Headlight problem

Took it in. They replaced the hid lamps. We'll see if the problem eventually returns. I am surprised, however, that when the ballast detects the arc going out, it does not restart them (it is capable of hot restrikes, after all). This all makes me appreciate the 96' saab I drove. the info screen would tell you when lights were out, Fluids were low, etc.

 

Jamesbalch, thanks for your extensive post. Now, I haven't read through the rest of the posts after yours but I offer a serious comment for you:

If you can identify ALL the ground points, there is something you can try to indefinately improve the connection: Go to the hardware store and buy a star washer and place it between the ground lug and the chassis. The star washer will 'dig' into the metal on both ends and provide a very good electrical ground. If the problem is ground related, I guarentee this fix will make it go away forever.

Of course, the problem could be power related. That is, a HOT connection somewhere between the headlight switch and the bulbs, then the problem becomes a bit more complicated.

Have you tried to probe the bulbs for presence of power while one is out? If the power is not there, then you have to work backwards through the systrem to find the point where it goes away. That is a bit complicated but the best way to find it.

Another thing you can try: I noticed in your description that power goes through a couple relays. I would SERIOUSLY suspect the relays. What happens in a relay is: if the manufacturer put in a relay with contacts that are under-rated then the contacts will burn out. When that happens - guess what: loss of voltage. So, if you're going to test for loss of voltage, then try the before and after points in the relay circuit. Or, you could shotgun and just put in a new relay and see if the problem goes away.

Please post here your results.

 

Whew!! Finally got though reading all the posts. It seems that the problem may be the bulb, but some have indicated the ballast as well. In either case, this is a definate safety issue. Having one light go off prematurely is a real problem, but what if BOTH go off within a short time of each other under a very unfavorable condition like an extended drive at night on a very narrow mountain road? Not good. I think with as many that have posted here with the problem tells me there as many, and likely more, out there that don't post here and have the problem. Eight or ten of you having the problem should work together and file a class action against Toyota. I'm not at all for bashing the company - I truely believe they produce quality product. But I am apalled at their response to the issue. A class action will get their attention very quickly.

I also hate dealers. Some really sympathize with you and will work with you to make things right, others just blow you off, refuse to work with you, and would rather charge you the exorbant service fee to make several hundred dollars profit. Those that do that would NEVER get my business again.

 

I first started noticing this problem last week. My passenger light was out when driving to my office. It worked when I started up the car again, so I figured I was wrong. A few days later, my drivers light was out the same way. Turning the lights off and on "fixed" it. Last night I drove and within a minute the drivers light was out (I saw the road become dimmer), so I "reset" them. Now this morning when I got into work, both lights were out.

I'm taking the car to the dealer tomorrow and I want to know, what (if any) is the consensus as to what the dealer needs to replace? I don;t want them replacing bulbs and having to replace them again in a month or two.

I am going to file a repoort on the NHTSA website. Also looking at mycarstats (can't post the URL because I'm new). I see there are already 143 complaints regarding this problem filed. I can't believe Toyota is not addressing this. Looking at the two recalls, there is one for airbags that they say covers only 133 units potentially, but having lights going out on 140+ cars who bothered to report is being ignored.....

Thanks!

BTW, my milage is 62K and it's a 2006. I guess I'm pretty much out of luck on expecting anything to get paid for short of a recall.

 

O.K. i read all the posts here but have never found out for sure what the problem is or if anyone had any luck in fixing it long term...im about ready to get rid of this one(it's my third)and never had a problem with my previous 2. UGH

 

UPDATE !!!.... As you know I have replaced both of my cars with the cheap ebay bulbs several months ago.... although "my" car is still working perfectly, my wifes cars just started having an occasional "bleep out" of the drivers side bulb. Yes, turning it off and back on fixes it again just like before.

Either there is something about the voltage the ballast are putting out that are causing these bulbs to go prematurely, or the bulbs in general are bad when of the D4R lot?????

At this point, I saved my two original bulbs that had not gone bad yet and I will simply replace her bad one with one of those.. if those go bad too, I will assume I may have gotten a bad bulb "if the other 3 are still working well" and just buy another set from ebay.

Too bad all those geniuses at Toyota can't just figure out what the problem is and just fix it?

I thought bugs like this went out with the 70's?

