Headlight problem

This is the symptom, its usually when the light has not been on that long... almost as if it doesn't have enough good material inside to maintain a plasma state without a re-fire of high voltage to kick it in the pants.

That bulletin is pretty lame, it doesn't specify much at all and is even confusing as it denoted "high and low beam" which would indicate its not referring to HID at all, since there is only one bulb per side and a mechanical deflector moves when you hit high and low beam rather than a second bulb for filament being activated.

 

I was perusing the day's postings last week and happened upon this thread. I thought it was interesting. Of course, that night, I noticed that my left front headlamp was out. Flipped them off, then back on and it came back on. The next day, it was the same thing with the right headlamp. Then the left. Then the right. My Prius is winking at me, for crying out lout!
Off to the dealer tomorrow. I have 25,000 miles on my '07. What are the chances of both bulbs going that early and at the same time? Very, very small.

 

Solution:

I had this problem and found this thread, read close to 75% of it and found no definitive solutions. For those of you who also found this frustrating here is the solution I found.

I noticed this around 33,000 mi in my 2007 touring edition package 3.

Called the dealership and explained the problem to them. They asked me to bring it in. The guy seemed to be familiar with the problem.

I made sure he knew it was under warranty and he assured me it would be cost free.

When I brought it in he explained that it might be the bulb or it might be the computer chip so he'd have to take the whole front end off to check it out.

I left it and about 1.5 hrs later he called to say he had replaced the bulb. So problem solved. No charge.


p.s. for those of you worried about the other one going after warranty just tell the guy it happens in both lights and they will replace both of them.

 

Well, add our 2006 to the (growing) list.

We have had the car 2 years, 2 months. However, my wife (who drives it the most) has a long commute - 28 miles each way - so the car has 53,000 miles on it.

Several months ago, we noticed the driver's side headlight was out. Later that night, after stopping & eating dinner, it was back on. Then off. Then on, etc. Same symptoms. Goes out, turn the light switch off then back on, comes back on. Goes out again.

I checked here to see if this was a known issue & found this thread. So, we finally get a chance to take it to the dealer (Toyota Mall of Georgia, Buford, GA) this morning. We drop it off, I tell them the symptoms & that I had read online that this was a widespread problem. They acknowledged they had seen the problem before.

An hour and a half later, they call. $1300 to replace the circuit board, the lightbulb & the light housing. And, they're sorry, but their system shows that there is no factory recall & it is out of the basic warranty due to mileage. I told them to do nothing to the car, I'm going to call Toyota, and file a report with the NHTSB.

I've filed the NHTSB report & called Toyota at 1-800-331-4331. The phone rep took all my info & said someone will call me by tomorrow. I will post back what the resolution is (if any).

Obviously, they need to issue a recall for this important safety issue. NO WAY should a circuit board & HID light go out after less than 2 years, regardless of mileage. As this is the first Toyota product we have ever owned (the first non-American car, in fact), I am really interested in how they handle this.

Tom

 

Thats some of the whole disgust about this whole problem...... they say its as much as they can so they can ramp up the bill.

Assuming they are totally honest and thier equipment really tells them that.

If its a circuit board... why does a new bulb fix the problem?...Does it "heal" the circuit board too?

Not to mention a "cheap" chinese ebay bulb at that!

 

I ordered a pair of bulbs from ebay for $65 including insurance and shipping.
They are the 8000K type.
Total time to change 30 minutes.
I'll let you know if they stay on. Good luck to me.

 

30 minS... total!... thats excellent... you must like blue eyes!

 

I have my Prius back and it's (hopefully) fixed. The dealer (Brunswick Auto Mart, Brunswick, Ohio) replaced both front headlamps. The advisor told me that they have seen several vehicles with this problem and the advice from Toyota is to replace the headlamps. Per the advisor "there is a problem with these bulbs. Toyota wouldn't tell us to just replace a $350 bulb unless there was a problem." So, now I have 2 new headlamps. No charge. No fuss.

 

I wonder if there is a way to get an "official" notice of this advice from Toyota so that others can act on this "advice".

At this point its just hearsay... I was at the dealer yesterday getting a little fender bender fixed on my wifes car and the guy I spoke with was totally oblivious to any such problems.

Its kinda hard to take your car in based on what some guy at Ohio said...

Do you think there is a way to get more definitive authorization so that others can benefit?

 

the guy at my dealership (rockland toyota in NY) clearly knew about the problem too as soon as i explained just a little of it

 

I wonder if you could ask them how others can get backing from Toyota when their local Toyota dealer plays dumb or simply is not aware of the problem?

Is Toyota going to deal with this on a case by case basis and who should be contacted with the local dealer will not support the problem?

