Dear All, When I got my Lexus GX470 with Halogen's one of the very first MODS that I did was HID and I'm super proud that I was able to take care of this on my own. I'm itching to do the same on my new Prius but this time instead of HID's I'm thinking maybe there might be a LED kit out there? I've only seen the HID kits but I thinking to go a bit more upscale with the LEDs. Anyone here know if there are any kits available and/or comments? thanks in advance!
The V has LED headlights, maybe a Toyota Parts Store or Collision Repair shop will have them. Of course if you go with OEM Toyota Parts the cost could be prohibitive, but on the flip side, they may be a simple plug-n-play conversion!
thanks Paul, I already took delivery of my IV on 8/1/2010, I almost pulled the trigger on the V but no Sunroof was a deal breaker... Now I'm in the market to upscale the headlights... LED or HID - Leaning towards the LED if available...? thanks!
It would be interesting to see if you could just remove your IV Halogen Headlight Assembly and replace them with the V LED Headlight Assembly. If it was a simple swap, I'd be interested in doing this being as the LED would use less energy!
I seriously doubt the V's LEDs will just be a simple plug-n-play....pretty sure it has the auto leveling plus the washers, etc. BUT if someone can be brave enough to try I'd love to see the results!
From another post on this site, there was a link to JDM OEM headlights. The cost was over $3K for the units, not including shipping. I've thought of LEDs myself and even purchased some LED H11 bulbs with as many SMD LED panels on the bulb as I could find. Light output was pretty much not existent compared to the stock halogens. As DRL, they might be useful but for headlamp units, forget about it.
oh LED lights... I already researched it last year and acquired few LED headlights off eBay that came from Priues involved in front end collision. The issue was, these lights coming from collision shop all are missing the ECU as these are sold separately so shops are simply throwing away the light housing (with LED lights in it) but keeping the ECU. Light housing can be bought on eBay for under $100 per side with broken tabs etc. Toyota sells tab repair kit. ECU can be purchased for about $350 per side from parts.com. I wasn't ready to spend another $700+ on this conversion, I researched a bit and learned that it's nothing more then a sophisticated DC-DC converter raising 12v current to 36v to drive 3 12v LEDs wired in serial. I am sure it's got voltage production etc and able to send the signal to the dashboard when it detects a bad LED. I think it's critical because with 3 LEDs, 1 burned out LED won't be noticeable to drive compare to single HID or Halogen bulb going out. To me, it's a none issue so I've decided to take the headlight apart and modify the wiring, wiring 3 LEDs in parallel instead and I was able to light it up hooking up to the 12v battery directly without any ECU. Headlight washer is needed to melt the snow in front of light because LED doesn't generate much heat in front of the light to melt off the snow but we rarely get snow in my area so this is a none issue. Headlight leveling is required for HID and LED lamp but I rarely carry passengers or cargo so level will be pretty much constant so it's a none issue. Plus I see everyone installing HID kit and not care about the auto leveling. I still have to do the wiring modification on other headlight and take off the bumper to mount them but haven't had a time. My point is, this modification can be done relatively cheaply but it's not a simply plug and play. but if you are brave enough, I've done most of research already so just follow my path.
Thanks for the info TJP, I installed the HID kit for my LEXUS GX470 truck 5 years ago, it was pretty straight forward and it took about 45 minutes wth the two ballasts and the constant 12volts being supplied by the battery. My HIDs are still going strong today even after all these years and I'm sure it will be the same if I go with HID for the prius but since it's available on the Prius V I was hoping for an inexpensive aftermarket kit... I guess not, *sigh*... I'm not too keen on rigging one up from scratch either as you have done... Kit no problem building from scratch... not so confident... Thanks!
TJP74 - Do you have pics of the interworkings of the LED headlight? Was it pretty easy to convert from serial to parallel? It sounds like a pretty simple task, much simpler than the retrofit route I was going to go down and they'll be OEM quality.
Hi Folks, After doing much research and reading this post from QBEE back in Feb 2009 in a different thread: The LED headlamps on the 2010 are brighter than halogen but not as bright as the HIDs. This is a direct quote from the Toyota people when we were in Detroit. HIDs have been a constant source of trouble for Toyota. I suspect they decided to leave that troublesome technology behind. Like you, I too like my HID headlamps, but that's because I have so far avoided expensive repairs. I've opted for the HID kit. As I've stated, I've installed the HID in my LEXUS GX470 and now I've done the same to my 2010 Prius IV. I must say, I'm loving the lights! With most of the TIPS culled from this forum and the HID installation thread, I was able to install the HID without issue. My kit did not come with the RELAY harness, I was originally going to delay installation pending the harness but I couldn't wait. (Think little kid waking up christmas morning and seeing all the presents under the tree...) We'll the 5000k kit was installed with SLIM ballasts, thankfully they were small and not LARGE like it was in my LEXUS 5 years ago, and they fit rather well... No issues with flickering and/or blinking lights, in other words, harness might NOT be required after all. Very please with the installation and so it's +1 for NOTTO & CARID.com HID kit!!! I'll be posting pics later tonight when I get home from work. Price paid on 8/16 was $135 with 2 ballasts, 2 5000k bulbs, mounting bracket/hardware and two (2) 3M double stick pads... Let me know if you should have any questions?
I see that CARID carries a stip of LEDs that will mimic Audi. I have been waiting for something like that. I wonder how it would look?
Wonder where the best place to put them.... I was thinking about the foglight area (you know, to fill in the blanks.. you could make a J-shape or an eye-brow shape or just fill the entire hole) but now that I have fogs in there... Maybe attach it to the lower air dam? I'd rather not have it if it looks tacky... I've seen some people in my area starting to add it to their cars but very very rarely do I see one that looks OEM.
I think Fog Lights and the LED Headlights should be an accessory, they could make alot of $$$$. Actually Toyota should make the both of these standard since it could be viewed as a Safety Feature