LED bulb for climate control knob? (Plus question re: no. of bulbs in a knob)

[yaris2014toyota]

Originally Posted by komichal

Though my Yaris is one generation older, I do recognize these knobs so let me share my experience.

There are three rounded knobs in the Yaris and each one has one bulb for the permanent light.
The internal circulation button has a seaparate bulb so lets ignore this one completely.

When one of those three bulbs died for me long time ago, I asked the dealership for replacement. The official Toyota statement is that all three bulbs must be changed in order to have equal light intensity. And they ordered classic bulbs, e.g. no LED. It worked a few years.

Now, when one of those three classic bulbs died again, I replaced them all with LEDs.

So you need to get 3 pieces of MiniLED with T4,2 size. Note that there are other sizes like T3 or T4,7 - but these will not fit. Color is completely up to you - I went for green as I was used to green. Those LED bulbs I bought in the local shop did fit in mechanically but were poorly made and the bayonet mount did not work. I had to hand-pick a few pieces that fitted in and hold in position.

The tricky part is also that LED obviously lights only in one way - so if you put them there incorrectly, they will not light up. Fortunately you cannot damage anything - if it is not lighting up then you can just re-mount it turned by 180 degrees and they will work.

I am quite satisfied with the LED light now - although I must admit that classic bulb with all-directions-emitting characteristics works better in terms of even light distribution.

Thank you for sharing.