Lexus CT200h Forums banner

Toby's 2016 Ultrasonic Blue CT200h F-Sport Picture Thread (Updated 3/24/2024)

3K views 27 replies 5 participants last post by  Dr.Peer 
#1 ·
Greetings all!

I've been posting around here and there since signing up a few months ago, as I've been getting a feel for things before making a more "formal" introduction (aka, I've been too lazy to make this post lol).

But here I am, I "retired" from a Lexus IS300 to this very lovely CT200h. It's a 2016 F-sport with only 29k miles, Ultrasonic Blue Mica with Obsidian Black roof, and navigation package. Not quite fully loaded (no LED head lights, parking sensors, seat memory, or adaptive cruise control), but good enough for me.

I ended up getting this delivered to me in August 2020, sight unseen. I never drove one, sat in it, smelled it, looked at it before. But it ended up being great! I still haven't really driven it (been in full strict lockdown/quarantine since March 2020), but so far, it looks great in the garage, and I'm so glad to be rid of the old IS300. What a mess and headache that was.

I wrote more about my reasonings for buying this car and my transition experience here if you are interested:

But for now, I'm still just chilling and figuring things out. I read the manuals fully and learned the car enough, and plan to do all the researching through all of the forums before I do any mods. I do already have lighting upgrades in the garage waiting to install when it warms up, but for now, I want to learn all I can before diving in. No questions so far. If anything, I hope to help answer more questions than I ask!

So here's to a good future with the CT200h. Some pics (just stock):

60474
60475
60476
60477
 
See less See more
4
#2 · (Edited)
As I mentioned, my previous car was a Lexus IS300, which you can read all about here:

I had it for a decade, but it was definitely time to move on. I took some pictures of the two cars together before ripping the old car apart, parting it out, and selling it for cheap locally.

I plan to keep the CT200h mostly stock, other than upgrading all of the lights inside and out to LED. I'm definitely done with the slammed life lol

60478
60479
60492
60493

60482
60483
60484
60485
60486
60487
 
#5 ·
I love the blue! Always have. Best blue there is, best Lexus color.

The IS was fun, but I'm getting older and wanted something newer, more reliable, and a better fit for today's world and my lifestyle. So, for me, it's an upgrade in every way, and the car already comes with enough of what I want on it so I can just enjoy it. In sport mode, the CT is actually just as quick and zippy as the IS300, if not more. I'm very impressed LOL
 
#14 ·
Like I mentioned in previous posts, I had a whole thread documenting everything I did to my previous Lexus with pictures. I never really intended on doing much to this current Lexus, so I wasn't trying to start a "build" thread, but I suppose it can't hurt to at least continue this one with that I've done since, just so I have it all in one place somewhere online for future reference.

I bought the car in August 2020, and then once Black Friday deals came around at the end of November 2020, I bought pretty much all the parts I wanted or intended on ever installing at the time. But because I still wasn't driving anywhere, and because it was cold/winter, I didn't end up actually doing any work or installing any of the parts until May 2021.

I started with simple LED upgrades with an order of various 5500k bulbs for the interior lights and mirror puddle lights as well as v6 extreme amber turn signal systems from V-LEDs. In order to use the LEDs in the turn signal, I had to replace the flasher unit. I had salvaged my special LED flasher from my previous car with intention on installing it in this car, so I set about doing it. But it was a huge pain, as anyone who's tried to do it knows. But eventually, I was able to get the old one unclipped from under the dash, pulled down, and then installed the new flasher and held the harness in place with a zip-tie.

Circuit component Cable Electronic component Electronic device Electronics accessory



The stock one is on the left. I used the screwdriver to help wedge the clip to unclip it. The replacement unit is an original special flasher from "AutoWindow" (RIP owner), and the more updated modern version can be bought from DiodeDynamics. This car already has "Tap Turn" functionality built in, but this unit allows me to use LED bulbs without hyperflash, and it also allows me to setup a special strobe effect on the hazard flashers.

Here is a picture I took after reinstalling the new unit from the position I had to be in to remove the old one, basically upside down in the driver's seat area with my head in the pedals. So the picture is a bit backwards, so I labeled each side for reference. The zip-tied flasher can be seen in the middle of the picture with the red arrows.

Motor vehicle Automotive tire Automotive design Hood Automotive exterior



A couple of days later, I started swapping out all of the interior lights with LED. I picked the 5500k color because that seemed to be the closest color of the options to the stock LEDs on the headlights and license plate lights.

The LED bulbs I got had LEDs in all directions radially, so as I installed them, I also installed some shiny aluminum foil duct tape to the insides of all the surfaces, because otherwise, they were just black and would absorb all of the light. It's a pretty dumb design, there should be a reflector. But I made my own, and it worked out nicely.

