Swmbo has a lexus rx300, its a 2003 mk2 and is an all round lovely place to be. I have had it coverted to LPG (obviously ) and I have been working through it getting it sorted bit by bit. As a part of this I looked for led bulbs for the reverse as to be honest they are quite possibly the worst lights in the history of cars. To put it in context you would do better to have an auto lighting candle mounted on the rear of the car.

Rather foolishly I trusted autobulbsdirect when I put the reg in and it told me what bulbs I needed and so i ordered the strongest ones I could find on ebay from a uk supplier.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251294045259?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

If you read the description it says 10, yes 10x5w Cree led's so that's 50w of led power.

HOWEVER: autobulbsdirect was wrong!! The bulbs in the lexus turned out to be 501's not the 382's as listed. How disappointed was I. On realising this I went digging through my led bag to see what I had as the feeble candles needed to be replaced with something (a couple of captive fireflies would be stronger). I tried some of the normal interior ones but they were not really brighter than the oem just whiter. I dug a bit more and realised I had a pair of 5w projector cree's that I bought for A2 side lights thatwere too big to fit, but they were big for the lexus too so I removed the cap from the lens and got it to fit, only issue was that it is a very focused beam, great for distance but reverse needs to have a bigger spread so went a looking on line for same style as the ones I already bought but with the proper fitting and ended up stumbling across a forum about upgraded halogens, http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/209578-886-backup-light-mod.html turns out that gy6.35 halogens fit a treat so got a pair of bulbs from b and q for the grand sum of £3.98 fitted in 5 mins and a huge improvement over the candle light.

It chopped my post off?

The £35 LEDs ended up in the skip, no not a yellow thing full of rubbish, my octy 4x4 . Only word I can use to describe Them is "WOW". Pictures will follow soon

35 quid for 2 bulbs, holy feck       

35 quid for 2 bulbs, holy feck       

I know, a moment of madness but it had to be improved as the tinted windows coupled with the 1 candle power lights was a recipient for disaster. The annoying thing is then finding a cheap mod that works really well. But they do rock like Van Halen in the octy

Halogen reverse lights?? You'll blind everyone with them when parking

LED reverse lights.... Harvesting Retinas FTMFW

I did look at the HIDS as reverse lights, now they are bright!,,

some pics:

OEM Lexus lights are carp!!  Turned off so you can see the ambient light level

 

Turned on so you can see what 1 candle power looks like.  You have to consider that the lexus has tinted windows so its more like 1/2 candle.

 

Heres a close up, mind you don't get blinded!

 

This is one of the single 5W cree projector type which does a nice job over a distance but there was no light thrown near the car to the sides, more like a focused torch beam.

 

I will have to get one with the halogens tonight as they are a massive improvement over the OEM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is my drive 

 

 

light from front room spilling into the porch and also a street light just off to my left and behind, so not pitch black

 

These are the £35 LEDs or one of them as the other is blocked by the porch

 

here are the GY6.35 40W halogens from B&Q 

 

next to the oem

the lexus has hids (adaptive ) on the front anyway so I just need to deal with the front lights on the Octy now as they are poor,  they are better with the 120% rings but no where near good enough

After 6 weeks of use I love the 35w LEDs in the octavia. Like having headlamps behind

The lexus is vastly improved but could still benefit from more lumens so might have to try the stronger halogens.

are they legal?