How To: Change Headlamp / Headlight bulb

Re: 2007 prius II has a HID or halogen bulb?

With close inspection, you will see the Halogen has a small filament. The filament simply has Halogen gas surrounding it to keep it from oxidizing and burning up.

HID on the other hand has a thick conductor that runs the length of the inside of the bulb... very high voltage runs through and "arcs" from its end to a ground conductor. During this very high voltage arc "voltage supplied by a ballast" other products in the bulb vaporize into a plasma state to produce a high intensity light.

Halogen looks "yellow" Mainly when compared to the HID but much whiter than the old incandesant technology of the past.
The Newer Halogens of today reach the same "kelvin" or color wavelength as sunlight "4300K" or so.
My Halogens on my GenIII Seem brighter and more intense than my HID's on my GenII and totally put to shame the older Halogens on my 95Jeep Cherokee.

The Halogen bulbs are cheap because they have been around long enough now that free enterprise has drove the prices to a reasonable level.


HID on the other had have taken advantage of the new technology and price gouged in many cases and made supplies limited to those who hold the keys to the prices......

Ebay and the world market is not in bed with the same monopoly's and so sell the same HID bulbs for much cheaper.

While its true, quality control can be lax in China and other countries, we have the technology as a people to make them very cheap.... Phillips and others "Toyota" attempt to sell for what the market will bear..... Until people start using the world market bulbs, the price will remain high.
The longer competition intrudes, the lower the prices will go.


LED may change the norm as to what is used which will drive the prices down further.

Hope that helps.

 

The easiest way to recognize a HID headlight is that it turns on very bright, and quickly dims back to normal.

I think all US version HID equiped Prius also have fog lights. Outside the US, there are fog light versions without HID.

 

Re: How To: Change Halogen Headlamp / Headlight bulb

Thanks for the step by step instructions. Some questions . . .

Not so easy to do. It seems to be stuck. (I noticed in the video, there was a pause in the film, I assume you had trouble getting it off too???) Any suggestions.

Also doesn't wanna budge. Maybe I just need to grease it up?!?

Also, does anybody out there know if there's a current active recall for these HID bulbs (2007 Prius, w/ 73K)???

 

Thanks for the the advice on replacing my bulbs. I just ordered a set of Philips X-Treme Power H4 bulbs from PowerBulbs.com using the 10% off discount code and the cost was $30.88. Sweet! I have a 2007 I purchased a month ago and the driver's side headlight has been cutting off very consistently the last two weeks. I can turn off/on the headlights while night driving to make the bulb work again but that is no longer working for more than 5 minutes these days. I'm looking forward to not having to worry about my safety while driving at night.

 

I recently changed the bulb on the driver's side of my 2007 Prius. Directions in this thread were incredibly helpful. However, the most helpful thing was for me to watch the following video to actually SEE how everything could be taken apart.

NOTE: I have not created enough posts to submit a URL, but go to Youtube and search for "2007 Toyota Prius HID Headlight Change (Part 1)" by bryceeaton1. In the video, scan to about 5:30. Once I saw how everything fit together, the only thing I had to remove from the car was the cover to the fuse box and the old bulb.

Thanks for all the great "Chat", Prius owners...your experience has been very, very helpfu

 

Friendly advice: You should always change both bulbs at the same time whether halogen or HID. Both fade (lose intensity) over time. Halogens will burn out completely, but HIDs will only dim when shot.

 

Hey I got some good stuff related to changing the headlamp or headlight bulb at Change Headlamp

 

Can someone post current links on where to buy the HID bulbs?

The link at start of this thread was out of inventory

 

depends on what you want. search ebay or amazon D4R HID.
I went to a more white 6k bulb.

 

This is the guy I have bought from.... I know he will sell these for 69.00 just make the offer.

4300K HID 35W Xenon OEM Toyota Prius 06 07-09 Bulbs D4R: eBay Motors (item 270648695747 end time Nov-11-10 13:34:15 PST)

 

Also how you define "white"... white like the sun or white like a star or white like an arc welder?

The higher kelvin you go, the more it appears bright based on color alone "think of an LED".. but in reality for a given amount of power you are losing lumens.

The loss of real lumens means when the light hits an object in the distance, then get reflected back to your eyes will carry more electrons for you to see.

Look at an led as it is shined in your sensitive eyes directly... it appears bright right?... take the same light and shine it into the distance in your backyard and see how well you can actually see other things with it.

Unless your going for effects, you are at the limit of what I consider acceptable for good lighting " 6K".... 5K is a good balance between what you have and stock.. but I still prefer the stock kelvin of 4300 lumens because the human brain interprets that frequency much better so you can accurately depict what your seeing on the road...especially when your in fringe areas of light.

In other words, the warmer colors are easier to see with if the light is dim... similiar to the sun setting etc.

take an LED light thats the exact same wattage as a warmer LED light and drop a penny into the grass at night.... now see which one allows you to find it the easiest!

The warmer [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature"]kelvin[/ame] allows the brain to interpret objects accurately, while the higher "brighter bluer white" makes things sharp and shadowy making interpretation confusing.

To each is own of course.

There are many documents about this phenomenon online.

Overall ‘general’ trends: ​

Another article:
elio : Facts to Know

Another important aspect is how we "feel" with different lighting...
Higher kelvins are more irritating to the eye.... and not necessarily because they are bright.

 

Wow, many thanks to USBseawolf2000 and Tideland for the tutorials. My 08 passenger low beam went out at just under 50k. Dealer wanted $130 to replace it !?!. Took me a couple of hours (yes I'm a klutz), mainly trying to ensure I had the clip on correctly then monkeying with the rubber cap. I could get the cap on and into the locked position fairly regularly, but it would always kink around the rear prongs of the bulb with little clearance for the wiring harness plug. I got a run of the mill Sylvania replacement bulb for about $10 at my local advanced auto parts. Hope it lasts.

I gotta say I'm not so sure the Prius was such a great idea as far as saving money. I seem to see a pattern of crappy/substandard factory components/parts like the Bridgestone tires which lasted only about 40K and the headlight bulb. Maybe I was spoiled with my Camry and Subaru. Bulbs seemed to last forever and replacing bulbs in those cars were 5 minute operations. If I had to pay $130 for a Toyota dealer to replace the headlight bulb on the Prius that would have negated months of savings on gas, to say nothing if I got a ticket.

 

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