cduluk

Which panels have been re-painted? Bumpers are often re-painted before sold as pre-owns even if the damage is as little as rock chips. But if fenders and doors have been re-painted it's probably more complicated...

Unfortunately there isn't a single halogen replacement bulb that will give you a color that even resembles the factory HID look. Most halogen bulbs that claim to look like HID's use tinted glass which just looks like CRAP when lit. And they don't last very long either. You "could" install a kit in the fog lights but they'll be blinding to oncoming drivers... If you want to do so, make sure the HID bulbs are good ones. You should use the same ones in the factory low beams. Philips D2S/D2R 4300k (size D2S is part number 85122 or 85122+). D2S are designed for projectors and D2R are designed for reflectors. BUT... only if the manufacturers keep this in mind when making the reflector. Since the fog light reflectors aren't designed with a D2R in mind, i would go with D2S.

It's supposed to go up when you turn the radio ON. Do you hear any grinding a few seconds after you turn the radio ON? The motor's probably broken either way.

Are there hours/days where everything is working perfectly? Or does it seem permanent? If its sporadic, what seems to set it off? Does it work fine when the lights are off and then suddenly stop working when the lights are turned on? Does it go ON/OFF by turning the car ON and OFF? Does pressing the menu, dest or climate buttons trigger this? Or does it happen when you go over a bump? Also, has anyone ever removed the console before? Has the passenger airbag ever deployed? (as this requires a new dashboard to be installed). The wires that feed the center console units are very "rigid" and can easily break if handled often. If it's ever been taken apart before something might have happened. BUT, if what triggers this problem is turning lights ON or OFF, or turning the car ON and OFF etc, then it's most likely an electrical problem and not a loose wire etc.

Oh wonderful... I wonder if it's enough current to run a blue LED in its place? Most Blue and White LED's that i know of require more energy than the reds and yellows. I guess if that didn't work, i could wire a blue LED taking current from the window switch lights (since they're always on at night). I know those are bulbs which are probably 12V. <_<

Thanks guys! If it were an easy project i would definitely make a few to sell, but it's very time consuming and at the moment (with school) i wouldn't be able to do it.

Thanks guys! And i agree, Lexus engineers were definitely taking the cheap way out when designing these pieces. I too thought the light differences between the radio and climate control unit might be due to different manufactures, but based on the internals (besides the lights) they both look the same. And it makes absolutely NO sense why they designed it so that if a bulb burned out (breaking the filament and opening the circuit) the AIRBAG system wouldn't work- especially since the AIRBAG is a very important system. I have NO idea what Lexus is gonna do years down the road when the bulbs start burning out and everyone starts coming in with airbag problems. The bulbs are not easy to get to, and they're soldered onto the circuit board, so it's not like they could replace them. Very poor engineering in my opinion. And for the moment i'm gonna leave the green lights in the heated seat and shifter panels as well as the window and steering wheel controls. I kind of like the look... I'm thinking it might be "too much" white if i changed those out too? But it wouldn't be that hard to switch them to LED's if i decide to do so in the future... As for the other lights in the Rx, i haven't the slightest clue why they used such an array of colors (i too agree it doesn't look good). The foot well lights and upper console lights (illuminating the shifter area) used to be yellow but i've switched them all to blue. The only yellow remaining in mine is in the interior door pockets, but it's VERY difficult to get to them so i've been putting off that project... And yeah i did make the radio knobs backlight in blue, i think the blue rings match well with the blue rings i added in the gauge cluster. I'm trying to keep up with the "hybrid" blue theme. <_< Can you guys think of anything else i should do? :whistles:

I don't have a 2010 but i agree that the 04-09 Rx leather is much different than that of the 99-03 rx300 and 2010-present RX's. The leather in the 04-09's is very "tough" and seems to have a thicker dye than previous and present years. For the 2010 Rx's, Lexus softened up the leather a bit... Although it's much softer, it's also more sensitive.

Unfortunately they're a very unusual size... i doubt you'd be able to get them from Autozone or alike stores. Can you post pics of a few? I might have some from recent projects, i know i have slightly used ones somewhere (from 2003 Rx300) and if they're the same size they'd work great.

