Anyone have issues with LEDs on newer BRZs?

[Nickosport]

I did the interior lights, trunk light and license plate lights. It was super easy, I didnt have any issues. I used @Diode Dynamics LEDs.

I didn't do the courtesy lights because I have a premium trim that doesn't have them. If you are really worried about shorting the BCM, just disconnect the battery and hit the brake.

[extrashaky]

Personally, other than the door pools, I don't get the appeal. The "improved" lighting in every one of these pics looks garish and harsh to me. Especially that ridiculous tag light that's brighter than the tails. The purpose is to make your tag visible to cops and other people who can jot down your license plate number when you fuck up, not to light up the neighborhood and blind drivers behind you. And I can imagine turning on the dome light momentarily while driving and not being able to see the road for the next 90 seconds.

I get wanting to run lights that draw less current, but why the overkill on brightness?

[Tectoniic]

I also have full interior, rear plate, and daytime running light LED replacements from Diode Dynamics. Absolutely no problems and install was very simple.

[Grimlock]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

Personally, other than the door pools, I don't get the appeal. The "improved" lighting in every one of these pics looks garish and harsh to me. Especially that ridiculous tag light that's brighter than the tails. The purpose is to make your tag visible to cops and other people who can jot down your license plate number when you fuck up, not to light up the neighborhood and blind drivers behind you. And I can imagine turning on the dome light momentarily while driving and not being able to see the road for the next 90 seconds.

I get wanting to run lights that draw less current, but why the overkill on brightness?

I kind of agree with all of this, especially the tail lights. I don't think my Premium BRZ has the door courtesy lights, so I won't do those. But I wouldn't mind have a much brighter light in the trunk. That could be very useful.

I can also see brightening up the dome light a bit, but that's because I can't recall ever turning it on while driving.

But you are definitely right about the color temperature. It's way too harsh.

[Diode Dynamics]

To prevent any possibility of blowing a fuse, you'll want to disconnect the courtesy light socket, install the bulb into the housing, and re-install the housing.

As others have mentioned, the BRZ has a terrible circuit design, which can be prone to issues if you "hot-plug" any LED into that courtesy light location.

Hot-plugging refers to plugging the LED into the housing while it's still receiving power

Nick C.

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by Grimlock

But I wouldn't mind have a much brighter light in the trunk. That could be very useful.

I can agree with that. The trunk light could be brighter, but that's not its only problem. The big problem is that the car really needs two lights in the trunk, one on each side.

Originally Posted by Grimlock

I can also see brightening up the dome light a bit, but that's because I can't recall ever turning it on while driving.

The problem with the stock dome light is not that it's dim. The problem is that it's the only source of illumination inside the car, and the design of the interior leaves dark shadows in a lot of places you'd like to be able to see. Brightening up the dome light doesn't fix those shadows. If anything, it makes it more difficult to see into them.

If you look at the lighting in a luxury car, you'll often see more than just dome lights. There will also be footwell lighting and sometimes some soft side-lighting, especially in the rear seats. Our dome light with its single source gives the ambiance of an interrogation room, and even more so if you make it brighter.

[Joyride86]

All of your points are valid and I agree with pretty much all of them. Most people do it for the color change, myself included. The brightness factor is more of a secondary benefit. Most members here do visual mods. A much smaller portion of us actually do true functional mods.

[B-R-Z]

For me, the white LEDs seem brighter in the dome light but I feel like the light output is better and more usable from an incandescent bulb. Anyone else?

[pfaffendorn]

Originally Posted by soilent

I want to convert all of my stock incandescent bulbs to LED, but I've read some horror stories about shorting out a computer when installing the door curtesy lights. I was just wondering if this is still an issue and if people have had problems with LEDs in other locations like trunk, dome, reverse lights, etc. Thanks.

I did the same thing last week. All the other LED upgrades went flawlessly, but as I replaced the bulb in the driver's door, the bulb flashed bright for an instant and then went dim. Now I could have shorted out the socket with the screwdriver I was leveraging the OE bulb out with, but whatever the cause, the door lights remain one dim, one bright, and they stay that way 24/7, doors open or closed. Two small LEDs don't seem to affect the battery at all, and I can find no other anomalies in the car's systems, so I am in no hurry to get it fixed. I'll ask the dealer when I take it for its first service -- and good luck to you: many guys here have done their LED upgrade without a hitch.

[frznBRZ]

Originally Posted by pfaffendorn

I did the same thing last week. All the other LED upgrades went flawlessly, but as I replaced the bulb in the driver's door, the bulb flashed bright for an instant and then went dim. Now I could have shorted out the socket with the screwdriver I was leveraging the OE bulb out with, but whatever the cause, the door lights remain one dim, one bright, and they stay that way 24/7, doors open or closed. Two small LEDs don't seem to affect the battery at all, and I can find no other anomalies in the car's systems, so I am in no hurry to get it fixed. I'll ask the dealer when I take it for its first service -- and good luck to you: many guys here have done their LED upgrade without a hitch.

I have the "dim/bright" issue too. Except my drivers side door is "bright" and my passenger side one is "dim" (dim meaning, it looks like only half the plastic piece is lighting up).
If I put the OEM bulb back in, the passenger side lights up just fine. I even swapped the LED bulbs to the opposite sides, and still its only the passenger side that is "dim."
Both door lights go off when I close my doors though. IDK if it's an issue with the plastic piece, or an issue with the wiring/fuse on that side of the car? I bought my LEDs from Diode Dynamics.
It's not super annoying because I rarely have passengers in my car, so the door is never really opened. But I would be interested in knowing what the problem is.

[PandaSPUR]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

Personally, other than the door pools, I don't get the appeal. The "improved" lighting in every one of these pics looks garish and harsh to me. Especially that ridiculous tag light that's brighter than the tails. The purpose is to make your tag visible to cops and other people who can jot down your license plate number when you fuck up, not to light up the neighborhood and blind drivers behind you. And I can imagine turning on the dome light momentarily while driving and not being able to see the road for the next 90 seconds.

I get wanting to run lights that draw less current, but why the overkill on brightness?

I didn't do LEDs for the brightness, I did it for the light color.

I prefer a crisp white light over the warm yellow hue from incandescent bulbs.

[go_a_way1]

Originally Posted by B-R-Z

For me, the white LEDs seem brighter in the dome light but I feel like the light output is better and more usable from an incandescent bulb. Anyone else?

Agree, especially when its not super dark out.

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by B-R-Z

For me, the white LEDs seem brighter in the dome light but I feel like the light output is better and more usable from an incandescent bulb. Anyone else?

Yep. Two reasons:

One is as I said above, the shadows don't change, but increasing the brightness of the light will make your eye see more contrast and less detail in the dark areas of your car. So a brighter light will make the dark areas seem darker.

The other reason is that LED lighting is not continuous spectrum like incandescent. As a result, some colors sometimes appear "weird" or washed out under certain LEDs.

Taken together, a bright LED without great color rendition can make an area almost appear monochrome. LEDs are great for some applications and not so great for others. The problem here is that a lot of people are just jumping on the LED bandwagon and convince themselves it looks totally awesome without realizing they're making their lighting less effective and, in cases like that ridiculous blown out tag light, ugly.

[86kahl]

Originally Posted by B-R-Z

Holy shit that's bright. 👍🏽👍🏽