 

Thanks to all who have posted here. Its been a terrific reference.
I noticed the same headlight problem at about 40, 000 miles with my 2006 prius.

on Oct.3 I brought my car to my local Toyota Service Center in Newark, DE and was told that both headlight computers and HID lights must be repaired at a cost of $1530. I left the dealer without having the work done and immediately started reading postings here and quickly discovered I am not alone.

About a week ago, I called Toyota headquarters (1-800-331-4331) and submitted a complaint. The next day, I received a phone call from Jane who investigated my problem. She called a few days after that saying she was still working with the Service Center (in Newark) to find out if the computer needs replacing or just the HID bulbs.

Jane called me back: Toyota has discovered that this problem is remedied by replacing both HID bulbs with the new 2008 HID's. and I will be fully reimbursed for the cost.

Does anyone know specifically why the 2008 bulbs solve the problem? Better connection with the ballast?

 

I heard the D4R bulbs are pretty unique to our cars and I think some lexus's... I"m suspecting a design flaw in the bulb.
They are pretty complex in that they need a tremendous amount of voltage to get the material inside to go to a white hot plasma state and then the voltage drops to very low... somewhere around 70 volts I believe, which is normally enough to "maintain" the plasma state once its initiated with the aforementioned very high voltage at startup.

I'm suspecting either the material is impure, or not enough of it, or maybe too much.. I can only guess... but its just interesting that a "refire" seems to get it going again and it usually stays on for that session then until its turned back off and allowed to cool and the whole process starts over again.

There is also suspicion that the ballast may not be delievering "quite" enough voltage once the initial "High voltage startup" is over to maintain the plasma state needed to keep the bulb burning. If thats the case, its a ballast problem which would curse us all to replacing bulbs over and over as once the material inside ages a bit it may take a tad more voltage to maintain its plasma state whereas when they brand new can handle it.

Im not a technitian or an engineer so I"m only shooting in the dark at answers, but it certainly seems Toyota should easily be able to tell the problem with thier team if they wanted.

I suspect they really know the problem on a high level but won't reveal because they don't want a flood of claims to replace ballast.

It would be a simple recall "for dangers sake".. but since that danger has not bit them in the butt yet in court, they may not be concerned.

 

Ok, my passenger-side headlight started having 'the problem' back at about 34000 miles. We are at around 60 now, and I finally replaced the bulbs to see if that will cure it. The driver's side light has never malfunctioned, but I put in 12000K bulbs, so changed them both for obvious reasons.

A few notes from my experience:

You definitely do NOT need to disconnect the power supply harness for the lamp (1/2 white 1/2 black 'click' type connector. There is plenty of play in the wires after you unscrew the housing back. However, if you DO unhook that harness at the click connector, you may end up with more working room by being able to remove the housing back.

When you unscrew the housing back, don't use anything but hands or maybe a strap wrench. I think a strap wrench would be ideal, but I didn't have one on hand. I tried the driver's side with my hands, but it wouldn't budge. I tapped one of the 'ears' with a screwdriver handle, and it promptly snapped clean off. The plastic is brittle, so I wouldn't recommend that approach! Lots of grunting (the car was actually rocking as I was applying torque to the back of the housing), and it finally, slooooowly unscrewed. The housing back will only 'unscrew' about 1/8th of a turn until it is disengaged from its locking tabs and it can be pulled back off of the headlight assembly.

The little wire bails that hold the actual bulb in the housing can come loose from the hinge point at their bases very easily. It's not a big deal if they do, but it can be a little obnoxious reinserting the bulb and reinstalling the bail simultaneously.

I don't have small hands, so for me it was worthwhile to partially remove the w/s washer fluid reservoir. I left the plumbing connected and was still able to pull it up and out of the way.

The good and 'bad' HID bulbs removed from the car are completely indistinguishable from one another visually.

So far, (one whole day), so good with the new bulbs. Boy, are they brilliant! Now I need to have their aim corrected. The aim on our lights has always been low, since day one. We could drive around on 'high' beam all night (with HIDs) and NEVER get flashed by oncoming traffic. With the new brighter bulbs, the glare from just in front of the car makes the issue worse than ever and unsafe.

Thanks to all of those who have gone before in this thread for the great tips and advice!

 

If you look at the material inside, the bad bulb will be more white and look almost like old solder that has impurities.... the new looks a bit like that too, but cleaner.

