Long hard road…

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

I’ve banged on about the lights a bit, and today snapped a quick photo to illustrate why.

 

Green - never my favourite interior illumination colour.

 

Then we have white and blue.  Now the white I get.  Yes technically blue or red would be better for night vision, but leaving that aside it’s the aesthetic thing.  You design a white/blue cluster then put green steering wheel controls in front of it!

The Gear position has a white LED in there now and is way nicer than the great it was. You can also see the blue halo around the Ciggie lighter.  A very mellow LED blue bulb in there.

Anyway enough of that until I pull some more of the car apart and change things.

In the mean time some post arrived today.

Illuminated window switches, RHD specific - these should be blue.  If they’re the wrong blue I may have to change the LEDs in them to make a consistent theme through the car.  
 

Also got the boot puddle lights in LED form.   These should be significantly better than the old T10 globes.

And number plate lights.

[Tony Prodigy]

I see what you mean. The colours haven't really bothered me all that much but I understand how the green clashes with the prettiness of the dash cluster. Had they carried that blue theme across to the centre console controls, that would've been super. I wonder if the facelift 50 series (2017) had any significant changes to the interior lighting.

Would be a nice DIY to change all the green illunimation to blue, if that's possible. I've never really fiddled with my interior to know much about it to be honest.

Are those illuminated window switches Genuine parts ? Can you link the items you purchased for us ?

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

They’re not genuine window switches, so once I know they work I’ll pop a link up.  Was about $100 for the set 🙂

I will be doing the change of all the LEDs to make the green blue.  Ultimately I will be flicking the factory headunit anyway - but that’s on hold until supply of aftermarket units improves.  So I will have to do the headunit buttons also.

Also have to do the blind control switch and the Start-Stop button.  Steering wheel controls too.

I have the LEDs here now, so really it’s about finding time to pull things apart, at the moment Sebastian is the only functioning vehicle in the house as I’m using Canberra’s snap lockdown to get a bunch of jobs done on my commuter (which involves amongst other things changing the instrument cluster from green to blue)

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

I like puddle lights.  They’re a great thing.

However I really dislike yellow aged bulbs in puddle lights.  Especially when new bulbs OR led bulbs are readily available.

But instead when not go one better and get a full LED replacement light?  
 

Ahhh soothing.

These are going to be fantastic at night.

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

If you think puddle lights trigger me, then those dirty dim number plate lamps…

Camera detection of number plates doesn’t rely on working number plate lamps, so there’s no reason to not resolve this.  

Half done.  Like the puddle lamps I’ve skipped the wrestle of getting T10 LEDs into dirty housings and gone straight for LED replacement units. 

way whiter, way brighter.

Install is a game, unclipped a lot of the bootlid liner.  Back off the nuts retaining the garnish to give some wiggle room of the garnish.

Clip the light assembly, then wiggle all items to rotate it out of the garnish.

But still only a trim clip tool and a 10mm deep socket.

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

The last of my adventures today involves stabbing the car with these:

 

I am a little surprised at just how easy the trims around the window switches comes off.

Original and my aftermarket switches viewed from the bottom.  They look pretty well identical which is a good sign.

The switches also clip into place making the majority of the job sensationally easy.

While the drivers door pops apart the same way the switch unit is mounted with 3 screws.

It’s a zero effort swap still, and nice to have switches without wear on the symbols.

A crappy night photo. The light is far more blue (although still technically ice-blue) and the Lock Button lights up Red on the lock side one.

Overall for the $100 spent I’m happy.  Probably would get the white version if I was doing this again, but equally I can just swap the LEDs in these to match the rest of the LEDs at some point.

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Puddle lights are ace 🙂

Could do my toenails in that light.

[KAA]

Thanks mate epic photos show your hard work, yes would like the link seeing you have fitted the switches now and they seem to an easy conversion. have you any ideas for the boot light? i have currently an LED strip lighting in mine but in the last day or so it has now died, so thinking on replacing the strip or an alternative led fitting for the lighting.

Keep the ideas coming as Sebastian is looking bloody nice

KAA

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

A morning pic of the Ice Blue - I think I will get the white versions and sell these on.

As for the boot… Yes I have to do something with it.  Below is my commuter hatch.  The standard factory light was on the right side.  Much like the Aurion it only puts out whatever light a T10 bulb can muster.

I also found the subwoofer blocked a lot of light.

The upgrade consists of LEF panel version of the light fittings, and an additional one fitted in the mirrored location on the left.  

These are the light units.  They clip into a 3mm plastic trim but there is no reasons why the can’t be mounted in the carpet on the sides of the boot using some ABS sheet to sandwich.  I will have to see if there is an area with enough back-space for the assemblies.

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Window Switch Supplier:

—

AU $97.35  21％ Off | 4pcs/Set For Toyota RAV4 Camry Corolla Yaris Vios Highlander LED Backlight Power Window Switch For Right Driving
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mLxJVNV
—

Puddle Light Supplier:

—

AU $6.97  31％ Off | 2Pcs Entry LED Light Car Door Courtesy Lamp For Toyota Prius 20 30 50 Camry 40 50 55 70 Harrier 30 60 Prado 150 J150 LC150 Reiz
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrihsab

—

Number Plate Lights:

—

AU $12.14  31％ Off | 2pcs For Toyota Camry 50 55 V50 V55 XV50 XV55 Prius Yaris Verso Corolla 12V LED Car Number License Tail Plate Lights Light Bulb
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mObJP3Z
 

[Tony Prodigy]

20 hours ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

Puddle lights are ace 🙂

Could do my toenails in that light.

