HID Headlamp Do It Yourself for $90

Fellow Prius Owners,

So I have read about much frustration regarding the HID Headlamp replacement in most all models of the Prius and I'm here to tell you I too was sceptical of the Dealer's anticipated cost for the replacement. I received a quote of $185 per light bulb and 3 hours of labor at over $100 per hour. That would be a minimum of $370 for the bulbs and $300 for the labor plus tax and whatever other fee the dealer is going to make up totalling roughly $670. Can you believe that?

Well with a little due diligence and some help from folks like you on this forum I was able to get replacement bulbs for $90 and had the entire process completed myself in under an hour, and that was with my 7 year old and my 5 year old children's assistance.

Go to a website called "intensehid" (This loser website won't let me post URLs .. what's up with that especially when we are trying to help others) and purchase your model year bulbs and pay particular care to find out exactly which bulb you needed. I have a 2008 Prius and went to "toyotaownersonline" (Once again can't post website URL) and created a account and searched the Owners manual for Headlamp Specifications and found the technical spec document that said I needed a D4R Discharge Bulb. I wen to "intensehid" and found the "PAIR" of bulbs for $90. Be very careful searching internet with general terms for Prius Headlamps you will see a lot of $7 to $15 solutions but they are not HID bulbs they are Hologen.

So once my bulbs arrived I watched a UTube video or two and got the general idea of what needed to be done. With a small flat head screwdriver, a sturdy medium sized phillips head screwdriver and a 10mm Socket Wrench I was done in under an hour.

So dudes you have no excuse in my mind if you can't figure this one out. Single ladies, find a willing dude with a couple tools to help you with this one, it would be a nice bonding project. Married ladies, kick your husbands tail and make him go do it. Don't be afraid! It is rather easy and worst thing that can happen is you get your hands a little dirty.

Last but not least of course, make sure you do both bulbs at one time. They tend to go about the same time and it will frustrate you to no end to go thru this much trouble to replace one only to find the other one burn out in a week.

Couple hints:

Watch for that one sneaky screw on the side of the headlamp kind around the corner, there are 2 on top and one around the side on the bottom. You will see two silver screws on a small plastice plate about 9 inches long ... those aren't it, it is below those slightly hidden.

The top screws on the plastic cover under the hood are not screws at all. It actually works better if you pull up on the plastic cover and then you can separate the screw part which is really a pin from the outer part. Pull up on the pin and then the entire screw/pin assembly will will come up.. Be careful putting those pins screws back in, they will break easily. You have to pull the pin up and then push the entire screw/pin assembly into the hole while holding the pin up, then once the main assembly is in the hole you can push the pin in. It works kind of like a mollybolt in sheetrock.

Last but not least, just take all the screws out but don't try and take all the plastic off the car. Once you get the screws out on the bumper cover behind the wheel well all you then have to do is rock the entire bumper cover forward about 1 to 2 feet and leave it there out of the way. Do not remove the entire bumper cover and plastic covers under the car. Just take all the screws out and even leave them in place under the car so you remember where they go.

Good luck!!