Headlight problem

Drivers side headlight goes out once a week, off/on corrects. I received same Toyota letter about free ECU and $150 bulb replacement offer shortly after visiting NTHSA and had same issue with NTHSA as NW+Viking:
"Anyway, I think the number of complaints may be much higher than indicated earlier on this thread. When I filed my complaint today with NTHSA, I had to select the "Exterior Lighting" category -- closest thing I could find for a headlamp problem. But when I went to check on the number of complaints for a 2006 Prius, I could choose "Exterior Lighting" or "Exterior Lighting: Headlights" component. The latter showed about 100 complaints, but the general category had about 500 complaints, and nearly all of them were headlamp related -- most of those indicated HID, a few didn't specify the type of headlamp. "

Going to wait it out and see if Toyota's hand is forced to resolve...

 

I've never contacted Toyota once about my healight issues and I"ve recieved two letters "one for each car I suppose" that offer me to pay 150.00 each bulb and they cover labor.

Since I fixed it myself by replacing the bulb with an ebay bulb "4 of them... two for each car" the problem is resolved.

I'm hesitant to throw away 300.00 perfectly good dollars for a problem that may reoccur if they "fix" it!

I think I'll just pass on the wonderful gesture.

I somehow trust my own work and cheap ebay bulbs more than I do theirs.....


if you haven't received the offer, I would just be patient and/or call them and ask them to match what they are doing for others.

Knowledge is power, and they pretty much have to match what they are offering other people...especially if they know you know better.

But they try to negotiate whatever the customer will allow based on what they "know".

Seems unfair, unloving, and inconsiderate?... welcome to big business!

Its not about whats fair, caring or whats right and wrong.

Its about image, making money, and posturing themselves in the best place to make the most sales without too much up front cost....

Like I said.... nothing more than business......

It is what it is......

You have to do whats best for you.

I respectfully say...
Don't expect Toyota to take care of you without being forced to..... they are not your mother,and they know it.

 

I called Toyota's - Number and got the - someone will call you back within 24-48 hours. I got the call - the lady said "Have it diagnosed and then get it fixed and send the paperwork to her". I said can you email me your contact info and what to do... reply "NO". I will call you back and leave you a voice mail she said. I said why ... why not an email.. Toiyota was not allowing emails to customers. Funny they want no in writting of what they are doing for customers. She would not tell me what they will do - it's case by case... sounded very fishy.

So, I decided to take my fight to the dealer where I bought my car .. I have a 2008 that was 1 1/2 yrs old - one light out and the other sometimes on/off using the light switch as others have reported. I also tried another local dealer as a second bet.

Second deal was less willing to help unless I paid for the repair.

My dealer after some complaining because I had just over 38,500 miles ... 2,500 miles over the bumper to bumper warr. Finally they caved in and replaced both bulbs for free as a good nature repair which I had to sign a piece of paper to say ok to the repair, as long as it did not cost me $ 500+ I said sure.

Push your dealer and get it fixed... it works if they want to see you again. They will bill it out under some other charges back to corporate I am sure.

 

just changed my driver side hid with ebay purchase from High performance bulbs....suppose to be the D4RHID 43ook...but when i turn light on, only stays on for couple seconds then shuts off...and now i do notice that the replacements do not have the "band" around the bulb..not sure if that is the problem,,,,hopefully more knowledgeable folks here will reply....
bulb change was not too bad thanks to all the tips from everyone here...thanks

 

I hope Toyota is listening!

I have been enamored enough with Toyota that the number of prius's that I currently own is "three".

However, this whole headlight issue has caused me to lose a ton of respect for them as a wholesome company.

Can they build good reliable cars?... yes..... are they trustworthy? I'll let others answer that....

Do you have to beg, bribe and protest to get them to fix a simple headlight?.... yes!
Do they only take care of you under cover of scams, negotiations, and stubborn resistance?.. yes

If myself who is such a loyal customer feels this way..... how much more do many others feel the same if not worse?

If Toyota is going to lower themselves to the level of other car makers, I might as well look elsewhere with my next purchase as competition is getting stiff....... why not?.... anybody have a good reason why to stay loyal to a company that is so self centered?

