Ok, I want to go the other way around. I want to convert my rather expensive HID bulbs to standard Halogens. By doing this I can save a ton of money not only on the bulb but on the replacement lense housings as well as they are incredibly yellowed at this point. HID Lense housing is around $250-$400 each, whereas you can buy a non-HID Halogen housing for just $60. Has anyone done this type of conversion before? What's involved? Thanks - Mike
Hi Mike; I was just about to ask the exact same question. After reading all the posts on Prius chat it seems the only sensible thing to do, even if you have to replace the housing assay's. I found the non-HID assay's for about $80 each on line along with good prices on bulbs. I will look into plugs for the Halogen today. I would order new housings, bulbs, and plugs today, and start the project now but I can't take the car out of service for more than a couple of days in-case I run into trouble. I will keep an eye on this post. Jim Macnab Franklin, NH PS: I had great luck on this site with inquiries concerning replacement of the primary Air-Fuel Ratio Sensor. Its turned out to be a snap.
Right. My thoughts exactly. From what i've seen, you'll just have to remove/bypass the high voltage ballast packs and tie into the input supply voltage directly. Maybe there's something finaggly with the high beam setup as the HID's are motorized to switch to high beam, but I wouldn't think it'd be that hard to find a mod. I find it odd no one has thought to go this route before.
I've got a Bentley s shop manual which has wiring diagrams for the 2007. I'll spend some time over the weekend and see if I can fathom out the Hi/Lo headlight circuit and be in touch maybe early next week. Jim
Awesome! It would be great if the wire that powers the HI Light leveler goes and stays 12vt+ continuously and is of sufficient gauge to handle the amp draw for the Halogen's brights. Then all we'd need (if the input voltage for the ballast is also 12vt), is a simple tie in to those two places.
If you can't find a +12v supply for the highbeams, it's easy enough to use a relay to supply the power directly from the fuse box. You'd just need a low power +12v signal wire to switch the relay from the highbeam circuit. SCH-I535
As my bride had an encounter with a deer the other night I'm considering the hid to halogen conversion as I will need one headlight assembly any way. She a little sore but otherwise fine. The PRI I think will be OK as well after a new fender and hood. I did call Chris the Priusguy and he said he has done several conversions and could provide the how-to and any parts since he was so far from me.
Hi M in KC: If you get a hold of "Chris the Priusguy" please post his comments, as it would save time and some anxiety to hear from someone who has successfully done the conversion. I haven't looked at the wiring to closely but I was also thinking of adding a relay if need be. My Prius is a 2008. I live in a semi-rural area and travel dark roads all the time. Even though I do like the Prius, I have always thought there was something not right with the headlights, and the part prices are just plain obscene. Hope to hear from you soon. Jim Macnab Franklin, NH
I thought that my OEM ballasts were going bad, One side was flickering and the other would light up and turn off and i would have to turn on/off the lights to get them going again. Then the other night the driver side went out completely. In a scramble i contacted 2 famous guys on this board for some help, (thanks Justdidit & Evan) thinking that it was the expensive Denso ballast. Some did a conversion over to after market HID's so i'm local to DDMtuning here in San Diego. Picked up 55w ballast HID kit, with D2S 5K bulbs with D2S adapters and the extra wire harness to install into the DDM ballast. This kit was $55. You have to remember.... The only Bulb that will fit into these housings are D2S / D4S bulbs so finding a halogen bulbs would be hard or my thought was NEVER to go back to Halogen. Started with the Driverside headlight assembly all that was needed was a phillips screw driver and 10mm socket to get the lights off. Much easier that to get your hands into the backside of the light. But i needed to find the power source for the headlights. I started checking for continuity from the car to the light. No power, went to the passenger side and found power pretty easy, consfused... so i opened the fuse box behind the driver light and found the problem. I bought the car with a salvaged title, completely repaired before i got it. Found my problem. The fuses that control the headlights were 30amp fuse in the driverside and 15amp (equipped from oem) swapped the fuses and my power to the driverside headlight was available. The light works and so i didn't continue with my DDM install. Stock Ballast is 35w and what i got was 55w much brighter than stock so i may end up installing this at later time. Install IF moving forward: D2S/D4S light bulbs will ONLY fit into the HID housings, Plug the DDM adapter to the bulbs, Drill a hole and seal completely with rubber silicone the round locking cap the goes back into place, the DDM adapter into the DDM Ballast and the other DDM harness (SPADED end) might be have to be cut off and but connected or soldered into the factory power source. any questions, Let me know. Thanks! Mike
My 2 cents ...if you want to retrograde your headlights , find one of the plethora of folk who want to upgrade and simply trade housings, I am sure for the price of shipping they would go for it and it would save you a LOT of headache in changing the bulbs ....just bang out the wiring install the traded headlight assembly and bob's your uncle!
Hope you found success... All that's needed is a control module for beam selection... Fairly straight-forward... Did mine a few months ago (HID to Halogen), much more consistent and don't have to think about "Is my headlight ON or OFF" LOL.
