It's the little things really plus led interior lights?

[BMCWP]

So guess who only noticed last night that the seat belt buckle is illuminated at night with the lights on? 
Yep, Me. 😕 😂
I was also considering changing the bulbs in the other interior lamps (door handles, foot-well/seat lamps etc) to blue leds as I had done to my older car but am not sure if its a good or bad idea as I had mixed results before with chinese bulbs - anyone else done this successfully and is it a pain in the back  

[ajchetcuti]

 

 

 

So guess who only noticed last night that the seat belt buckle is illuminated at night with the lights on? 

Yep, Me. [emoji53] [emoji23]

I was also considering changing the bulbs in the other interior lamps (door handles, foot-well/seat lamps etc) to blue leds as I had done to my older car but am not sure if its a good or bad idea as I had mixed results before with chinese bulbs - anyone else done this successfully and is it a pain in the back  

 

Please don't change anything to LED. I have just tried to do this and blew something. Now I have no footwell lights, ignition lights or courtesy light on door opening. Awaiting some advice on how to fix as I can't find a fuse blown anywhere... I'm so annoyed as it actually looked great, 2 bulbs worked and the 3rd one freaked it out.

 

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[The-Acre]

The only ones I've done are the number plate lights which work well.  

[steve2006]

2 hours ago, ajchetcuti said:

 

 

 

 

 

Please don't change anything to LED. I have just tried to do this and blew something. Now I have no footwell lights, ignition lights or courtesy light on door opening. Awaiting some advice on how to fix as I can't find a fuse blown anywhere... I'm so annoyed as it actually looked great, 2 bulbs worked and the 3rd one freaked it out.

 

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If you have checked all the fuses in the engine bay and under the dash you have probably damaged the “Integration Relay” unit, this in a green casing attached to the back of the under dash fuse board. Access to it and removal is an absolute pain.

The reason I know this.......I did exactly the same with LED bulbs and blew mine up......the good news.....I repaired my unit 

Link below shows the relay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1990-1994-LEXUS-LS400-RELAY-INTEGRATION-82641-50010-YOTA-YARD/172485905076?epid=1353937552&hash=item2828f60ab4:g:IawAAOSw-0xYeVua

[ajchetcuti]

If you have checked all the fuses in the engine bay and under the dash you have probably damaged the “Integration Relay” unit, this in a green casing attached to the back of the under dash fuse board. Access to it and removal is an absolute pain.
The reason I know this.......I did exactly the same with LED bulbs and blew mine up......the good news.....I repaired my unit 
Link below shows the relay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1990-1994-LEXUS-LS400-RELAY-INTEGRATION-82641-50010-YOTA-YARD/172485905076?epid=1353937552&hash=item2828f60ab4:g:IawAAOSw-0xYeVua

Saved the day again Steve. I'll have a go at taking it out ASAP. Honestly I thought it was a simple job to swap bulbs. I changed to LEDs in many of my cars before this with no issue! I guess it's not worth changing them in an LS or is there a way around it? The ignition one seems fine as I've done that in the other LS I have as it wasn't working at all.

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[steve2006]

When you get it out open the casing and look inside for a burnt out resistor on one edge of the board.

[ajchetcuti]

When you get it out open the casing and look inside for a burnt out resistor on one edge of the board.

Will do! I'll be in touch. Thanks again. [emoji4]

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[The-Acre]

Well that's put me off ever changing another bulb for LED!

[ajchetcuti]

Well that's put me off ever changing another bulb for LED!

I'm glad!! Dim and yellow is the way to stay for the LS. [emoji1787]

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[Malc]

12 hours ago, ajchetcuti said:

Dim and yellow is the way to stay for the LS.

still the brightest sparkler in the pack though 

Malc

[Razor61]

18 hours ago, ajchetcuti said:

Please don't change anything to LED. I have just tried to do this and blew something. Now I have no footwell lights, ignition lights or courtesy light on door opening. Awaiting some advice on how to fix as I can't find a fuse blown anywhere... I'm so annoyed as it actually looked great, 2 bulbs worked and the 3rd one freaked it out.

 

I'm glad I saw this, I bought some bulbs for the interior (along with some headlight bulbs) as I thought one interior bulb had gone but it turns out it hasn't. I ordered LED interior bulbs by mistake and thought I'd just fit them anyway. After reading this post I won't be fitting them!!

[Tulpen]

The 400 is one of the most meticulously engineered vehicles on earth. Why would you want to mess with it?

[ajchetcuti]

The 400 is one of the most meticulously engineered vehicles on earth. Why would you want to mess with it?

It's just brighter bulbs for better ambient lighting, not a manual gearbox and turbo conversion... Lol.

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[runsgrateasanut]

Thought about LED's and have a selection bought for previous car, but in the light of this (excuse the pun)   have decided only to put this one into the fitting that goes into my Cigar lighter facing upward, it will let me see those Heater control wheels and Vanes which in the dark I tend to fumble about trying to find.

USB Wireless Flexible Neon Ambient LED light For Car Interior Decoration

 

[Cotswold Pete]

Long time since I get my head around LEDs but as I recall LEDs have what is called an in-rush current.  This means the LED generally pull a higher current for the first millisecond or so to charge up the capacitor (which is there to keep the LED from flickering).  This means the ECUs may well get a little  ticked off at seeing a surge that you do not get with a filament bulb.