Any chance that it rests if you reset your Trip A or Trip B displays? (hold down Trip/info button when they display).

Well, enough with the words, here are some pictures of the final product!! It may seem by this description that this was a hard modification, but in reality it was VERY easy. If I knew then, what I (and you all) know now, it wouldn’t have taken more than a few hours. And don’t be afraid to try this after the issue I had with the airbag lights… as long as you don’t completely remove the bulbs in the climate control unit, you won’t have the problem. So enjoy and please comment! :)

Hey guys, Just wanted to update on another one of my recent projects. This one involves replacement of the bulbs/LED’s in the radio and climate control units in the Rx400h. If you have an 04-09 Rx330/350/400h with NAV, you may notice that the lettering for the climate control unit doesn’t light up the same shade as the lettering on the radio. If you look closely, you’ll notice the lettering on the climate control unit is more of an “aqua” color while the lettering for the radio is more of a milky white color. Compare both of these colors to the speedometer gauges, and you’ll notice neither the climate control unit lights nor the radio lights are pure white. It doesn’t show up well in pictures, but in person it’s VERY noticeable. Here’s a pic to give you an idea of the color differences. This has always bothered me since the day I got it. I never understood why the colors didn’t match, but I knew I had to fix it. So I bought a used radio ($50 on eBay) and took it apart. I found that the buttons are illuminated by miniature BLUE SMD’s (different type of LED’s) with a yellow-ish rubber cap over them (which must be made with some type of phosphor material) which produces a yellow-ish white color when ON. Why the engineers did this completely baffles me, but I guess we’ll never know… Then I decided to take apart the NAV/climate control unit from my Rx. Upon opening the unit, I discovered that its buttons are illuminated not by LED’s or SMD’s, but by BULBS! Yes my friend, in 2008 (or 2005 when it was designed) Lexus still uses bulbs in its console pieces. They’re just regular halogen bulbs with blue caps- which when ON, produce that ugly “aqua” light. So I decided to convert both the radio and climate control units to white SMD’s, so they’d both match, and match the gauges. I didn’t take any pictures along the way, so I’ll try to describe my methods as best I can. It gets a little boring, so if you want to just move on to the pictures, skip this part! Converting the radio LED’s was easy. I just marked each SMD to determine which solder ends were (+) and (-) and removed them with pliers. I did however leave the blue SMD’s around the radio dials, as I wanted to make them blue to match some of the other blue accents I’ve added in my Rx. I just removed the yellow phosphor caps and kept them the way they were. And then came the problem of locating which white SMD’s I’d be using. I decided to use some from an old Rx330 cluster I had laying around, as I knew they’d be reliable and match the Rx400h gauges PERFECTLY. So that’s what I did- I gently removed several white SMD’s from the old cluster and soldered them onto the radio circuitry. And presto, the radio was complete! Then came the job of converting the climate control unit. I gathered more white SMD’s and removed the bubs from the unit. I then soldered the SMD’s into place and used proper resistors to ensure they won’t burn out. But this is where I ran into MAJOR trouble. After the job was completed (and looked right) I took a little joyride around my neighborhood, and later picked up my girlfriend so she could see what I had done. But once she got into the passengers seat, the yellow airbag lights on the climate control unit (both AIRBAG ON and AIRBAG OFF) were illuminated, as well as the red icon in the gauges. Usually, only the AIRBAG ON light would illuminate… So I knew I had a problem. :( The following day, I