Why I Decided to Upgrade My Interior Lights to LEDs

The brightness of your vehicle’s interior lights usually doesn’t cross your mind until something goes missing in the cabin’s depths or you need to buckle a squirming baby into her car seat at night. Most vehicles come with standard, inexpensive bulbs to light the passenger compartment; they do the job, but little more. Having experienced both of the aforementioned circumstances over the last few months, I decided to spend the time and money to upgrade my vehicle’s incandescent interior lights to LED bulbs.

Look no further than home lighting, televisions, holiday decorations and it’s clear that lighting quality and technology has come a long way in a short time. The non-automotive consumer realm flowed over into the car world, and suddenly there was a massive proliferation of brighter, crisper lights. This presented itself immediately in headlight and taillight technology and other applications like off-road auxiliary lighting. But the unsung hero of the lighting world is the interior bulb space. Dome, map, vanity, and courtesy lights generally come from the factory in the form of what the OEM chooses as their lowest-cost bidder, which leaves an opportunity for owners to upgrade via the aftermarket.

I had considered upgrading my vehicle’s interior lights many times since purchasing it just over two years ago. Although the vehicle is a 2018 model, the incandescent bulbs’ soft yellow/orange glow made the cabin feel more 1998 than 2018 when illuminated. Aesthetics aside, it was buckling my young kiddo into her car seat that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. This wasn’t the first vehicle I had upgraded the interior lights on, but this was the first time I had to do so for this reason. A good one, albeit certainly one that provided a different and more rapid rationale behind the swap.

Copious forum threads, Facebook group searches, and reviews read later, I chose the AUXITO brand for their bulbs’ reputability. LED lights come in countless shapes, forms, brightnesses, and color shades, and cheap versions are plentiful. The trick is to find something that doesn’t cost a lot but is inexpensive, which isn’t to be confused with low cost and poor quality. About $25 later (thanks to Amazon Prime Day’s deals) and I had enough bulbs to swap all of my interior lights to LEDs.

The difference in brightness is extreme. The round, 24 SMD (Surface Mount Device, or the actual bit that emits the light itself) bulbs provide an enormous amount of brightness in every direction, so much so that they should not be looked at for more than one blink’s worth of time. I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re “surface of the sun” bright, but they’re close. Another brand I have had good success with, Yorkim, demonstrates the difference below:

Other benefits come with the upgrade from incandescent to LED, too. LED lights draw less electricity which in turn can prolong the longevity of a car’s battery. Likewise, they produce less heat. The former of these isn’t drastic enough to make a discernible difference unless you specifically bring a voltmeter or electricity usage monitor to the party, but the temperature difference is usually noticeable to the bare hand. What outdoes these benefits is the longevity: LED bulbs tend to last significantly longer than their incandescent counterparts. Plus, LEDs come in a variety of colors that allow for an aspect of customization and personalization not as common in incandescents.

Installation in my vehicle was fairly straightforward, though it would have been easier had I not tried to do so well after the sun had set. Why? Well, incandescent bulbs get warm and increasingly brittle when hot so it was best to keep the cabin lights off, which in turn meant wearing a headlamp to do the job. It’s not that I have an issue with headlamps, as I’m a bona fide headlamp lover, but it is a tick more difficult than not needing a headlamp. Regardless, the replacement work started with opening the plastic lens covers on the light assemblies, for which it was easiest to use a small flathead screwdriver in conjunction with a plastic trim removal tool, which was included in the purchased items.

Next, the OEM bulbs were extracted and the aftermarket LEDs were inserted. The assemblies were then reassembled, the lights tested for functionality, and voila: Job done, vastly superior lighting present. I did make the mistake of using pliers to remove one of the bulbs which resulted in a minor explosion of glass and a subsequent half hour spent with the handheld vacuum, but anybody with sensibility beyond my own shouldn’t have this issue. Do as I say, not as I do.

LED interior bulbs didn’t stop my baby from squirming when the desire to run around and chase dogs overwhelms that of being strapped into a car seat, but they help me see what I’m doing which in turn means a less painful process for both of us. That the job took less than a half hour start to finish, improved the aesthetics of my cabin with the lights on, and modernized the feel of the interior in the process all for under $30 makes it an upgrade well worth the time and money.

Become an AutoGuide insider. Get the latest from the automotive world first by subscribing to our newsletter here.