So if the LS engineers have 'finely-tuned' the parameters to measure than it may report errors, if it  thinks a higher current might indicate a short term short.

It seems that the LED in-rush current is about 6 times that of the startup current for a good old fashioned Dim Yellow Filament, so it would be pot luck as to which lights in the LS range would be okay, and which ones would create problems for the fuses and or ECU.

Maybe the answer is all LS400 drivers buy a decent Lenser Head torch for reading their AA road maps when parked up in a lay-bye at night!!!

 

[ambermarine]

1 hour ago, Cotswold Pete said:

Long time since I get my head around LEDs but as I recall LEDs have what is called an in-rush current.  This means the LED generally pull a higher current for the first millisecond or so to charge up the capacitor (which is there to keep the LED from flickering).  This means the ECUs may well get a little  ticked off at seeing a surge that you do not get with a filament bulb.

So if the LS engineers have 'finely-tuned' the parameters to measure than it may report errors, if it  thinks a higher current might indicate a short term short.

It seems that the LED in-rush current is about 6 times that of the startup current for a good old fashioned Dim Yellow Filament, so it would be pot luck as to which lights in the LS range would be okay, and which ones would create problems for the fuses and or ECU.

Maybe the answer is all LS400 drivers buy a decent Lenser Head torch for reading their AA road maps when parked up in a lay-bye at night!!!

 

The Ls400 was developed in an era when LED technology was in its infancy regarding automotive application and to that end the circuitry and safety of circuits in the LS was designed for conventional bulbs .

The phrase" horses for courses comes" to mind here and to take things further along that course if you don't want to come a cropper over the fences stay on the flat.

The statement as already been made with regards the finite engineering within the LS400 and that extends to the circuitry .

The reason bulbs don't fail in a LS400 is more to do with the circuitry than the bulbs and my Mark 1 never had a blown bulb in its 23 year life.

The new technologies are just that but keep them for the new cars where they are designed to accept them.

[runsgrateasanut]

Interesting Answers from Pete and yourself. 

Some people use the Cigar/ette lighter to add a tyre inflator which must be a powerful draw on current. 

I long ago mended the Cig Socket removing the remains of the fusible link which may well have suffered from such usage. 

I will have to rethink if my 99p investment in a USB bulb (when it arrives) may not be wise to plug in?

Are you people sure it was not just the fact that Alexander may have put the LED in the wrong way around and that has caused the problem?  Not easy to be sure which way they go in, if I remember correctly?

[Malc]

I've always thought tampering with a car's electrics is dicing with fire suicide too

Malc

[runsgrateasanut]

You lives and you learns as they say!.  I always thoguht it ws only Mercedes Canbus systems that could throw a wobbly with LED's. Apparantly not.

ps Alexander, You can always put down a mat of AstroTurf if you particularly want the colour -  LOL

[ajchetcuti]

Definitely interesting answers. Might answer why it took two LEDs no problem then the third blew it. Between the three there was a mix of low current then a spike.

I've changed the ignition one on my other LS as the bulbs do go with age and it's great as an LED. The footwell lighting I will keep stock. Lesson learnt but all from a bulb wow!

Yes you have to try LED both ways if it doesn't light as not always correct first time. If it's the wrong way around it won't even draw a current though? Maybe one was just faulty and blew it and it can actually handle LED, not something I want to test again though. I've done this on many cars before with no issue for a brighter more useful light.



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[runsgrateasanut]

This surprised me.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7CfBiOBbc8

and this I found interesting.  https://www.jlclassics.com/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/jlc?opendocument&part=13

[ROYT]

I changed my sidelight bulbs to LED a couple of years ago, never had a problem.

Also fitted LED Daylight Driving Lights in the scoops below the fog lights, same, no problem....

As an experiment I drilled the orange reflectors next to the indicators and fitted LED's wired to the indicator wiring,

creating an unneccesary extra side flasher!...............never had a problem still works.!

[BMCWP]

I would have thought that my LS430 being (slightly) more modern than a 400 would have no issues with them, as even my 20 year old Jaguar had no issues. I do know that some sidelight bulbs can cause  problems as I once put them into my 04 range rover and on start up it resembled a police car as they looked like strobes 🙄 although no error messages came up. I'm not overly worried about them and won't be ordering any - as for fire while unlikely I have seen some cheaper lamps with so called heatsinks on them burn out and damage the holders but those from what I can gather came from China and were early on in the life of LED bulbs. Technology marches on so who knows what is next but for now as I said I'll leave well alone. 🙂

[ajchetcuti]

When you get it out open the casing and look inside for a burnt out resistor on one edge of the board.

I've managed to get the whole cream box loose and can see the green unit on the back. How do you separate the two? Brute force? Bolts, clips? Do I need to remove the wiring clips from the whole cream unit and remove the whole thing? Thanks in advance!

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[steve2006]

I can’t remember but pretty sure it clips on, if I get time I will try and find my spare unit and take a look....told you it was a right PITA to get to and remove!