Here is the rear hatch cargo bay area light housing covered in shiny aluminum foil tape:

Sleeve Silver Automotive lighting Rectangle Natural material


And this picture shows how effective it is at reflecting all of the LEDs forward into the interior space where the light is needed:

Automotive lighting Gas Automotive fog light Auto part Automotive exterior


The light on the end doesn't really have a chance to illuminate out due to the length of the bulb, but at least it fit. The bulb is #194. Here's the completed install:

Automotive lighting Automotive design Automotive tire Automotive exterior Bumper


MUCH brighter and provides plenty of light all by itself.

Next, I did the overhead dome light in the center of the car. Similarly, I put the aluminum foil tape on first:

Automotive tire Automotive lighting Hood Motor vehicle Automotive exterior


Which captures and reflects all of the radial LEDs focusing the light downward spread throughout the cabin:

Automotive lighting Light Art Rectangle Darkness


I forgot to take a picture of what I did with the tape in the front map lights, but you can see the difference between one new LED on the left with reflective tape and old incandescent on the right with no reflective tape:

Automotive lighting Automotive design Fixture Vehicle Tints and shades


And then with both replaced, it is much brighter. It's very nice that these lights also come on with the door, I'm used to only the center light in the middle coming on.

Automotive lighting Fixture Automotive exterior Tints and shades Auto part
 
#15 ·
Finally, I did the vanity lights over the sun visors. The housing for these bulbs was very bare and open and didn't have any backing at all, so I used the tape to bridge over the gap and create my own reflector, which worked well enough:

Hand Liquid Automotive lighting Drinkware Fluid


Then all of the lights were finished. I didn't realize until I did the last one that V-LEDs sent me one 6000k color (which ended up in the driver's vanity light) until it was all done.

Automotive lighting Window Automotive exterior Mode of transport Hood


You can see it's slightly bluer. It really ticked me off and triggered my OCD even though those lights are barely ever used. But I was trying to install quality parts on this car, and not have to mess with it ever again. So for the first thing to go wrong did not feel good. Thankfully, V-LEDs made it right.

Here are some more pictures, even though the one is off color.

Vehicle Car Motor vehicle Window Automotive design


Vehicle Car Hood Motor vehicle Steering wheel


Motor vehicle Automotive lighting Vehicle Automotive design Trunk


According to V-LED procedure, the defective bulb must be destroyed and proof sent back to V-LEDs so they'll send you a new replacement. That was easy...

Wood Automotive tire Natural material Auto part Gas


It's too bad a perfectly good 6000k bulb had to be destroyed, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make to get the proper 5500k bulb for free. V-LEDs sent the right bulb, and I installed it and now everything matches!

Vehicle Automotive lighting Mode of transport Automotive design Automotive exterior


Much better, and how it should be, as I paid for it.

I also replaced the puddle lights with these same 5500k #194 LEDs from V-LEDs. But while I was doing it, I replaced the mirror glass itself. On my previous car, I had upgraded the mirrors to a blue-tinted anti-glare "wide angle" lens that eliminated the blind spots. Driving this car without the mirrors I was used to was scary, but I was able to find a direct swap for the OEM mirrors from "REXPEED" on Ebay at the time that had the same blue tint and wide-angle view. So I got them and replaced the mirror glass while I was replacing the puddle light bulbs so that I'd only do the work once (as I was afraid of breaking the mirror glass).

Here is a picture showing the difference in the mirrors. On the left, you have the stock mirror. On the right, the blue mirror. You can see how much more "zoomed out" it looks, giving a much bigger and wider view from the same mirror. It's what I was used to, and it makes changing lanes on a highway so much easier, especially as this hatchback has a lot less visibility out of the rear angles than my previous sedan did.

Wheel Tire Automotive lighting Hood Automotive tire


The back of the mirrors (with the LED bulbs). The new mirrors are simple, but they work. They have the same plugs for the heating elements.

Automotive lighting Automotive tire Gadget Font Communication Device


Installed:

Vehicle Motor vehicle Automotive side-view mirror Automotive lighting Automotive design
 
#16 ·
Here's a picture after I finished all of the LEDs. The puddle lights, interior lights, and parking lights are on to see how they match (well enough):

Wheel Tire Car Land vehicle Vehicle


The light color inside is good enough, it's not blue enough to be blue, but does give the otherwise grayscale interior a slight feel of color to it, to match the exterior blue paint. So that's nice.

Continuing along with the interior customizations while we're on the subject...

I had put an f-sport shift knob (with the carbon fiber and blue stitching) in my previous Lexus, so it was only fitting that I salvaged it to install in a proper f-sport and bring some more of that blue into the cabin. I also moved over the old ScanGauge II OBD2 reader I had installed in my previous car and found that it fit nicely just resting on top of the back of the steering wheel column. This way, I could monitor the water/coolant temperature (since this car doesn't have a gauge) and I also use the air intake temperature along with the RPM and MPH readouts. I found that the speedometer reads slow, but the OBD2 gives an accurate speed reading. I use the RPM readout on the gauge so that I can keep the left needle in normal eco mode all the time even in sport mode, since I find the eco gauge more helpful. The ScanGauge also keeps track of MPG, fillups, distance to empty, etc, which is also nice to have even though the car already does those as well. And of course, I moved Mewtwo over to keep the spirit alive.