This whole issue is a "shame" to toyota..... I had them on quite a lofty pinnacle.... I guess that was foolish.Lets just sweep the dirt under the carpet rather than bend down and sweep it up right?...... Toyota... quit being cheap just and take care of your customers for peets sake!

Maybe you can redeem yourself as being an honorable company!

 

I just got the same "offer" from Jasmine at the Toyota Customer Experience center. I've got a 2006 Prius with just 44K miles. Both headlights failed simultaneously while driving on 12/31--I was able to pull into a parking lot, get out, and verify that both headlights were off. Since then, the driver's side headlight fails intermittently. Last week, the dealer's service dept. recommended replacing both headlights at a cost of $533 (they backtracked on their original recommendation of replacing both ECUs as well for a total of $1050 after finding the TSB that says the ECU replacement is unnecessary).

I'm flabbergasted that Toyota is stonewalling on this. It appears that, as with the stuck accelerator issue, someone will have to die before they 'fess up and issue a recall. Given that thousands of the HID bulbs are failing in half the expected lifetime--JDPower & Associates says that the expected lifetime of an HID headlight is 3000 hours or 90K miles for the average driver--it's pretty clear that the bulbs were defective. The fact that Toyota is offering the bulb at a "reduced" (yeah, right) cost points toward Toyota getting concessions from the bulb supplier. Too bad they're still saddling their customers with the entire labor cost for a repair that needs to be made only because they installed a defective part.

I'm a former journalist. I will be emailing as many of my colleagues as possible to suggest that there's a story here. I'd like to see someone dig into why the NHTSA decided against a recall BEFORE even receiving the data from Toyota about the headlight failures--and after talking to only 30 of the hundreds of customers who filed reports of simultaneous headlight failures. I'd also like to see someone get the stats from Toyota for HID headlight failures/repairs for other models from the same period that use HID headlight bulbs from a different manufacturer--bet they're not failing at the same rate!

I will also be sending letters to Toyota's VP of Customer Relations as well as its president. That tactic has sometimes yielded results with other companies.

By handling this so poorly, Toyota has just lost someone who would otherwise be a lifetime customer. This is my second Toyota, and as things stand, it will be my last.

 

I have paid over a 1000.00 for a headlight for my prius.Today my transmission went out on me @ 70,000 miles...not happy..clint.

 

Funny how I have absolutely no engineering background yet I've told everybody the ECU had nothing to do with it throughout this whole escapade.

Not to toot my own horn, but If I can figure that out does that mean the Toyota engineers are idiots or is there a cover-up?

Since they make a fine product.. my guess is the latter... the engineers are just too smart to be so stupid!

Instead we got needless "shafting" the customer by saying "unless its the ECU its not covered under warranty."

So by confirming the ECU was ok, the customer got dinged with the bill claiming it was merely wear and tear.

Only now that Toyota is starting to have to foot the bill...all of a sudden the ECU has nothing to do with it!!!

Funny how that works.....

Contingent upon ECU being bad = Toyota pays
ECU good = Customer pays.....

Now that Toyota pays no matter what = ECU always ok!... LOL!

It doesn't take Rocket science to figure this out.

 

They are not the same

The Chinese bulbs vs the Toyota bulbs are not the same construction.

I sure Mr Winstrings is a great guy and he may have addressed this in one of the 600+ posts contained here.

His post on physically changing these Frickin bulbs is spot on. This is the 3rd time I have cracked open the headlight bulb access disk and got them both changed in 23 minutes still fumbling with the retaining bails.

The bulbs are different when you look at them and not minor differences there are 3 metal clips at the base of the Toyotas the glass bulbs in the capsules are different and there is a signifgant difference in the metal in the capsul.

