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HID Bulb Replacement

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by javagirl, Mar 2, 2009.

  1. javagirl

    javagirl New Member

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    2005 Prius
    I have a 2005 Toyota Prius (Pkg 6) with appr. 18,000 miles. About a month ago, my driver's side headlight started to go out (going off and on) until it finally went out completely. On Friday, I took the vehicle into the dealer who told me I would have to spend $358 (parts and labor) for just the one headlight. After much discussion with the service rep at the dealer and the Toyota sales rep, Toyota agreed to pay for the replacement of both headlights with me paying for the labor of the replacement. The total cost to me for the labor was $201.76 (I was told that they have to drop the bumper to get to the headlights...smart car, stupid headlight design).

    If Toyota hadn't agreed to pay for the replacement of the bulbs, I would have been out of pocket $716.14 (parts and labor). As it was, I still had to pay $201.76 for the labor. It is my opinion that a vehicle that is only 3-1/2 years old and has 18K in mileage should not have to have it's headlights replaced. I also understand from talking to the service rep that this is a problem in much younger Prius' too.

    BTW, I filed a complaint with the NHTSA (after reading some of the other threads here). Maybe something will come of it. Thanks.
     
    #1 javagirl, Mar 2, 2009
  2. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    That does seem short. My 06 Prius was bought towards the end of January 06 and has >36K miles on it. I'm still on the original HIDs.

    Were you doing anything that would cause their life to be shortened such as cycling them or driving w/them on during the day?

    Unfortunately, HIDs are pretty expensive in general. As I posted before at http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-m...stolen-hid-headlight-headache.html#post223951, my former 02 Maxima's HIDs are >$1300/pair in parts alone.
     
    #2 cwerdna, Mar 2, 2009
  3. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    There have been a lot of problems with the HID headlamps, as even the most cursory search of PriusChat will indicate.

    Toyota has dropped the HIDs for the 2010 model.

    Tom
     
    #3 qbee42, Mar 2, 2009
  4. tyrael

    tyrael Junior Member

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    San Diego
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    Other Non-Hybrid
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    This is such an atrocity that HIDs on such an awesome car would go out anywhere from 30K to 60K miles. I noticed that my '06 was exhibiting the same issue and the stealership quoted me around $600 to replace both. I mean, WTH?! I called Toyota Corporate and am going to file a claim as well with the NHTSA. This is ludicrous that I have to come out of my pocket on this.

    My other vehicle has close to 90K miles on it and I have yet to find an issue with the HIDs. Mind you it might be due to the awesome German engineering, but the Japanese shouldn't pass on this! I'm pissed. Sorry, just needed to rant.

    ***update***I posted a formal complaint and found the other thread w/ the PDF that has all the other consumer complaints.
     
    #4 tyrael, Mar 17, 2009
  5. HTMLSpinnr

    HTMLSpinnr Super Moderator
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    Not all models are affected - my 2004 has almost 112k on the original HIDs, with a good portion of my driving @ night. I'm considering replacing the bulbs proactively though to restore "new" brightness though.
     
    #5 HTMLSpinnr, Mar 17, 2009
  6. magruder

    magruder Average Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Colorado
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    The labor is so expensive because the official way to replace the bulbs is to remove the bumper. I can't imagine the dealers remove the bumper to do this. I say this because even I can replace the bulbs without removing the bumper. It is not easy the first time, but wouldn't be too hard the second time you do it.

    I found bulbs on ebay for $29.99 total and they work great so far (only 500 miles on them though).

    I am assuming the 2004-2008 models are similar in regards to the HID headlights. I have only worked on my 2004 so far.

    Regards,
    Dave
     
    #6 magruder, Mar 17, 2009
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