2006 Prius Headlight Replacement

IMO, You did well with the choice of the regular halogen headlights and saved some money when buying the car. Now, its time for you to probably change the bulb yourself and save some more On the Gen II, headlight replacements are a PITA compared to many other cars, but with some patience, you can DIY. There are plenty of threads here on PC as well a ton of videos on youtube. Depending on how handy you are, you can get away without having to drop the entire front bumper. People have been able to get away without or with minimal removal of parts around the headlight including a partial loosening of the front bumper.

In the past I have had excellent results with the Silverstar bulbs. YMMV. For best results and good lighting, you might want to look into installing a good HID setup. I am not talking about a PnP HID kit, but actual projectors/ballast retrofit. Look through the links in my sig for more information on this.

 

Changing bulb without dropping bumper is very easy. At first I was little confused and scared. Go to youtube and search for it and watch lot of them.

Simply;

1. Take black plastic front cover off. There is screw looking pop outs about 8 of them. half turn them and take it out. Then plastic black cover comes off.

2. For driver side headlight, first you have to take fuse box cover off (right behind the headlight) For passenger side there is a plastic air vent pipe attach the front bumper frame with one pop-out. With all that you will be able to easily reach bulbs.

3. Now behind headlights there is black turn knobs. Turn them cover comes off. Feel with your finger find the bulb, pull the connection out. feel the clip holds the bulb. Unclip.

Watch youtube

 

Hi All,

My daughter and I bought a 2006 Prius when I went back to school. The driver's side light is out. After reading many posts on this site, we decided to try and switch out the light ourselves, but I'm confused as to whether I need to buy the whole light kit or just a lightbulb. Forgive my ignorance when I say that we have no clue what we're doing but want to learn.

Questions: Is there a way to find out if I need a new lightbulb versus a light kit?

If I can't figure out how to change the light bulb or kit,-any suggestion as to where we can?

I can't figure out how to start a new conversation open to anyone because this site asks who I want to include. Any suggestions?

Thanking you all in advance,

LaVonne

 

Hi and welcome to Prius Chat.

Kudos to you and your daughter learning to do your own car care. We hope you get all the encouragement and information to do this here at PriusChat.

You want to start a new thread, not a conversation. A conversation on PC is akin to a PM in other apps.

To start a new thread go the to the forum in which you want to start one, and hit the "Post New Thread" button at the top right of every forum page: (To see this button you may need at least 5 post, but not sure)



SEARCHING THE FORUMS

At the top of each page is a search box where you can use keywords to search for information. When you click into this box a pop-up window will appear. Click the "More ..." button and choose "Advanced Search" Use this in particular to select only the Gen 2 forums (and their children) option to limit your searches to only the Gen 2. You will get more Gen 2 specific threads this way.


As a newbie, you might want to spend a bit of time in the Newbie Forum reading up on how to use PC and catch up forum etiquette.


You can find this right at the top of the home page or follow the link above

Once again, welcome and hope you can find everything you need to know here.

 

First, work out whether you have HID or Halogen lights. I would be trying to just replace the bulb first, but if you have HID lights, you may need to also change the ballast. You will need to research the "how-to" once you know which system you have.

 

Hi Dolj,

I'm afraid I may sound even more ignorant, but how do I find out whether I have HID or Halogen lights? Could I drive to an Autozone and ask an employee? Thank you so much for your response.

 

Thank you so much for responding. It does seem like I need to have posted to be able to get started.

 

Hi Dolj,

I'm afraid I may sound even more ignorant, but how do I find out whether I have HID or Halogen lights? Could I drive to an Autozone and ask an employee? Thank you so much for your response.

 

HID headlights are installed on all Gen 2 models that have fog lights.
If you don't have fog lights, then you have halogen headlights. Pretty sure it's a 9003 bulb.

 

If it is halogen, it is a Pain in the Bisco to replace the Prius Headlight without partially removing the bumper cover. In my experience, anyway and I have small hands -- well -- maybe Bisco has smaller (inside joke, ignore).

Here is a video that is pretty darn helpful on how to partially remove the bumper cover. I found it a month or so ago, after I had already figured it out myself.

Many people manage to do it without removing any part of the bumper cover. There are lots of YouTube videos about how to do it without removing the cover. Good luck. I had to remove part of the cover, but you may not have to remove any of it. For me, it might be my noted lack of patience.

The young man in the vid is very skilled and does a great job, but he does rely on the Milwaukee tool, but that tool is not necessary to complete the repair.
Kris

 

I've tried multiple times to service the halogens and not pull the bumper down and that sucks. You must have tiny arms tiny hands to do that and then you still can't see how to put the bulb in right.

So easy to pull the bumper down. Takes like 5 mins. Your just loosening it up enough you can push down the lower bumper lip in front of the light assy to sneak the whole light assy out. Its really fast and easy.

Thats how Luscious does it and if there doing it then that's the correct way to do it.

To the OP don't bother with brighter. Brighter is hotter and bright does not last long. I've tried the Phillips Super Bright bulbs and they last about 6 months. The factory bulb has long life and plenty of bright.

 

The truth is out there!! LOL. Follow edthefox5 advice.