Anyway
Rewind
August 09 OEM bulbs crap out.
Get Ebay 2 bulbs $59
fail within 2 weeeks
use toggle method to keep lit til now
last week purchase 2 more Ebay bulbs $59
( I'm not paying $150/ bulb from Toyota)
installed bulbs driver side blinks off within 10 sec
I figure I have bad ballasts or cpu's or whatever makes these things go.
Long discussion with Service writer he was very knowledgable and did his home work. He convienced me to buy the Toyota bulbs $318 for 2. OOOF!!!
He suggested I install them to save a couple of bucks. I did and when I got both new bulbs they lit and stayed lit.
I'm not saying anything for a while.
But the service writer said there have been some cpu issues but the incidence is much lower. typically its the bulb and he had a couple of customers that tried the ebay bulbs and this seemed to solve the problem.
Similar to what Winstrings was saying it is a voltage heat or resistance issue with the non OEM bulbs.

Who knows I did not have sucess with the Chinese bulbs and can not recomend them.

 

When you buy any product... never buy bottom of the barrel.
Buying midrange often gives you most of the quality of the high quality items.

Whether dealing is electronic components, or tires... buying the bottom of the barrel greatly increases the liklihood your buying rejects, QA rejected, or just plain cheap products.

My bulbs cost 69.00 for two.
Price doesn't guarantee you get what you pay for either, but its true more than not.

I see people trying to buy two bulbs for 12.00 and I cringe.
I have provided my source multiple times and some have used it with success and others have bought from other sources and also have had success.

All I know is I've got close to 40K on the 4 bulbs I bought... one went bad and I replaced it with one of the OEMs that didn't flicker... all 4 "3 ebay and 1 oem" have been running ever since.

Regardless, if you put in a bulb and it went bad and then put in a better bulb and it worked, its obvious the original issue was the bulb rather than the ballast or "ECU" as they want to call it.

Let's not let cheap bulbs confuse the issue.

The issue is that a mere bulb change is almost always the issue that solves the problem.

I didn't go with OEM originally because at that time Toyota was playing dumb and deaf and stupid and wouldn't listen....and they wanted thousands to fix anything..... now that they are a little softer on the price of bulbs, its a little more reasonable.

I don't like fighting with dealers of whom I don't trust when I can just fix the problem myself and be done with it.

This is just my personal preferences and convictions.... others may weigh the issues at hand and chose another route.

I just don't like being at the mercy of the system and wanted to be one of the ones to show a another way out that works without having to sell your firstborn.

 

Time for me to join the HID Headlight Failures crowd. I have a 2008 Package 7 with 50,000 miles on it. The passenger side headlight started going out intermittently. I called the local Toyota dealer and asked about the problem. They said, "Replace the Headlight" and quoted me $250 for the light and $150 to install it. So, the total for two headlights would be $800. I said, no thanks and went to the internet. I found the bulbs on E-bay for $60 for two. $30 each vs. $250 each from Toyota. I have no problem with a business making a little profit, but this is ridiculous. I bought 2 each and proceeded to install them. After all the warnings from the blogs and Toyota about it taking at least an hour to change each bulb, I expected the worst. It really wasn't that bad. It took about 30 minutes on each one. The biggest problem was figuring out what to do and how to do it. I searched everywhere for instructions without luck. On the 2008, the trick is to at least partially remove the windshield washer reservoir on the passenger side and remove the cover to the fuse box on the drivers side. Do the passenger side first so you can figure out how everything works. Look for the large round black cover over the back of the light. It has a connector coming out and 4 raised tabs to push against to rotate it counterclockwise to open. I had to use a VERY LARGE screw driver and put it against one of the tabs and hit it with a hammer to get it to move. Be careful, I ended up breaking 2 of the tabs off before I got it to move. If you can get both hands on the cover, you might be able to rotate it. It turns about 1 inch and then you pull the cover off. At that point, you can see the electrical connector on the back of the bulb. It is silver with a braid covering it. Turn it counterclockwise and it will come off. Now you can see the bulb itself. Use a mirror to get a good look at the back of the bulb and the spring clip. Once you release the two spring clips, the bulb will come straight out. Be careful to pull it straight out and remember the orientation of the wire that parallels the bulb. It is on the bottom. Carefully insert the new bulb without touching the glass and reverse the procedure for assembly. Now that I have done this for both bulbs, it would be fairly easy to repeat. The problem is figuring out what to do and what not to do. Now for the REST OF THE STORY. I turned the lights on and everything was working very good. I left the lights on for about 5 minutes and the passenger side TURNED OFF. I called the local Toyota dealer and he told me that Toyota had a recall on the Electronic Control Module. So, I will be taking it in on Monday. Just think how mad I would be if I had paid $800 to replace these bulbs and IT DIDN'T FIX THE PROBLEM.

