Looking for Subaru W5W and Rear Light Bulbs? Here’s What You Need to Know. Plus How to Change Your Own Subaru LED Brake Light!

Is there a conspiracy among vehicle bulb manufacturers to hide which of their bulbs is the equivalent of the W5W bulb used by Subaru?? How about why your owner’s manual says to “consult your Subaru dealer for replacement” of the rear, white sideways U light? Here is the information that you are looking for about both.

First, don’t get me wrong, I love my Subaru Forester. It’s a 2017 Subaru Forester, and not only that, it’s a Turbo Forester, with paddle shifters! This thing hauls! But omg, could the automobile lightbulb market be any more confusing? (Channeling the late, great Chandler Bing here.) Read on for the bulbs you need that are the equivalent to the W5W bulbs.

So here’s what I don’t love: the frustration when needing to change a burned out bulb, such as a rear bulb, directional bulb, side running bulb, tulip bulb, whatever bulb, and trying to wade through the vast and confusing ocean of light bulbs when you need to purchase said bulb to replace a W5W bulb in your Subaru.

You see, in the owner’s manual, you will see the W5W bulb listed as being used for a lot, and I do mean a lot of the bulbs throughout your car, including the regular rear bulbs (we’ll get to the LED bulbs that illuminate that white sideways U in a moment, but trust me, you’re not going to like it). ‘W5W’ means that the bulb is 5 watts and has a wedge-type base. Get it? Wedge 5 Watts – W5W.

To further confuse and complicate things, every single ‘how to’ video on YouTube about how to change your Subaru bulbs uses a different brand of bulb, with different numbers! And not a one of them (at least that I’ve found) mentions other brand bulbs or bulb numbers that you can use. So if you watched a video saying you want a 7443 bulb, or a 921 bulb, or a 3.1415 bulb, you’d be forgiven for not realizing that they are all a version of and equivalent to the W5W bulb, as each brand uses its own number, and few of them say “W5W bulb equivalent”, let alone “Fits the Subaru {your model}” It’s a conspiracy, I tell ya! (Not really.)

So my job here is to make your job much easier. I’m going to provide you with links on Amazon (and they are not affiliate links!) to bulbs that are actually the equivalent of (i.e. the same as) W5W bulbs, both incandescent and LED versions.

Incandescent W5W Bulbs for Your Subaru

The Philips 12961LLB2 LongerLife Miniature Bulb is a W5W incandescent bulb. In addition to the product description saying that “these are W5W miniature bulbs, also known as 12961LLB2 bulbs”, two different reviews confirm it, one saying that the bulb “will fit all T10 bulb base socket like 194,168,2825 or W5W,” and the other saying that it is “Just a different part number for W5W. Philips quality and Amazon pricing. New and bright. I try to replace lamps before they go.Then I carry the old one in the trunk as a spare. Spare lamps are the law in the EU all though not in the USA.”

Again, here is the link:

Philips 12961LLB2 LongerLife Miniature Bulb

LED W5W Bulbs for your Subaru

If you’re wanting to replace your original W5W bulbs with LED bulbs, then the Canbus 152 168 194 921 T10 LED Bulb will fit the bill. While none of the reviews mention it being W5W specifically, it is mentioned several times in the product description, and hey, it’s right in the product title. And, it has to be said, the reviews are superlative. I especially like this one: “Harness the Power of the Sun… Wow these are bright. These replaced my old LED’s installed into my map light. Those were about 4 years old. These are most definitely way brighter than previous. To be perfectly honest I could probably get away with using just one as it lights up the entire cabin. I’m probably understating this but without an instrument to measure I’m pretty confident the light output is double that of the previous LEDs it replaced. I whole heartedly recommend.”

Again, that link is: Canbus 152 168 194 921 T10 LED Bulb

(Reminder, these are NOT affiliate links. I do not use affiliate links because I want you to know that if I am recommending something it’s because I really use it myself and recommend it, and not for financial gain.)

About the White Rear Sideways U Lights on Your Subaru – They Are Your LED Brake Lights

UPDATE! While Subaru insists that you must replace the entire housing when your Subaru LED brake lights go out, you can actually replace just the LED bulb yourself! Here is the update!:

How to Change Your Own Damned Subaru LED Brake Light (And No You Don’t Need to Replace the Entire Light Assembly!)