looked the issue up in the manual. It read that if both the yellow lights were ON along with the red icon in the gauges, that there was a “malfunction” and to see the Lexus dealer. So, that’s exactly what I did. When I got to the dealer, they thought the issue was just as simple as needing to reset it, but the problem wouldn’t go away. They were able to diagnose the problem as a break in the airbag circuit “somewhere” in the climate control unit. I was VERY surprised (as well as not-surprised since I had just tampered with it) that their computers were able to tell them that. They also told me that I’d need to pay $225 for the time it took for their tech to find the problem! Since I had tampered with it, they couldn’t cover it under warranty… They also said that I needed a new nav/climate control unit!! So, a few hours and $225 later I was back home trying to figure out what went wrong. I opened everything back up, but couldn’t find a SINGLE thing wrong- no missing diodes, no loose plugs, NOTHING that would indicate a break in the airbag circuit. After spending at least a day looking for the problem, I came to the realization that the unit was SHOT. I decided to remove the white SMD’s and put the bulbs back in, thinking I would sell it on eBay and have to buy another unit. BUT, after I replaced the bulbs, I put it back in the car “just for kicks” to see if it did anything. And what do you know!? IT WORKED! The airbag light issue was GONE and there weren’t any error codes. I immediately removed the unit and opened it back up, and studied the wiring. I traced EVERY wire from the plug that feeds the airbag module in the climate control unit, and discovered that one particular wire loops around to every bulb- meaning, that it uses the filament in each bulb to spread continuity to the airbag module! Therefore, when I removed the bulbs, I broke the continuity to the airbag module, and THAT’S why it wasn’t working. Unlike bulbs, which use a metal filament, only a limited amount of current can pass from one side of an LED to the other. <_< So to fix the problem while still using the white SMD’s, I simply kept the bulbs and just wired the SMD’s over the bulbs, so both the bulbs AND the SMD’s would illuminate. This way, current could still pass through the filaments to the airbag module, and the white SMD’s would still work. I simply painted (using black acrylic) the bulb caps to prevent any of the aqua light from passing through. Several hours later, it was finally complete (again…). The only step remaining was modification of the VFD clock to the correct color. Unlike LCD’s, VFD’s (vacuum fluorescent displays) produce their own light via phosphor coated integers which produce a very BRIGHT aqua light. THIS is why I thought the engineers used bulbs with blue covers for the climate control unit, thinking they were limited by the color of the VFD. But with some research, I discovered that it IS possible to change the color of VFD’s by using different tinted covers. From the factory, the 04-09 Rx VFD clock has a reddish cover, but the color is still quite aqua. I found a site online that sells various shades of VFD covers, and I bought a few. http://www.matrixorbital.com/LCD-Accessories-VFD-Filter/c32_33/index.html I removed the factory VFD tinted cover from the Rx’s clock on the climate control unit and cut out a piece of the websites RED202 (Red 20x2 VFD Filter) which worked PERFECTLY. Just a shade different from the factory one, it makes the lettering of the clock PERFECTLY white, which matches the new white SMD’s I added in the rest of the console. I glued it into place, and I was done. You may also notice that the factory clock tinted cover is very “blurry” (not even on the outside to reduce glare), but the new film is crystal clear. It’s MUCH easier to read now in both night and day. In the pics below, note the difference in color from the clock and the compass on the rear-view mirror- they used to look the same, but now the clock is much more white.

