2007 Prius Intermittent Headlights

When the HID bulbs start going out carry a spare and just change it. If it isn't the bulb it's the ballast located in the bottom of the headlight assembly. Do you change your own if not learn how, once you have done it it isn't that hard.

 

The MOST LIKELY scenario is that the headlight bulbs are at the end of their life. You can get new, genuine Philips D4R bulbs from homedepot.com for about $60 bucks each. Watch some utube videos and you should be able to swap them yourself at no cost other than bulb purchase.

You cannot just install halogens. Totally different setup.

Philips Standard HID 42406/D4R Headlight Bulb (1-Pack)-42406C1 - The Home Depot

These are the bulbs that were most likely installed in your car as OEM. If you look at the reviews, mine is the one from March 28, 2017. They've been installed for about 1.5 years and have been 100% trouble free.

And, probably everyone with HID lights has experienced the on/off situation. That is the first indication the bulb is failing. Of course, many question how both could fail at the same time? Easy answer....they didn't. Most likely one has been flickering on/off for a while but just was't noticed. Eventually the second one starts failing and it gets your attention really quick when both flicker off at the same time when your driving at night. Now it becomes a crisis.

 

Yes, it's not an uncommon problem. Look around for pricing on the headlightes. I replaced mine from NAPA when they were on sale for $70 each. It took a couple of hours to install the new headlights.

 

If they are recommending changing to halogen then I question their expertise......

Go to lusciousgarage.com and search for their info about the HID lights.

Light Bulbs - Luscious Garage | Hybrid Specialists

 

An HID lamp emits 2x the light at half the power consumption. It also uses a different type of headlamp assembly.

If the shop is going to swap your system for $250, to do it right, they need to do a complete swap of the entire headlight assembly. That means they're most likely going to use some made in China $20 piece of crap. You haven't had to change a headlight bulb in over 3 years, what makes them think a halogen is going to be more reliable? When a halogen burns out, it goes dark and never lights again, therefore you replace it. An HID going into failure will turn off, but then relight again if you cycle your light switch. This is the bulb telling you it needs to be replaced. That warning typically gets ignored until both bulbs fail and then the driver bitches, moans and groans that HID systems are crap.

Think of it like this: An HID bulb doesn't heat up an element to make light, it draws an electrical arc through a gas between two contacts. As time goes by, the gap between the contacts increases, kind of like a spark plug. When you first turn on your lights, the ballast provides a voltage boost to jump the gap and initiate the arc. The voltage then settles lower. If the gap is too large, as the lamp heats up, it may extinguish the arc. This is why, at least for a while, the bulb will relight if you cycle the switch. You get that voltage boost again to jump the gap.

HIDs get a bad rep because people freak about paying 50-60 bucks for a quality bulb and end up buying a $10 chinese imposter which lasts a month or two and then burns out again....once again leading to the bitching, moaning and groaning about how bad HIDs are.

 

New bulbs $120, swap out to halogen $250

Down grading costs $130 more. I'll vote for the $120 bulbs at home depot and save your receipt

 

I feel confident that replacing the bulbs will solve the problem. I highly recommend the Philips. When I bought mine in winter of 2017 they were $51 each at HomeDepot.com but it looks like they've gone to $60 each. At the time, that was the best price I could find, along with being the most trustworthy business to do business with. I'm very wary of who I do business with due to the amount of counterfeit products being thrown in the mix.

 

If you learn to change bulbs yourself it is really no big deal. Even the ballast change isn't that hard and all the videos and information is on the internet. If your lights are going off and come back on change the bulb, if that doesn't fix it change the ballast too. I bought a ballast on ebay for $65 and it worked fine.
Halogen are not known for long life either especially Sylvania brand.