What I’d written before discovering how to replace just the LED bulb instead of the entire light housing assembly – leaving it in for the sake of completeness.

In the owner’s manual those white rear sideways U lights are designated not by a number, like most of the other lights, but by a letter, F. As we all know, F stands for F*cked. In this case, you’re effed if you want to change the burned out bulbs in that sideways U. There’s a reason that your owner’s manual says, about those white, sideways U rear lights, to “consult your Subaru dealer for replacement.” Because those lights can’t be changed. Can’t. Be. Changed. At all. Yes, you have to change the entire rear light assembly. And of course they want you to do it at the dealership or, as one post I saw called it, “the stealership”. Where you will be charged at least two limbs.

But guess what! You can get that whole assembly on Amazon, and by all accounts it is very easy to swap that assembly out!

I’m going to give you the link to the search on Amazon, rather than a particular listing, because there is a difference in the assemblies if you have a 2017/2018 Subaru versus a 2014-2016 or 2019-2021 Subaru. There are assemblies for all of them, you just have to be careful to make sure to get the right one. They run between $115 and $150, generally speaking.

Here’s the search link: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=subaru+rear+passenger+light+assembly

That is for the passenger side. If you need it for the driver’s side, of course just switch the search term.

I hope that this has been helpful!

Tax Levy from California? It May be Because You Have a Professional License There

Did the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) levy your bank account even though you don’t live in California? They may have levied your account and taken your money because you maintain an active professional license in California. Even if you haven’t lived there in years, if you continue to keep your California professional license active – be it a license to practice law, a medical license, a hairdressing license, or some other license – then California assumes that you owe them income tax, and will take the “average amount that your profession owes in California” unless you take steps to let them know that you have not had any California earnings. Each and every year.

I know all this, because this happened to me just last month, October 2015. I am fortunate in that I happen to have an awesome relationship with my bank, so when I logged into my bank’s portal to check my account balance, and noticed that a bit over ten thousand dollars was suddenly unavailable to me, with no explanation or warning, I was able to call the bank, and someone there said “Well, the note says ‘FTB’ put a levy on your account.” Fortunately, I remembered that FTB stood for the California Franchise Tax Board, from back when I lived in California, and actually had to file income taxes with the FTB – more than 8 years ago.

That’s right, I have not lived in California at all, and have not earned any income in California, in more than eight years.

Clearly something was rotten in the state of California.

The person at my bank said that I would need to call the Franchise Tax Board, which I did.

The number for the California Franchise Tax Board Office of Collections, which is where you need to call, by the way, is 800-689-4776.

And after going through the automated voice menu, a recording told me that my anticipated hold time was more than 3 hours.

But what choice did I have? They had taken my money, with no warning, and if I wanted them to release it, I had to talk with them.

So I waited.

But fortunately, despite the FTB Collections line telling me that the estimated hold time was going to be 3 hours, in fact it was only 21 minutes.

And I talked with a shockingly nice woman, who explained the following to me:

All California licensing agencies provide a list of active professional licenses to the FTB, every year
The FTB matches that list up with all of the income tax returns they have received for that year
If you have an active professional license in California, and if you haven’t filed a California tax return, they will impute an amount of income to you equal to the average income that someone with your professional license has, and levy that amount
EVEN IF YOU DON’T LIVE IN CALIFORNIA ANY MORE
They claim to send out notices of intent to levy (as they are required to do), but I never got one
Even if you do get the notice of intent to levy, you have to prove to them that you did not earn any money in California
EACH AND EVERY YEAR

This means that for so long as you choose to keep your professional license active in California – while not living or earning money there – you will have to rebut the notice of intent to levy each and every year, and if you don’t get the notice, you could end up having a levy levied against your bank account, and then have to deal with that.

Each. and. Every. Year.

I actually ended up having to talk with two different people, because the first one had me fax my Colorado tax return to her (to prove I had filed elsewhere and didn’t owe California any money), and promised that she would have the levy lifted as soon as she got it – and then went out sick for the rest of the week. After a few days with the levy still in place (and don’t forget that after a set time, they completely remove the levied funds from your bank account, transferring them to California’s tax fund, so I was pretty motivated to get this taken care of before that happened), I called back, and got another very nice person who said “Oh, she’s out sick, let me help you.”

