I was thinking about replacing all of the bulbs in my 2002 that I'm fixing up with LED replacements. I suspect it would save a little bit of power, but the main two reasons for doing it would be so that I don't have to worry about replacing anymore bulbs for a long time and second because I prefer the pure-white color on the lights. However, I haven't been able to find a list of all the different bulb sizes and quantities I'd need for the 2001-2003 model.
Be especially careful with the turn signal lamps, as the Prius is likely to think its a blown bulb due to low energy requirements, and it will flash very quickly. I have heard of it being done on our Prius', but I have also read that the electical system doesn't exactly react as expected. Be careful as improper installation (proper use of resistors) can start a fire, as I nearly did in my 1995 Firefly when I converted the interior lights to LED's, and one of them was improperly setup and the wires started smoking up like crazy. Keep me posted as I am super interested. AND PLEASE PUT UP PICTURES!
I'm having a little trouble. I've recreated the chart in the 2002 Prius users' manual for the replacement lights.. have a look: Light Bulbs Bulb No. W Type 1 Headlights --- 60/55 A 2 Parking Lights 947 5 C 3 Front Turn Signal --- 21 B 4 Rear Turn Signal 7440 21 C 5 Stop and Tail Lights 7443 21/5 C 6 Back-up Lights 921 16 C 7 License Plate Lights --- 5 C 8 High Mounted Stop-light 9419 5 C 9 Interior Light --- 8 D 10 Personal Light --- 8 B 11 Trunk Light 194 3.8 C A: HB2 Halogen bulbs B: Single end bulbs C: Wedge bsae bulbs D: Double end bulbs Now, why on earth would they bother telling us the wattage and type, but not bother to tell the actual bulb number? What is worse, is many of these bulb numbers seem non-existent when doing a google search. So I guess I'm going to have to pull the bulbs out of the car, go down to an auto-store and compare them so I can figure out what their generic numbers are so I can order LED replacements on the internet.
Did you ever find good part numbers, and quantities of each? I think I'll do the replacement on both of the Prius's. I did download a replacement list generated from: www.sylvania.com/consumerproducts/automotivelighting You might find a good listing for your now 2008 Prius there as well. This webshop seems to have pretty good prices on LED Bulbs: www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.712~page.1~pagesize.52~pagesort.relevence
I have actually converted all my lights to leds including HID for the headlights. Its really cool and very bright compared to stock bulbs. Let me know if you need more info.
I purchased all my leds bulbs from v-leds.com. I have tried a lot of leds out there like on eBay but they aren't bright compared to the ones you get from v-leds. Btw i didn't convert my turn signals because i found that amber leds seem to wash out in sunlight, stock turn signal is much brighter in my opinion. Also if you want leds for brake lights go for the same color, i found that white leds don't work well in a red housing. Mind you that they can get expensive with all combined, but its worth it. Brake lights: Red # 7443 standard Third brake lights (the one on top behind rear window) it needs 5 bulbs: Red #194 (forward style) Reverse lights: white #921 8 watts ( you can either choose 5000k or 6000k) Side marker lights: amber #194 the front lights (on top of headlights): white #194 Trunk light: white #194 License plate light: white #194 Map lights: white #194 (flank style) Dome lights: white #3175 Somehow my camera is making the white lights look greenish yellow i dont know why but, they are really white. For HID, I bought the Kensun from amazon, they are Bi-xenon H4: color 4300k. 4300k is the whitest (no blue tinge) and brightest of all colors of HID any more than 4300k gets dimmer and bluer. Anything less becomes yellow. I don't really like the blue hue on the headlights, but that's just my preference.
Your right about the turn signals hyper flashing without resistors. LEDs have low power consumption therefore the system thinks the bulb is out, which makes them flash very rapidly. I posted a few pics above of my leds swap. BTW only the turn signal needs resistors for anyone who wants to convert them.
This has been of interest to a lot of people (including me, though I haven't replaced anything yet.) I have made a start at the list (and some of the things to look out for) on the PriusChat Wiki where it can be kept up-to-date and improved, instead of dropping out of sight like all the forum threads. Here's hoping it's useful. Cheers, -Chap
ej, Can you post the actual item Part id #'s of each of the bulbs you ordered? I too prefer the bright crisp white light but when just typing in 3175 in the search for (Dome lights: white #3175) I get many options.
ej, Do I need to purchase the HID conversion kit also when buying the Bi-xenon H4 bulbs? If so, I see a regular kit and a slim kit. What version do you use? Also the conversion kits ask for a "Size Name" and there are several choices in that drop down list.
+1. It would also be great if anybody who has specific part #s currently orderable or coming to market that are actual adequate replacements for the stock bulbs could add that information to the wiki page. While I've been a fan of LED technology for years in general, my sense as of my last look around what's on the market (back in late 2012) is that in the category of LED replacements for car incandescents, the technology is still maturing and it's not yet easy at all to find products that beat or even match the stock bulbs on lumen output and beam pattern. LED "upgrades" reported on forums can still turn out to be downgrades from stock when the specs are looked up. I'm sure that will change, and rapidly - for all I know there could have been better products announced in the last month - but still for a while it will be important to shop very carefully and look closely at specs. The wiki page outlines the main issues that need to be looked at. -Chap
You can purchase a replacement flasher unit that cures the problem of high speed flashing without using power wasting resisters.
I am in the process of doing that also, ive done my turn signals, reverse, dome, front park lights. also did my dash lights in the center cluster with blue ones from autozone. looks pretty cool. and a 55 w bi zenon 6000k hid kit from VVME on ebay. works very nice.
where can I get this flasher you speak of. I had to put those resistors in. i would rather have that flasher than those resistors.