Its quite interesting about you saying they are brighter...I thought that too...
not sure if the old ones slowly got dimmer without noticing or if they are truely brighter.

It almost makes me wonder if some of the material inside the bad bulbs no longer converts to a plasma state and so the remaining material can't keep enough heat to keep itself ignited without a little help from time to time?

I do know HID bulbs are not created equal.. there are good and bad, but I'm also not at all sure the good ones are necessarily the expensive ones!

 

Just an update, I have posted in this thread and had my bulbs replaced due to this problem back on 08/08/2008 by the dealer, covered under the standard warranty (so totally free), and I have been problem free since that point.

It is still a shame that Toyota has not stepped up on this one.

Phil

 

My new ones are the 12000K GP Thunder bulbs from the ebay vendor you mentioned earlier. It could be the whiteness of the light compared to the old bulbs is just making the glare more apparent, I don't know They seem much brighter, though.

As far as the bulbs looking different, I don't think so in my case. I looked mighty close (and I WANTED to see a difference ) but they are just identical. Stay tuned to find out if that means something bad for me!

I've searched the forums for good info. about aiming the HIDs, but haven't really found much. I tested my auto-level system by standing on my rear bumper. After about 2 seconds the lights re-aimed in the appropriate direction, and returned when I hopped off of the bumper.

 

I had the same issue and took your advice. Toyota is refunding my $559.00. The passenger one was replaced under warranty and my drives side stopped working at 42,000 miles. There was no problem or questions asked. Of course, if I had not called or checked this forum, I never would have known. Thanks for your post.

 

I would agree with the person that said a light bulb is not sinsitive to milage:rockon:. I don't drive at night and do not drive with my lights on while driving unless its raining.

 

Toyota Corporate Customer Experience Center had me fax my $602 receipt from my Dublin, CA dealer's repair of my driver-side HID headlight. (See my previous post.) The Toyota customer rep said they would reimburse me half, because of the high mileage (105,000 miles).

 

I started having the same problem a week ago Saturday.

I took it into Toyota (Bellevue, WA) and they replaced the bulb. I got the car back and as I was pulling into the garage I noticed it was out again.

Mine is the same. Turn off the headlights and turn them back on and it is back on. I don't know what causes it to go out.

I took it back and they replaced the ECU. I got to my house and ... the light was out again. Again I can turn off the lights and back on and it is back on again.

I've got another appointment for Wednesday.

Thankfully I got loaner cars and the work is under warrantee. We actually bought the extended warrantee where "everything" is covered for 75,000 miles.

 

Can you or anyone who has discussed this issue with Toyota give me some details? I am about to blast Toyota with a nastygram. My 06 had to have the driver side ECU and bulb replaced under warranty, and this weekend I had to replace the passenger side ECU and bulb ($800). Seeing the frequency of posts here, I see ample reason for Toyota to step up and deal with this issue, I can see an HID bulb going out ($300???), but what's the matter with the little chip that operates it? Why does that go bad with a certain frequency?

Please let me know how Toyota handled your cases.

Thanks

 

At 32,000 and counting, I finally got my driver's side headlight to go out at a time when the dealership was actually open. One service writer didn't feel like being too helpful but when mine reappeared he said the word I wanted to hear. WARRANTY!! So they replaced only the one that was out while I was there, and I'm hoping that solves it. So far so good. I can't believe they designed it that you have to remove the bumper to replace a bulb, especially if they are going to consider that bulb a replaceable part on a regular basis.

And boo for still having to check my oil when I leave the dealership...overfull again. But this time they fixed it without argument or discussion about my inability to read a dipstick. I may be a 26 year old blonde, but I have an engineering degree and a childhood in the sticks.

 

My 2006 headlight has been intermittent since about 25000 miles. I guess that I have to bring it to Toyota.

 

I can't believe it. My right side HID headlight was replaced at 30,000 miles (free under warranty), and I just had the left side replaced this past summer, getting reimbursed for the bulb by Toyota but paying the labor. Lately the right side had been going out sporadically, but not every day. I went in this morning to get an oil change, and I mentioned to the service advisor that the right side HID was having problems again. They pulled it, and the service manager had them replace it for no charge, not even labor. I just hit 76,000 miles on my 2006. Thanks again to the guys at Crown. I'll keep buying Toyota, but I may not get the HID's on the next one.