Vehicle Light Car Motor vehicle Speedometer


Those were in June 2021. In July 2021, I updated the entertainment system to the latest version thanks to a patch I found on Facebook, just in case it would be helpful.

Gadget Communication Device Electric blue Audio equipment Multimedia


Communication Device Mobile device Gadget Flat panel display Electric blue



One improvement in this car over the previous car is the ability to have built-in MP3s. Previously, I had to redo the whole stereo to have an AUX input and then I wired in a small MP3 player that had to be controlled separately/manually from the car. But in the CT, it's all built in and integrated. So I bought a micro tiny USB drive, the smallest one I could find. It's 64 GB and holds way more than enough songs and doesn't have any issues with playback. It fits in the USB slot, and I pulled off the cover and then the door closes over it all nicely, hiding/concealing the USB for a full seamless built-in music experience. It's the small things lol.

Automotive design Personal luxury car Car Vehicle Auto part


I also caved and bought a Carista OBD2 dongle to connect with the phone app to be able to control certain Lexus Personalization Features. Specifically, I turned off the annoying reverse beep and enabled the roll down of the windows with the key fob remote. Turns out, I could have done this on my previous car too all along... oh well.

Mobile phone Communication Device Telephony Mobile device Gadget
 
#17 ·
#19 ·
Then in July 2021, I retrofitted red LEDs into the hatch door tail lights so that the full bars would light up. It worked pretty well. I made a whole DIY thread here, so most of the pictures are here:


Here are the pictures of the results. The lines fully light up in dim parking mode and bright brake mode, the same LEDs have two brightness levels.

Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle registration plate Tire Vehicle Car


Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle Car Vehicle registration plate Automotive lighting


Wheel Car Tire Vehicle Land vehicle

Car Land vehicle Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle Tire

Automotive parking light Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle Car Automotive lighting

Automotive parking light Car Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle Automotive lighting

Car Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle Automotive lighting Automotive tire



Just some pictures of the car with all the lights on:

Car Wheel Tire Vehicle registration plate Vehicle

Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Hood

Wheel Tire Car Land vehicle Vehicle
 
#22 ·
Then later in December 2021, I decided to complete the look of the rear tail lights to have all of the red light up by installing some LED reflector lights in the lower bumper. I made a DIY thread over here about it with most of the pictures:


Here are the pictures of the results. All of the lights have two brightness modes, dim for parking, and bright for brake.

Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle Vehicle registration plate Tire Car


Automotive tail & brake light Tire Car Vehicle Wheel


Automotive tail & brake light Tire Wheel Vehicle Automotive lighting


Automotive parking light Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle Automotive lighting Light


(green film on the license plate lights for a Christmas theme)

Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle Car Vehicle registration plate Automotive lighting

Car Wheel Tire Vehicle Vehicle registration plate

Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Automotive tail & brake light

Automotive tail & brake light Tire Car Vehicle Wheel

Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle Car Motor vehicle Automotive tire


Automotive parking light Automotive tail & brake light Grille Automotive lighting Hood
 
#23 ·
No updates or pictures until August 2023 when I took the mirrors apart again (despite my intention to only do it once, thankfully nothing broke) to replace the LED turn signal with a fancy switchback model. I made a DIY thread here with all the pictures:


Here are the pictures of the finished results of the lights. The mirrors have a startup sequence with the amber LEDs when the car comes on and then switches to white, which stays on whenever the car is on, day or night. The white switches to amber for the turn signal. And there are extra puddle lights underneath. I also finally got some pictures of the amber Triton turn signal LEDs in the headlights and taillights.


Wheel Car Vehicle Tire Land vehicle

Wheel Tire Land vehicle Car Vehicle

Tire Wheel Vehicle Car Plant

Wheel Tire Land vehicle Vehicle Car



Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Plant

Car Vehicle Automotive side-view mirror Motor vehicle Hood

Car Vehicle Automotive lighting Motor vehicle Blue

Vehicle Car Automotive lighting Hood Motor vehicle

Car Vehicle Automotive side-view mirror Hood Automotive lighting

Automotive parking light Automotive side-view mirror Car Hood Vehicle
 
#25 ·
Automotive parking light Car Vehicle Grille Automotive side-view mirror

Vehicle Car Blue Tire Wheel

Vehicle Automotive side-view mirror Car Automotive lighting Motor vehicle

Automotive parking light Vehicle Automotive lighting Car Hood



That's all for now, finally caught up with everything! I don't have any plans for any more modifications at this point. I do still love the car even if I don't use it that much. Though it did perfectly in a 2500-mile round trip in November 2023. Feel free to ask if there are any questions, thanks for looking.
 
Top