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!

Looking for Subaru W5W and Rear Light Bulbs? Here's What You Need to Know!

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

w5w subaru incandescent bulbs philips

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

w5w led bulbs subaru forester 2017

(Reminder, these are NOT affiliate links. I do not use affiliate links because I want you to know that if I am recommending something itโ€™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 Donโ€™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.

Looking for Subaru W5W and Rear Light Bulbs rear white U shaped light

I hope that this has been helpful!