 

UPDATE TO MY PREVIOUS POST: I just dropped my car off to Keyes Toyota (Van Nuys, CA) to take care of the driver's side headlight issue. Per the letter from Toyota I posted earlier, the total cost I was quoted was $150 for the bulb plus $46 labor. Total of about $200 to replace the one side (the passenger side hasn't had any problems).

Props to every one doing it themselves...I'm just not as mechanically inclined!

Will let you all know how it goes...the light was going out every couple days now, but turning the switch on/off made it come back on. Hopefully this replacement will do the trick!

 

Brought my 2007 Prius in to my dealer the other day for intermittent HID headlight problem. I had about 32,500 miles and 2.5 years so it was taken care of under the warranty.

 

When replacing the bulbs, Do you do it in pairs or individual bulbs? I have 135k on my 06 and have replaced the bulbs three times. First time was around 40k with Ebay bulbs. They lasted about a year. The second time was around 80k, also with ebay bulbs and those also lasted about a year. both times I replaced both bulbs. With the second ebay purchase I bought two sets. When the passenger side went out again three months ago I just put in that one side. I noticed that the KV was different on this bulb but it was still 35w, went from 5000k to 6000k. The bulb was noticeably brighter. Last week I noticed flickering from the old drivers side bulb. With a spare in the glove box I was going to replace it on my weekend. The next day the drivers side went out, and wouldn't come back on with the "on - off" trick. The new bulb was exploded in the socket, little pieces of glass everywhere. I replaced the bulb and it worked for several days, now both sides are flickering again. more bulbs are on the way but I wonder if the ballast is experiencing a difference in load between the two different bulbs. When the passenger side exploded, the drivers side went considerably brighter, almost new again. Then when I put in the new bulb it went back to being dingy yellow.

 

Both is usually recommended so you get the exact same color in each.
All else fails, keep your old "good one" and you have a backup in a pinch.

 

I don't know if you found my instructions concerning the GenII but here they are... sounds like pretty similar to what you did.

 

With all this press surrounding Toyota right now, please email your Congressmen as well as your local newspapers to start asking Toyota why they are not replacing obviously defective bulbs.

 

I purchased my 2007 Prius used a few months ago. Prior to purchasing the car, I reviewed the service records on the vehicle and the previous owner took it to the dealer for this headlight failure issue. The dealer reported "no problem found". Almost 4 months later, I'm now experiencing this problem with the left headlight, "winking" off and on, then completely going off. Turning the lights all the way off and back on restores the light. Both headlights dim slightly when you turn them on. With the recent Toyota recalls, I began researching this issue. It appears the headlight failure is a common problem to which dealers apparently charge the customer $380 or higher to replace the headlight. I also discovered there is a class action lawsuit in process by a group of 2007 Toyota Prius owners regarding this issue as the dealers and Toyota will not acknowledge this is a defect that needs to be corrected by Toyota. We shouldn't have to purchase bulbs off eBay and spend hours trying to fix/replace the headlight bulb ourselves for a known issue that the manufacturer should be fixing. I made sure the Sales Manager I purchased the vehicle from acknowledged this was an issue with my vehicle prior to me purchasing it and got his agreement to replace the headlight if the problem happened again. We'll see what they say next week when I take it in to have this issue fixed. Check out the other threads on this site. There are several regarding this headlight failure.

 

Add me to the list too. It's too cold for me to go change it myself outside though....so I'm going to wait it out until spring time. Hopefully I recognize it quickly when it goes out so I can turn the lights off and on.

 

Obvious enough if you are on a dark road On a road with street lights it won't be any different than a headlight going out in any car, you probably WON'T notice.