And at night: I know it may seem like a lot of work, but i like the end result. It definitely classes up the interior of the Rx really well. So enjoy and please comment! :)

And the last step was installation. The RX console is attached to the roof by 4 screws; 2 in the drawer area, and 2 behind the clear plastic piece. Since I no longer had that clear plastic piece, I had to eliminate the 2 screws towards the front of the console (closest to the Homelink button side). I had to remove 2 brackets in the roof of the car, and made a tab extending out from the console so it would “catch” the roof and keep it tight. And after this was complete, glued in place the black LED panel piece (into its bezel which was now part of the RX console). Presto! And I did the same for the rear passenger overhead console using parts from the GS rear console piece…. However I was able to keep the original mounting clips. I did have to replace the LED’s themselves as the GS unit had yellow tinted plastic over 3mm white LED’s. I bought (8x) 10mm white LED’s from radio shack and used them instead. They’re brighter and look better. So here are some pictures!

Then the project began! Unfortunately I didn’t think take any pictures along the way, so here’s a set of rough diagrams to give you an “idea” of how I did it. After this was complete, I filled any gaps, then primed, and painted the entire panel. I used a few various colors from Krylon: flat white, flat black, green, red, orange and blue. After a little experimentation to get the right shade of gray (my RX has a gray roof liner) I put some in my airbrush and painted the panel, then applied a final “mist” coat to give the panel that “plastic” look. You honestly CAN’T tell that it’s not OEM. And after the panel was painted, I painted the Homelink buttons black (again, by hand) and replaced those 2 yellow LED’s (that illuminate the shifter panel) to blue as it matches everything else in my car now. I did however have to “angle” the LED’s forward more as that slider switch assembly was now on a different angle as I moved it up a little. Now, the LED’s shine in the same place they did previously. And I also made that little “DOOR, ON, OFF” tab so you can see which slider switch position is which. And then I had to wire everything up, which proved to be a great challenge. The hardest part was moving the “plug” that connects the console to the wiring in the car. The way it’s position now, it didn’t leave enough room! So I had to make wire extensions, which took some time- but it was well worth it.

Hey everyone, It’s been a while since I’ve posted so I just wanted to update on a few projects that I’ve completed in the past few weeks. This one involves a complete re-design of the overhead consoles in the Rx400h, the panels that contain the dome lights and switches for Homelink and the sunroof controls etc. The stock 04-09 Rx330/350/400h overhead consoles utilize halogen bulbs as dome lights, which produce a warm yellow color- which is kind of out dated. For 2006, Lexus used white LED’s (which produce a much more appealing white color) in the GS, ES and IS, and I thought it might be a fun project to convert the Rx consoles to use these LED units. <_< I first looked at the overhead consoles from the IS and ES to get donor parts, but found that the LED’s were too dim. I then looked at the ones from the GS overhead consoles, which were surprisingly a bit brighter. I purchased an extra set of overhead consoles (both front and rear) from an RX on eBay to work on, as I could keep the ones in my car while the project was in progress. I also purchased a used pair from a GS to gather the LED parts from. Here are the factory RX consoles. Notice the 2 yellow LED’s that illuminate the shifter area, and the yellowish hue to the dome lights. And here are the overhead consoles from the GS.

You first! :) If someone gave me one i could try it and post a tutorial. I know i could do it!

I'm not sure about the law in Maryland, but i know here in RI it isn't an issue. My friend had her Scion rear tails smoked back in 2007 and to my knowledge she hasn't been stopped for it. I'd imagine unless it REALLY tampers with the intensity it shouldn't raise any concern. I would try the paint (VHT makes a good one) over the film as you can moderate the level of tinting. However the tint may "look" better as you won't have orange peel or anything. If you're concerned on your painting skills then it wouldn't hurt to try the film first, as it can be easily removed if you mess up. If you can find pre-made tint that would be PERFECT. I think it would look good since the car is black. <_<

I had no idea Lexus used Sylvania HID bulbs, i thought they always used Philips. I guess that explains why they burned out! Philips bulbs are indeed the best out there. Good write up!

Does it ever snow where you are? If not then personally i would avoid the AWD. The individual part in the Rx300 transmissions that break so often is left out in the 2WD version, so it's very unlikely that the 2WD will give you problems. AWD is nice to have for those few times when the weather is messy, and it would improve resale value, but based on the AWD Rx300's reputation for a bad transmission, it probably wouldn't save you any money in the long run. All it would take is for the AWD tranny to fail once and there's $4000 lost... If it were me, i would avoid the AWD unless you need it for snow or bad weather. Just get the 2WD and save the $4000 from the start. <_< However keep in mind the AWD brings other features such as heated seats, wood steering wheel, HID headlights and rear spoiler. It's very uncommon to find a 2WD Rx300 with all of these features. It sort of comes with a package...

If they're deep enough to feel with your fingernail you can try wet-sanding the entire panel with 2000 grit sandpaper and machine polishing with a rubbing compound. The clear on the wood panels is an acrylic, so any polish will work. Just don't wetsand unless you've removed the panels from the car and have a machine to polish with. NEVER try to do it by hand as it'll take too much time. <_<

Does it switch if you hit the "answer" button on the steering wheel?