Both of these people confirmed that this will happen every single year, so long as I continue to keep my California license to practice law active.

And they also both confirmed that this is the case for any active California professional license.

My own plan to make sure that I never get caught up short like this again is to simply file a $0 California tax return every year. One of the FTB collections people said “Oh, you don’t have to do that, it will cost you extra money to your accountant. Just challenge the levy notice each year.”

Uh, thanks, but no thanks, I’d rather have the peace of mind, and give my accountant an extra $25.00, than risk bouncing checks (and the attendant fees) because California can’t figure out that the Colorado address to which they should have sent the notice of levy means that I probably am not on California.

How to Keep Lotion from Drying Out in the Pump

Here is how to stop lotion from developing that plug of dried lotion in the tip of a pump dispenser bottle. I mean, what’s the point of the convenience of a pump bottle if the pump gets clogged with that plug of dried lotion, right?? Some day somebody is going to invent a clog-free pump, but until then, here is how to keep lotion from drying out and clogging up the pump with that annoying plug of lotion.

The secret is to get a package of rubber chair tips (I use 3/4 inch tips) which you can pick up at any hardware store for a few dollars.

Rubber Chair Tips

You just slip one over the tip of the pump, and your lotion stays nice and..er.. lotiony. No more dried-up lotion plugs!

Rubber Chair Tips Keep Lotion from Drying Out in Pump
how to keep lotion from drying out in pumps

chair tip on lotion pump

New Spork Lets You Really Talk Out Of Both Sides of Your Mouth

This utensil could only have been invented by the Marquis de Spork. The typical spork, perhaps best known as the white plastic utensil that accompanies take out orders from KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), is a spoon with tines like a fork at the tip.

But this masterpiece also has a serated edge for cutting built in.

As one of the sides of the fork!

WTF?!

Just take a look at this, and imagine actually using it on your next forkful of mashed potatoes.

Once.

Take a look:

By the way, if you want to see an hysterical treatment of sporks, in a great-for-kids movie (although warning, it does have a little bit of religious overtone), check out the Veggie Tales spoof of Lord of the Rings, called Lord of the Beans:

An Open Letter to “Mother Earth News”

Dear Mother Earth News,

I was shocked – and very *very* disappointed – to open this month’s issue and find a full page advertisement for cigarettes, of all things! I’m referring to the ad for “Natural American Spirit” cigarettes that appeared near the back of the August/September 2008 issue.

I have been a fan of Mother Earth News for more than 30 years – since the original publication of the magazine. I have turned more people on to M.E.N. than I can remember, and my husband and I have held M.E.N. up to our son as one of the few publications that is true to both the earth, and clean, honest, healthy living.

To now find you pushing *cigarettes* is so shocking to the conscience – so antithetical to all for which we believed you to stand – that it is all we can do to not cancel our subscription immediately.

However, instead we will wait for the next issue, in the dear hope that the offending – and so completely out of character – advertising will be gone.

If it isn’t, we will be, and you will have alienated and lost at least one very loyal subscribing family.

Do New Yorkers Walk Fast or is Everybody Else Just Slow?

I walk quickly. I always have. I chalk it up to being a New Yorker. Because, you know, New Yorkers walk fast. We’re busy people, and we have places to go, and things to see.

Even when we aren’t in New York. (Even, in fact, when we haven’t lived in New York for many years.)

You can take the fast walker out of New York, but you can’t take the fast New York out of the walker. Or something like that.

Now here’s the thing:

All you people out on the sidewalks who aren’t from New York – all you people who walk so agonizingly sloooooowly – and you know who you are – you’re in our way!

You’re holding up traffic!

Get the heck out of the way!

Move to the right, so that we can pass you.

No..further.

FDA Won’t Put Warning on Epilepsy Drugs Despite 80% Increase in Suicide Risk

In news of the disgusting, the FDA today decided not to put a warning on 11 epilepsy drugs known to increase suicidal thoughts and tendancies by at least 80%!!! (Some reports put the increase at 100%.)

