SHIFTER ILLUMINATION

[dave murrell]

Does anyone know if the gear shift gate is supposed to be illuminated or the letters back lit when side lights are on because in the dead of night its a sort of "its round here somewhere" sort of guess work. 

[pipsyp]

Hi Dave, yes it is.  Probably a blown bulb

[dave murrell]

Thanks for paul, will pull it apart when the wife pulls herself away from it 😁

[big_boz]

I thought it was unlit, mine is dark, will have a look and see if I can see a blub that's blown 

[dave murrell]

Wife took it to work again lol, says a lot when her car is a 2008 Mercedes S class 3lt V6.

Probably have to look at it the weekend but it does seem odd that apparently you can buy an illuminated transparent gadget to put under the shifter to light up the gateway but I am unable to find anyone in the UK that sells them. 

[big_boz]

6 minutes ago, dave murrell said:

Wife took it to work again lol, says a lot when her car is a 2008 Mercedes S class 3lt V6.

Probably have to look at it the weekend but it does seem odd that apparently you can buy an illuminated transparent gadget to put under the shifter to light up the gateway but I am unable to find anyone in the UK that sells them. 

That looks like and AliExpress Chineseium special. Unlikely you will get anything like that in the uk

[big_boz]

Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out! ￡48.22 | For ALPHARD VELLFIRE 20 Series Gear Shift Gate Decorative LED Light Trim
https://a.aliexpress.com/_msOhBbw

 

Seems expensive for about 20p of led strip

[dave murrell]

It is expensive for about 6 led and a piece of acrylic, would it take much to make one I wonder...

But now another mysterious object looms behind the rear view mirror and I dont know if this can be removed or best left in, anyway it looks like this inside, just laft of the square sticker.

[dave murrell]

...And this is what it looks like outside just to the right of the white sticker.

[pipsyp]

Sorry Dave, I've realised you have an AH20 (Mk2), mine is an earlier AH10 (Mk1).

 

The AH10 definitely has illumination in the auto shifter, not sure about the AH20.  I should think that it ought to, unless Toyota removed it for cost cutting!

 

As to your other question, that's the factory light and rain sensor.  Definitely don't remove that!  The other little square one with etc written on it is part of the Japanese automated road toll system, that can be removed/hidden behind the roof lining.  You might find some stick on antennas on either side of the front and rear screens.  These are etc antennas and can also be hidden/removed.

[dave murrell]

Thanks again paul.

Just realised that there is an airbag inside the A pillar that has to come off for the stick-on aerial...

[Chris.ac]

The numbers/letters on the shifter should be illuminated.

The bezel around the shifter is not, that's an AliExpress/Amazon.jp mod.

 

The device nearest rear view mirror is for auto windscreen wipers, it's a rain detector.

 

ETC, useless in this country, can be removed, would be interested to see if they connected it to anything up top or if it has it's own wire run to fuse box.

Furthest unit is dash cam, obviously.

Edited November 30, 2023 by Chris.ac

[Chris.ac]

[big_boz]

Meant to say, I took the centre console out there is a plug that connects under the pocket with the flap that's next to the shifter, mine was disconnected, plugged it in and the lights come on

[dave murrell]

Thank you Chris,

The car has only been in the country a few weeks and the head unit was replaced for an android unit, could be that the plug you mention was left unplugged by accident hence no illumination, will take the centre panel off the weekend and take some pics as well.

As for that dashcam unfortunately it does not come on unless there is some magic swear word I need to utter 🤔

 

[Chris.ac]

On 12/1/2023 at 11:04 AM, dave murrell said:

Thank you Chris,

The car has only been in the country a few weeks and the head unit was replaced for an android unit, could be that the plug you mention was left unplugged by accident hence no illumination, will take the centre panel off the weekend and take some pics as well.

As for that dashcam unfortunately it does not come on unless there is some magic swear word I need to utter 🤔

 

There is a manual available, it's in Japanese.

There also always to be software you can install on pc to manage the files it records.

[dave murrell]

Is there a digital version of the manual?

[jonnyblagwind]

On 11/30/2023 at 5:10 PM, Chris.ac said:

Is there a fuse or bulbs for this mine doesn't seem to light up at all just also noticed the small square button above the P what is that for?

[big_boz]

There is a plug on the back, il bet yours isn't plugged in, you have to remember to do it when you take the panel off to change the head into for example. Forget to do it and you wont know I til it gets dark.

 

Pull the panel up and plug it in, it's under the storage bin with the flap on it.

 

The little black button above park is the manual way to move the shifter if you need to, for example getting it in N when the engine is off

[Jimmympv]

I’ve had this panel out too many times this week. Easiest way I found was to pop the little lid up then pull from the bottom. Then use pry tool working all the way up. I disconnected mine as it was too bright for me at night. I wonder if mine was changed because there’s no bulb in there just LED soldered to a board so buggered if they go. 
 

The heater controls had been changed to white, unfortunately they did a shoddy solder job and the A/C indicator light was broken so had to source a donor and have it back to stock green now. 

 

I have to swap out the board for the stereo buttons as well as they don’t light up at all. 

Whilst I was in there I also found this little light taped up. It’s orange same as the footwell and glove box lights. Does anyone have any idea where this light was supposed to go? 
 

[dave murrell]

The taped up bulb could possibly be the gear selector illumination bulb (the one replaced with an led) normally the bulb should have a little green plastic wrapper on it I think this may have been to dim the intensity...

[Jimmympv]

Went in for part two today. Stereo control buttons don’t light up. As suspected previous owner had soldered them off

Top original Bottom donor board. 

 

so I took everything apart and replaced the old with the new but I still don’t have any lights on the buttons so not really sure where to go from here. Unless it’s too bright outside for me to see them. 

Top lights on Middle close up of temp control lights on Bottom close up of stereo control lights on

 

Took another look at my shift indicator lights whilst I was in there and I think they are 100% after market. They are pretty blinding at night. 
 

[Gamith]

I just checked mine (a facelift 2005) and there was no illumination of the gear selector. I know there is a green LED under there so I started to pull on the housing so see what i could see and it then worked - sigh. 

[dave murrell]

Forgot to mention the wifes car is the 2011 vellfire.