulled on it a bit and got scared I was going to break something.

I bought both white and blue BA7 LEDs to try in there...

It's a push/twist thing. Almost easier to undo the whole switch. Unless you have tiny carny hands...



Mine was easy, because it had been dangling around my knees like a firefly for years...

 

[surfpig]

TrollHole, how do I get the bulb out of the headlight switch? Do I have to uninstall the switch, or can I just pull or twist the bulb out the back? I pulled on it a bit and got scared I was going to break something.

I bought both white and blue BA7 LEDs to try in there...

Kind of pointless, but here's the blue:

 

[surfpig]

The dramatic one was the dash light, which I never even knew was there.



The camera used the flash, but the light is there:

 

[surfpig]

.....

 

[surfpig]

I changed out all the interior lights in the Lesbaru, too.

 

[yooper]

Ahh, the push-pull carny hands gambit! Here we go. Left to right is factory, white LED, blue LED. In this pic the factory bulb almost looks nicer, mostly because it's in better focus, but you have to remember that it's soooo dim you can barely tell that it's on. I'm leaving the blue one in there for now.

I changed out a couple dash bulbs in my 4Runner, I posted that in the relevant forum...

 

[myquestoyota]

I found out something interesting last night. I purchased the inst cluster leds and the bulb for the headlight switch from superbright and installed them after going through my odometer, figured it was a good time for the upgrade. Anyway, I installed my dash and only two out of five bulbs in the cluster worked. I removed the dash, cleaned the contacts on the dash and the bulb sockets and only one worked. I removed it again and turned the non working bulbs 180 degrees in the sockets and they all worked. It seems that the leds only work one direction for voltage as opposed to either direction for the incandescents. Anyone know if this is true or did I just get lucky?

 

[yooper]

LED = Light Emitting Diode

Diodes only allow voltage to flow in one direction, that is their purpose in electronics.

So yes, LEDs care about polarity, unlike incandescent bulbs. They will only work in one orientation, so you get a 50/50 chance when you install them. Older LED bulbs would burn out if you put them in backwards, but modern ones are polarity protected so it's safe to get it wrong on the first try.

 

[yooper]

Ahh, the push-pull carny hands gambit! Here we go. Left to right is factory, white LED, blue LED. In this pic the factory bulb almost looks nicer, mostly because it's in better focus, but you have to remember that it's soooo dim you can barely tell that it's on. I'm leaving the blue one in there for now.

I changed out a couple dash bulbs in my 4Runner, I posted that in the relevant forum...

I finally decided that while the blue light is pretty, it's too confusing - I keep thinking my brights are on. So I am switching to white.

 

[surfpig]

Almost exactly the same. There are a few additions/changes I would make. Overall: well worth it.

Instrument cluster. I used WLED-6G, which BARELY fits in the holes. Velly nice.