The FDA, listening to a panel of outside experts, heard that the increase was “only” 2 people in 1000, and the experts said that they were “very concerned … about the risk of unintended consequences of influencing practice and discouraging patients” (from taking antiepilepsy drugs).

According to news reports, the FDA had wanted to require a warning in a big box on all anti-epilepsy drug labels, but was talked out of it by the panel which, of course, included representatives of the drug manufacturers.

The drugs implicated in the suicide and suicidal thoughts increase are:

carbamazepine (Carbatrol, Equetro, Tegretol, Tegretol XR)

felbamate (Felbatol)

gabapentin (Neurontin)

lamotrigine (Lamictal)

levetiracetam (Keppra)

oxcarbazepine (Trileptal)

pregabalin (Lyrica)

tiagabine (Gabitril)

topiramate (Topamax)

valproate (Depakote, Depakote ER, Depakene, Depacon)

zonisamide (Zonegran)

Patients taking any of the above drugs who become stressed at the thought that it might lead to their committing suicide are advised to take Prozac to help with their stress*.

(*That is irony – I am not a medical doctor, and that is not a real recommendation.)

When Something is Copyright-Infected

I heard for the first time today the term – I kid you not – “copyright infected”.

That’s right.

Apparently now copyrighting and attempting to copyright-protect something you have created is so anathematic to some that they have perverted the term to “copyright infected”.

Because, you know, everything should be free and available for the taking, no matter how much blood, sweat, and tears you poured into it.

This was, of course, in the context of whether people should be allowed to download files that are unpermitted duplicates of works which are, you know, copyright protected.. er.. infected… er..something.

Now, the people who think that they are oh-so-clever and cute in coining this perverse term may not like my taking issue with it.

Too bad.

Because fortunately this blog has a First Amendment infection.

Telemarketing Calls within 3 Hours of Hooking Up the Telephone

We moved recently, and for the first time in a long time, we have a land line.

And, within 3 hours of hooking up the telephone, we started getting telemarketing phone spam. And I thought that email spam was bad!

Only this time, we have caller I.D.. So, I’m going to post every darned telemarketing number that comes across, and who it belongs to, for others who may be searching that number.

The winners for the “slime who phone spammed us when our phone line wasn’t even 24 hours old” are:

501-217-3296 Market Strategies
720-214-3122 Affordable Security
515-369-5701 Viking Magazine
203-365-9666 (Number unknown – darn!)

By the second day we also had the following calling us:

800-845-2074 (Number unknown)

Stupid Tobacco Delivery Law Tries to Stop Minors from Buying Cigarettes on the Internet by Making the Delivery Services (UPS, FedEx) Responsible!

We all know that minors buying cigarettes on the Internet is a problem. This is in large part because a) companies that sell cigarettes on the Internet can’t know the age of the person ordering them, and b) many companies that sell cigarettes on the Internet don’t care if the person ordering them is a minor.

But passing a Tobacco Delivery Law, such as the state of Maine has done, that makes the delivery companies, such as UPS, FedEx, and the like, responsible for delivering the cigarettes to a minor has to be one of the most stupid, dunderheaded things I’ve heard in a long time.

The question isn’t really “how can the delivery services confirm age?” Because, sure, if someone looks like they are underage, and the package is from a cigarette company, the delivery service can require an adult’s signature.

After all, as Kathleen Dachille, with the Legal Resource Center for Tobacco Regulation, Litigation & Advocacy explains, “When I am sending something by FedEx there are a whole host of things I can ask them to do. There are different ways I can ship it, different rules about who can accept it, what the signature requirement must be, and who it can be left with. They already offer those sorts of premium services to their customers, so while it may create some level of burden they can certainly charge their customers for that.”

No, the question is “if these laws are upheld, what’s to stop the Internet tobacco companies from simply sending the cigarettes in plain brown wrappers?”

And the answer is “absolutely nothing.”

Obviously, if a law says that the delivery companies must get an adult’s signature for packages they know to contain cigarettes, the Internet cigarette companies will just make sure that it’s not obvious what’s in the box.

What waste of tax-payers’ money – both the passing of the law, and now the lawsuits defennding the law.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Mange Merde

…if you'll pardon my French

Category: Rants