Well, I’ve been putting off dealing with the rapidly worsening headlight lenses on my 2010 III for quite a while. Dealer had quoted me just over $750.00 for replacing both sides. Being newly retired I didn’t think I needed to outlay that money at this time. I decided that this winter sometime with my newly acquired spare time that I would attempt the repair myself. I had gone ahead and bought new assemblies off EBay ($200.00 PR) to get ready. A obviously delinquent squirrel or chipmunk got the wires to my drivers headlight this week, so it seemed like a good time to do this as I needed to get behind the light to search for the damaged wires. I found this video on YouTube and it pretty much showed just how easy of a job it is to get the front bumper off to get to the mounting bolts for the lenses - The only change I would make from what he did was that I would raise up the front of the car 5-10” or so to make the removal of the bottom fasteners easier. With me not having a clue and trying to be extra careful, I had the front on the ground in about 35 minutes, headlights are three bolts each plus the metal tab he mentions that you have to bend just a hair to get them off. A quick look showed me the chewed wires, I repaired them with a couple of waterproof crimps, checked operation and was good to go. I went ahead and replaced ALL the bulbs (high & Low beams, turning, and running lights) while it was so easy to get to them all. I had it all fixed and back together in less than half a day! I was truly surprised with how little car there is left after removing the front and the lamps!
Good work! Did you consider having your lenses detailed or restored? Even if you paid someone to do it, it would have been cheaper than replacing them. One last thing... check the aim of your headlights. Even though I removed and replaced my original headlight assemblies, I found I needed to make adjustments to the lowbeam aim after reassembly.
Nice work! Always better to DIY....you feel good about an accomplishment , and you know it's done correctly.
these were way past being restored, they had spider cracks all through them and were letting moisture through, I had polished them out about a year ago and they were so brittle at that point that you could hear the crackle when the least amount of pressure was applied.
Nice work and excellent color choice for your 2010 Prius . I agree with @xliderider and I did the turtle wax treatment a couple of months back. Kit was $10 and took about 1.5 hours start to finish. I had the same fogging issue you had. After the elbow grease, they looked a lot better. But your solution is probably longer lasting. Congrats on retirement .
I highly recommend you get some 3M clear paint protection film on those new headlights, the film will protect the lenses from UV rays, pitting, and stone chips. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