 

Im going back on saturday to get my passenger side done

(they didnt have 2 bulbs in stock so they ordered one and sat is the earliest i can go)

ill ask the guy if he knows anything then

 

There is clearly something out from Toyota about this issue. The service advisor said that Toyota's instructions to service are to replace the headlamps in this situation. Now that begs the question of whether they will extend warranty because of this. Bulbs are not covered by the warranty yet mine were replaced under it. So clearly Toyota is giving some ground here. Either that or the dealer is.

 

I'm now a member of the headlight club. Passenger headlight out after months of intermittent flickering. Comes back on temporarily with off/on switching. Dealer diagnoses bad bulb; quotes $341 for the bulb and $50 labor. Called Toyota Corporate (1(800)331-4331) to discuss. Their offer (after a couple of days) was to replace both left and right bulbs for total customer cost of $100. I took it. Figured $100 including labor was better than $60-70 for bulbs from windstrings' source plus my labor.

My details: 2007 pkg 6 manufactured September 2006 with 54,955 miles.

Of interest, Toyota Corporate asked curious questions, including whether or not I use a Toyota dealership for servicing (no) or repairs (yes).

They were VERY interested in my plans to purchase another Prius for my spouse and the fact that I have a Toyota Platinum extended warranty (thanks, Troy!) even though it doesn't include coverage for the bulbs.

They were also interested that I had done some "internet research" and found that it looks like Toyota may have a problem with Prius HIDs.

 

I agree thats a good deal and I would have taken it too.... but its just the principal of the thing.

Its like going to court about a speeding ticket wrongly given and the judge lowers the fine.

If I'm guilty.. I'll pay the ticket.. if I'm not.. I want "completely" off scott free.. not fines, no fees, and no record on my insurance.

This is obviously better than nothing, but its also obviously an appeasement rather than really "taking care" of the customer.

I hate doing things half way... either the customer is liable for the expenses or they are not?

I still think Toyota should not only pay for "all expenses" concerning this, but offer an apology for making us have to pull teeth and make a big fuss rather than simply honor their product once they were made aware its an issue, that they already got paid "handsomely" for when we originally purchased the car for these high tech state of the art HID lamps!

Sorry to be so black and white, but right is right and wrong is wrong.

They will not get a blessing from me for being half right and half wrong.

 

I guess I'm more of a gray area person (heck, I have a gray Prius!).

Toyota's offer resulted in my paying 12% of the parts + labor bill to replace bulbs that lasted 55k miles. I'm perfectly fine with that.

I agree that Toyota's bulb pricing is way out of whack, though, and should be addressed.

Oh, and running the new bulbs last night was an eye-opening experience. Significantly more forward illumination than the original bulbs ever produced. Seemed like I could see a good 50-100 feet further than before. Yay!

 

I thought that too when I put in my cheap Chinese bulbs.. this only makes me think the originals may have been suffer in lumen output right before they go bad.

As far as pricing... that's the normal price for HID's "especially if a dealer item" before foreign competition came and is now driving down the prices.

Just like anything else.. this is the free market at work.. as long as there is a monopoly on a certain item, they charge what the market will bear.. but when someone else wants some of the action, the price drops is they are not part of the "good ol boy club".... I think the Chinese fit that category.

 

I've just joined the headlight gang. Ouch! Toyota dealer just told me it will cost $925 to replace one headlight. I walked out but not before they offered to let me have the work done for the deep discounted price of $450 as Toyota was willing to share the expense. I still walked out. I called Toyota and hope to hear from their "Case Manager" on Monday. It seems the same work was completed for a fellow Prius owner at the same dealership this week for a fraction of the price. Stay tuned!

 

Update of previous story:

So went in today for the second time and got my passenger side headlight switched out. Everything went smoothly and I got my headlight.

Afterward I talked to the service guy. Heres the questions and answers I asked him. (these are not direct quotes so dont overanalyze this please)

Q: Will this happen again to me?
A: It very well could theres no way to tell

Q: Does toyota know about this?
A: I havent heard anything from toyota

Q: Does this happen alot? Is this a problem with the prius?
A: I've done this procedure about 5 times on prius and siennas (b/c those have the hid too)

Q: Is there something wrong with the hid lights? wont the ones you just put in fail as well?
A: Not necessarily, the problem could have been yours were made by a bad supplier but theres no way to tell.

He also mentioned that the bulbs cost 300$ bucks so im glad mine was under warrenty. He said I also had a 1 year warrenty on the bulbs he just put in which I thought was interesting.

I have 34,000 on the car right now and before this happend I trusted Toyota's quality enough to not buy the warrenty now im not so sure...

By my math though the warrenty is about 1000-1500 and the cost of bulbs going would be about 800 (parts + labor my estimate) so it might be worth it. I gotta decide soon.

Hope this helped.

 

Yea... warranty is cheap ... under 1000.00 bucks through priuschat.

If you release gas sideways, it will cost you that much!

My wifes window decided to stop going up and down...at least when "we" wanted it to.. it kinda did what it wanted.... that was 850.00... covered under warranty.