2010 Prius low beam headlight bulp inop

I bought these. Amazon.com: Philips H11 CrystalVision Ultra Headlight Bulb, Pack of 2: Automotive and they look great and are really bright. I would definitely buy them again. To replace them, just turn them like youre unscrewing a bulb. Then just lift the tab and replace the bulb. The passenger side might be a little harder to get to than the drivers side. Just make sure youre taking out the correct bulbs, I think the the high beams are 9005 bulbs.

 

Owners manual has bulb replacement instructions and bulb size.

 

On the 2010's your low beams are H11's I think? In that case, any H11 will work.

The Silverstar or Sylvania "ultras" or whatever marketing word they use to say higher kelvin temperature and higher output lumens work great, but for shorter time and are more expensive.

The cheap walmart H11 bulbs will last like the ones the car came with. If you want more of a "white" light (really a cool white with blue hues), you pay for it literally in dollars and in bulb life. Expect as much as a 3x reduction in bulb life, for a bulb that costs up to 3x as much. Meaning almost 9x more expensive over time. Up to you if it is worth it.

Human eyes are great at picking up blue's, that's why they seem brighter. Things really do look brighter and nicer with these "ultra" bulbs.

 

Whatever bulb you decide to go with, make sure you don't touch the bulbs with your fingers. Doing so will get oils on the bulb, which will create a hot spot on the bulb leading to premature failure.

If you do touch the bulbs, wipe them with a little rubbing alcohol to get the oils off the surface of the bulbs.

 

To ease removal of the right hand bulb, remove the 10mm bolt securing the air intake hose and push the hose out of the way.

 

Finally was able to change the low beam highlight bulbs on the 2010 Prius today. Had problems attempting yesterday. The trick for me was to knowing that the bulbs are in a 12 o'clock position when locked in. Also the other significant trick was inserting the bulb by itself without the wire harness attached first as this allows more free hand movement. Once the bulb is in the housing and locked (tighten by turning clock wise), then attached and clip the wire harness on. Fyi i got the Philips Crystal Vision Ultra and they look superby! Not blue at all. A nice gentle white 4000k look. Attaching a pic below in case anyone interested.

 

Some 2010s and 2011s had a short-low-beam-lifetime issue from the factory; there's a TSB to fix it but a bit of a pain (front bumper off and wire harness mods). If the car has that issue and the TSB hasn't been applied, it's probably easiest to stick with the ordinary "basic" H11s. The extra-bright-but-short-lived "ultra" style would be just aggravating in a car that has the short-life problem to begin with (and anyway, the "basic" ones will be a little extra bright in those cars anyway).

-Chap

 

i bought the sylvania silver star ultra and they are great! watch the youtube video on the install.

 

I replaced my bulbs a couple of weeks back. I bought these:

I ran into 2 issues:
1. For the first bulb, I didn't notice that the rubber washer that was on the old bulb stayed on the headlight housing instead of coming off with the bulb. This meant that there were effectively 2 washers when I went to install the new bulb. Once I took the extra washer out, the 1/4 turn engaged.
2. For the other bulb (passenger side), I installed the new one, but found the next day that the pattern was clearly wrong (it seemed like the passenger bulb wasn't even working). I went back in and found that only part of the 1/4 turn tabs engaged, so the beam was wrong. Reseating it properly got it working correctly.

 

Had issue with 2012 Prius low beam headlights very dim after replacing bulbs. After reading many blogs and you-tube videos I came to the simple conclusion that the low beam lights are a system that uses a lenses to focus the beam. If the bulb is not seated correctly the beam will not focus and the beam will be very dim. In fact they were so dim I had to use my high beams when driving at night. Here is what I did. I bought the brightest bulbs I could find - sylvania silver star ultra. I installedthe new bulbs

 

Had issue with 2012 Prius low beam headlights very dim after replacing bulbs. After reading many blogs and you-tube videos I came to the simple conclusion that the low beam lights are a system that uses a lenses to focus the beam. If the bulb is not seated correctly in the light bonnet the beam will not focus and the beam will be very dim. In fact, they were so dim I had to use my high beams when driving at night. Here is what I did. I bought the brightest bulbs I could find - sylvania silver star ultra. I installed the new bulbs and there was no difference - too low light. I then tried a suggestion from a blogger. Reinstall the lights. Do not attach the electrical harness yet. When installing place the connector tail at 9 o'clock position then place bulb into light bonnet. Seat the bulb assembly and turn CCW until the bulb will not turn. The connector tail should now be at 6 o'clock. Now connect the electrical harness to the bulb assembly. Now here is the important part. Check the brightness up against a wall or garage door at dark. If the lights are not close to the brightness as your high beams then you need to re-install the bulbs. I had to reinstall twice until the bulb was seated perfectly.
My low beams are 90% as bright as my high beam lights. Good Luck

 

i also had to replace the passenger side low beam bulb. fortunately, it worked out, but i scraped the skin off my arm trying to work in there.