2007 HID headlight where nothing will fix it including all new Toyota ballast and bulbs

I just don’t understand why they would need to replace the wiring harness rather than just fixing the problem in the harness.

How often does it act up? Just measuring it when the problem is present should reveal the actual problem.

 

Basically everything you describe at first is just a bad bulb. They do die, and when they do, they just go out intermittently. Replacing the "ECU" and then ballasts seems unnecessary, the bulb itself was the issue.

But now with fuses blowing, that is only either a really bad bulb, a bad ballast, or bad wiring. You have replaced the bulb with a new one. You've replaced the ballast with a new one. That only leaves wiring assuming the other parts are good.

It is really easy to power these on the bench. Just get your ballast out, plug in the bulb, and power the ballast directly from a spare 12v battery. It should just light right up. Bear in mind touching the bulb with your fingers even just once, you doom the bulb to a terribly short service life since the oils in your skin transfer to the bulb and then make it hot.

If the bulbs and ballasts work on the bench, then I would order (or make) another relay powered wiring harness and just bypass the original wiring. About $50 in parts if you buy it, $10 if you make it, and a half hour of work to completely bypass. You may just have had a rodent chew threw some wiring.

 

I am having the same issue with the headlights dying after a couple minutes of working. Dealer says HID must be replaced with HID AND the ballast otherwise the problem will persist. Estimate for that repair is $1,000.

Can the entire headlamp assembly be replaced with an LED version or does it have to be the factory original HID assembly?

 

There are projector headlight kits for the 2nd gen that are $300-400. The light output of projector headlights are usually okay to put LED replacements in, as they will have the sharp cutoff needed to keep from blinding other drivers. You'll still want an LED kit that mimics the location of the halogen bulbs.

Otherwise, you shouldn't put LED replacement "bulbs" in halogen or HID headlight reflectors.

 

I commented on another thread about HID to halogen conversions. HIDs can be great, but the Gen 2 Prius had a recall because they failed so often. If you are out of warranty (I have a 2006 with 220k miles so obviously), addressing this problem gets very costly.

After lowering the bumper with a 10mm socket (an extension or deep socket helps) not difficult - half of it pops off once the bolts are removed, I swapped out the assemblies for new halogen ones from Amazon, $120 for the set

I purchased 9003 halogen bulbs and the halogen socket/harness from O’Reilly but they are on Amazon, roughly $20 for all

After removing the dust cap from the old assemblies, I cut the black-wrapped wires to the high beams (goes to a little motor on the HID) and cut the white-wrapped wires going to the ballast for low beams. Then I connected the ground from each to the new harness ground wire, and the red bright supply to the red harness, and the red low beam supply to the blue (some harnesses have different colored wires so you’ll have to expose them to see which prong they go to).

The lights look great and have functioned perfectly with great visibility for a couple months now. I suppose I may get dust or moisture inside the lights eventually as the new assemblies did not come with a dust cover, but for now I have the custom combination of halogen lights plus still have fog lights!

I am not the handiest guy, but this was pretty easy and didn’t take too long, once I thought it all through. I also like the shiny new assemblies. Hopefully this helps someone else with an older Prius that is experiencing the ongoing HID headache. Good luck!

 

I'm not sure why you guys are bothering to replace them with geniune toyota parts when those are noteably overpriced and faulty to begin with anyway. The aftermarket for HID bulbs and ballasts are huge, my last set of bulbs and ballasts cost under $100 to me and would easily plug in to your system with a little wiring knowledge. There is no need to be tossing out a good HID system for a crappy LED or halogen.

 

Get awesome lights for a $10,000 car, not a Gen 2 Prius.

For a car with over 200k and a kbb value under $3000 it isn't worthy of HIDs imho. For most of us it's just a grocery getter or commuter. I previously did try an aftermarket ballast and supposedly higher quality bulb with the flickering issue returning, and got tired of the money pit. Halogens are old reliable and great for a car that's long-gone out of warranty.

 

Hi. I’m wonder if your solution to the Headlight problem lasted and for how long? I need to get something done as soon as I can. I’d very much appreciate a response.