Damn that's bright ! Me Likey !

[Tony Prodigy]

8 hours ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

A morning pic of the Ice Blue - I think I will get the white versions and sell these on.

I think the white would better complement the cluster lighting. It's really hard to get the correct shade of blue it seems.

I recently found pleasure using the aliexpress site for other things non automotive and have found it to be amazing. The array of goods is staggering. I've never been a proponent of made in China stuff, due to the cheap and nasty knock off practice they've immersed themselves in, but I have to say, if you look hard enough, there are plenty of decent quality things for sale through that platform. Those switches look pretty decent I must say and the price for a set of 4 is outstanding.

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Yep.  I ordered a White set and will switch over to it.  I then might do the LED swap to the 465nm blue LEDs I’m using for the rest of the car.

 

[Tony Prodigy]

17 hours ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

Yep.  I ordered a White set and will switch over to it.  I then might do the LED swap to the 465nm blue LEDs I’m using for the rest of the car.

 

Just wondering how long it took to receive your order from China ? Did you opt for the more expensive shipping options in Aliexpress because they can be quite expensive and cost prohibitive sometimes. The orders I placed in recent times were all economy and although they took nearly a month or longer to get here, they did arrive intact and well packaged I must say. 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

These were about 3-days within China then about a week to get on a plane and be delivered by Auspost.

I try to use “AliExpress Standard Shipping” as these days the consolidate multi-vendor orders and forward on which makes it easier to track things.

 

 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Always the way.  Have a car for a couple of weeks and during a lockdown and somehow the windscreen gets chipped.

not that big

But still a decent fingernail size.  Pretty much a dead certainty I’d lose the windscreen during summer.

So let’s be cheap and try a DIY COVID safe solution.

Line up the thingo and suction cup down.

Like some kind of alien face hugger!

Add the fluid and twiddle the piston a few times.

Level the surface and let cure.

Clean up and applaud the success!  

[KAA]

WOW, now that was a good clean job of that repair mate, well done take a lap in the yard and pat on the back for that. Thanks for the Pic's makes it so much easier to see how that alien device worked and the overall results.

Hate those damn stone chips and I always see them but never hear anything hitting the windscreen, I am sure there is a Faerie that comes at night with a pickaxe and hits the damn screen.

Thanks again mate

KAA

[Tony Prodigy]

Nice work Aaron. You did the right thing getting it early before it got worse. I find that most freeway travel tends to contribute to chipped windscreens, especially when the trucks are roaring past stirring up all the loose crap on the sides. I make a conscious effort to stay right back and away from trucks and semis. Keep left as much as possible too.

Every work vehicle I've owned has had at least one smashed windscreen due to my constant freeway travel. I don't do much freeway runs these days as I'm on a static site now so it's a 10 minute leisurely drive through the back streets to work. The windscreen on my current Colorado is still mint. Our Aurion has a few minor blemishes but hardly noticeable. 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

I’m sure by now you’ve worked out that I’m quite happy to make subtle tweaks and changes to Sebastian.  Some are practical, while others are more about making him feel more like “ours” and a little less like someone’s Uber ride.

The rubber shift knob was one of those things.  It’s functional, it’s not too worn, but ultimately I felt it was a little more “base model” than mid-spec.

Enter my stunning new knob.

Looks like it should have been there since day 0!

 

 

[KAA]

Hi mate, yes a nice addition to Sebastian looks great and fitted well

KAA

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

I swapped over to the White LED illuminated window switches.  They’re a much better look than Ice Blue in my opinion.

But it does mean I have a set of Ice Blue illuminated switches available if anyone wants them. 

The LEDs in them can be swapped easily enough for any other colour you may want.

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

So it’s said a picture is worth a thousand words.  
 

First the cluster, which we want to match the white and blue illumination.  
 

This is how the selector quadrant lights up with the White LED instead of the green.  

Lastly the white window switches.  
 

Perfect 🙂

 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Today I finally installed the Toyota Genuine Accessory Interior light kit.

After removing a the lower half of both sides of the dash, the scuff plates and the B-pillar lower trim the fun job starts.

Grab some tape and measure up as per the Toyota instructions.

Once there’s a 16mm hole the lights can be installed.  It’s a shame they’re light grey and not the darker grey of the trim.  

The control interface for these gets strapped to the wiring above the passengers  left foot.  A branch then runs across the car to the drivers side kick panel, and onwards to the B-Pillar.  The shorter branch stays on the passenger side and journeys to the passenger B-pillar.

There’s heaps of room to work, and yet it feels cramped. 

The kit taps the factory wiring with vampire clips at the A-pillar roof loom junction.

End result looks good, but not as “polished” integration as I would expect from a manufacturer accessory. 
 

The lighting is a Warm-White and Blue LED hybrid which I’m looking forward to seeing at night.

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

And the night view.  The interaction of the two globe types/colours does make for some interesting purple hues.

Rear seat passengers have the light obscured by the front seat position.

It definitely lights up the footwell!

[Tony Prodigy]

Nice work mate. I love the colouring. So that's a factory kit you said ? I wonder if that's standard on the Presara for it to become available as an add on or is it just perhaps an accessory kit. It should be standard if you ask me. 

A past acquaintance of mine some years ago purchased an exact 2012 Prodigy like mine and his car had that lighting kit. I suspect the previous owner had it installed.