I am changing all interior leds from the stock ugly green to white. I don't have a problem with the green but it's annoying the the gauge cluster is white, and the rest of the car doesn't match... If the gauge cluster was green I could accept all of it.lol.
Anyways, I started with the HVAC since that's the easiest to change. I bought 40 different white SMD leds to test brightness and color/hue. I ended up going with one that matches pretty much identically to the modern Lexus line up of interior white lighting. It's not pure white, more of a toned downed yellowish/whitish white if that makes any sense. Pure 5k white is too harsh for interior lighting in my opinion, to the same point too bright is super distracting and blindng. Pictures make it seems like it's pure white, but it's not. My phone has no way of capturing what it looks like.
Anyways, here is the start to the process. I'll be doing the rest of the center console items once my leds come in this week. I'll tackle the navi unit shortly. I have to open it up and verify which leds it takes. Then I'll do the steering wheel controls, mirror/left side of steering column area. Then ending with the window control switches, which arguably is the easiest of them all since I believe they just take 3mm leds.
New White:
With overhead lights on:
Middle LEDS make it seems brighter due to white lcd panel/plastic right above them. They aren't' this bright.
Overhead lighting on:
Desoldered LEDS showing the pads:
5050 SMD leds soldered in place. I am getting another test unit so I can play around with more things to utilize another style led.
Stock green... time to go!
My silly notes:
-Nigel