My Experience with Replacing HID Headlights

Here's how to do it in 3 minutes...

 

I did mine WITHOUT taking the bumper off, both headlights in about 45 minutes, with a minimum of scratched hands. It can be done for much less than the rip off dealers want. I decided that I could do it based on the video in the last post. Not near as much of a problem as it is being built up to be. Even got the set of bulbs from highperformancebulbs.com for about half of what the dealer wants for ONE BULB. Ripoffs abound ....do they not!

 

Carolyn is wonderful.

 

No doubt that her hands are probably smaller than the average man tech, but others have also done this.

I'm not aware of any significant differences between any of the Gen 2 cars w/r/t the HID headlights or the space available to change them.

 

It may also depend on whether the cap has been removed before. As it comes from the factory, it takes a lot of force to get off. However, it's not necessary to completely remove the bumper even to remove the headlights. You can remove a few bolts in the bumper and move it just enough to get at the lower bolt on the headlight so you can remove it. Unfortunately, I can't find the thread where this was described in detail.

 

I did my 2007 in about 35 minutes. I got my replacements off a gentleman here on Priuschat for $40 including shipping. The seals on the headlights had never been broken and they took persistence to remove.

The only disassembly I did was to unbolt and lift out of the way the washer fluid bottle and I also snapped off the fuse box cover.

I have fairly stocky hands. The key to getting the lights apart is to grab a good hunk of the round plastic cap. Rotating the cap is not a matter of brute force, but is a game of how long you can hold a lower level of torque persistently. A little torque and a lot of stamina will reward you with the very slow turning of the cap. You don't have to turn it much, a few degrees if I remember correctly, to get it off.

The other sort of tricky part is that you need to make sure you align and seat the bulbs well. Lastly, clipping the springs back on was the most difficult task for me as I did not bother with an inspection mirror to allow me to actually see what the mechanism looked like. I just assumed it was like many of the conventional metal hangers that you squeeze to swing out of tabs that hold the bulb itself in place. That, as well as feeling the different features gave me a good idea what direction I had to squeeze to get the clip unfastened.

Somebody somewhere recommended getting your cell phone camera down behind the light housing and snap some pictures so you can see what's going on. That's a great idea.

Lastly, it's almost beyond belief that originally the SOBs at Toyota dealerships wanted $400 to $500 to fix this problem which is clearly a design defect. Hunt on ebay and get your pair for $50. Carve out two hours on a weekend, bring your notebook computer out to the car, use all the videos available and teach yourself how to do it.

Then, with the money you saved, go buy an ipad or get your windows tinted or something. You'll benefit from your work rather than an auto repair shop. How's that?

 

Oh, I forgot to mention, the conventional warnings with respect to touching the glass globe on the bulbs/igniters is don't. For as long as I remember halogens being around, they claim is that the body oils on your hands or other contamination may cause hot spots on the bulbs which may cause them to explode once the are turned on and get hot.

I assume this is good advice for HIDs too.

 

Here is a video by a Toyota technician showing the official procedure for changing the HID lamps. There is some good detail of the lamp assembly at about 6 minutes into the video. So if you were not entirely clear what Caroline was doing in the 3 minute video, here it is:

 

I'm just a spectator so far. Think it would take me a bit longer than 3 minutes...

 

Thanks so much. This is a great video and actually shows how this is done. I really think I can do it (with the bumper on) without too much trouble.
I was changing out some standard bulbs for LED bulbs today and it does take some dexstarity. When I got to the back-up lights, because of the poor fit, one fell out of the connector into the rear light housing and was tricky fishing out. I added some material to the bulb base to improve snugness of the fit.

 

You mean here is the video, showing a technician actually pulling off the front bumper to change the headlight bulb the Prius - Caroline video she refers to them idiots, if they are actually do pull off the bumper or suggest they might be charging as if they are taking the bumper off.

 

I pulled the bumper to replace my headlight. It took me about an hour all said and done. I didn't want to follow the stick-your-hand-in-the-car route because I didn't want to run the risk of touching the bulb. The 10mm socket wrench was pretty much the only thing I had to use to pull everything off. You don't need to jack up the car or anything - I recommend that you do it just so you get an idea of how the car is constructed. It also allowed me to clean out some of the crap (e.g leaves, etc) that got in there.

 

Thank yo so much. I was just searching how to remove the front bumper & this is just what I needed.

 

This video just saved my hinney. I really needed to see how the parts fit together. Once I watched it, it only took a few minutes to finish replacing the bulb

 

Practice practice and practice, she can close her eyes to do it.

 

Theres a difference between a 5'4 110lb woman and a 6'2 275lb man doing the same job. The official Toyota procedure has to be accomplishable by ANY tech on site at any specific Toyota dealer...at any time. They can make sure that they always have a woman with slender hands to do headlamp replacements all the time.

They also have to make sure that they accomplish the repair without damaging the headlamp assemblies themselves. If you loosen the top bolts on the headlight and pry it up without releasing the bottom as someone else suggested, you can break the tabs that hold the bottom of the headlamp in place, then the dealer is liable for the damage done to the vehicle while they were working on it. Headlamp assemblies are expensive.

The dealer isn't ripping people off by doing the repair according to the manufacturer's specs, thats what they are beholden to do. This particular person can do the repair differently because she has small hands...which gives her a unique service she can offer her customers which is great, but to say because she can do it this way the dealer is "an idiot" for doing it the way Toyota says to do it is unfair and an unethical business practice IMHO.

 

I happen to agree with Caroline.... My hands are not that small, and I did it with very little trouble with only removing the fuse cover on the drivers side and the washer reservoir and the top cowl and air diffuser on the passenger side. charging that much IS a ripoff.. Should have never been designed that way for just a headlight.... especially with all the trouble they are having with them