So how are the Halogens working out vs. the HID's?

Thanks again .... but I am going to need a bit more help. There are two bulbs in each black plastic assembly. Is the adjustment "next to and a bit below" the low or high beam lamps? Is it a metal philips screw? or black plastic? It isn't the hex nut behind the bulb, is it? There are screws where the assemply is attached to the structure, but they seem to be mounting screws.

Somewhere I read that the lights self adjust for load. If true, the adjustment screw would seem to need to be more between the assemply and the structure. I am just not sure I am looking in the right area ... and I do not know what I am looking for.

Thanks in advance.

 

I'm going by the drawing in the 2010 Prius maintenance manual, I don't have a car to look at because it's not here yet. The drawing shows the back of the headlight assembly and between the low beam and high beam halogens and just below them is the adjustment. I think it's the kind of adjustment that has a wheel with little notches and you use the screwdriver blade to move the wheel CW or CCW. It also says that the last adjustment should be in the CW direction so the screw that holds the wheel on won't be loose when you finish. It tells you if the screw is to tight loosen the screw a little. I think when you look at it you will see what they are talking about. Sounds like the screw in the center of the wheel just keeps the wheel from turning by itself.

Turn the adjusting wheel (not the screw in the center of the wheel) CCW to move the beam up; CW to move it down. There is a note that says if you have trouble seeing the individual beams from each side to cover the headlight on the side you are not adjusting but don't leave it covered for more than 3 min or it might get to hot.

I think only the LED equiped cars have the level adjuster but they have the same verticle adjustment described above and you set it on level ground and the level adjuster moves it from there.

If you get this to work let me know I may have to adjust my car when it gets here, about half of the cars I have bought lately have needed a headlight adjustment.

 

why did Toyota drop HID option? I don't think led's are as good for headlights. They are fine for all other lights,

 

Not just Prius either, my BMW has HID projection headlights and they are very good lights. If a bulb or and igniter goes out it's not to bad, maybe a couple of hundred dollars or less. But if the ballast, the aiming motor, or the housing fails it would cost about $1100 per side. With halogens you can pick up a new bulb at Wal-Mart for $20 or so and put it in yourself in a couple of minutes.

As Windstrings said the new LED lights will probably be expensive also but they should last the life of the car, we hope. If they prove to be trouble prone I think you could pull the LED headlight units out and replace them with the normal halogen units.

 

I've never really heard of this problem before. Then again, I am new to the whole Prius and hybrid thing.
Has whatever problem you refer to ever been pinpointed?
How long is it usually until HID lights fail in a Toyota Prius?

You're referring to the ones that Toyota actually included in the car for previous year models?

I really hope that they fixed it, if there was indeed a common problem with running HID lights...instead of just not offering them anymore.

It has been around a week now since I installed my HID kit, and so far there's been no problems. I'm just wondering when I should expect problems to arise, if it's believed that they will... and what the exact cause is for whatever previous trouble there might have been.

 

Sounds like any electronic device ever made.
Hopefully it was something with whatever specific HID setup they were using in the past, and not something like a conflict with all HID kits and a hybrid system.
Then again, they did just redo 90% of the hybrid system.

I got my first hybrid less than 2 weeks ago and have never really paid much attention to them before the past few months.
I wonder to myself just how widespread the Prius HID problems were in the past, and if it's perhaps do to misuse by those particular owners. (repeatedly turning the lights on and off too frequently, having them on 100% of the time, or whatever else...)

Has any official statement from Toyota ever been made about what the problem was?

 

I hear ya... I don't think I'll be able to settle for halogens again.
I'll let you and everyone else here know if I run into any unexpected problems.

 

My 2010 will arrive in a few weeks (finally got a VIN today) it will have LEDs. My last two cars have had HIDs so I will give you an honest appraisal of how HIDs compare to the LED/Halogen combination on the Prius V.

I am going to a meeting of the Portland HSD group tomorrow, if you like I can tell them hello for you Alan? I'm sure some of them remember you.

 

Many, many thanks Tumbleweed.

I think I was able to raise the aim.
The light assemply is fairly large and black plastic. The aiming adjustment is just as you described ... The "screw" actually a 5/16 shiney (maybe aluminum) hex nut, appears to have a washer behind it, but I think both turned. It was very simple.

I took a piece of tape and marked the top of the beam on the garage wall in front of the car. It tool a dozen or more turns ....(not complete revolutions because of the cramped space) but the beam came up 1/2 or more inches. Tonight will be the first opportunity to see what I have done. 1/2 inch 6 feet in front of the car may be too much??

I will share a tip. First I adjusted the left side (very cramped), and just as I was finishing, I dropped the wrench. It disappeared somewhere down in the bottom of the engine compartment. Finally, after several attempts with a coat hanger to retrieve it, it slipped further down. I tried to take the bottom skirt off ... do not try that. So, I bought another 5/16" wrench, but tied a string onto it.

I hope you enjoy your vehicle as much as we are enjoying ours.

 

After being botherd by the vertical cutoff of the low beams on our V and comparing them to the photos posted in another thread I figured ours were probably set at the very low end of spec. A few nights ago I raised them what I thought was a small amount inside the garage. For my car, which started out way low I raised them about 7 smalish ratched movements. A test drive showed that supposedly small amount inside translated to way too much on the road. I ended up lowering them back to just slightly where they started out. I still need a couple longer test drives but I think I'm getting pretty close. The thing I learned from the exercise is that when they get close to the correct position it doesn't take much at all in the way of partial turns to make a fairly large change in where the cutoff falls. Less than a quarter turn is very noticeable.

 

Yes .... thanks. That is what I am afraid of. But, it is so easily adjusted, I figure I can get it right fairly easily. I'll see tonight!!

 

My 2004 has HID's, and while I only have 45,000 miles on it, they have been trouble free. And they're vastly superior to the halogens on my last car. Until reading this board, the only problems I've ever heard about HID's was having them stolen, especially in certain Nissan's, a few years back.
My next question is, with all Toyota's engineering power, and the fact that so many other cars have them, why would Toyota not solve this problem on its techno poster child (the Prius)?
One last thought.....how about Xenon filament type bulbs instead?
They should offer the same simplicity as halogen, but yield more light?

 

halogens have a color temp of ~3400 degrees kelvin...
Sylvania SilverStars are about ~4000-4100 (they are almost white, still a tinge of yellow)
some so-called Xenon bulbs are ~5000-6000 kelvin
"White" HIDs are about ~5000-6000 kelvin
"Blue" HIDS are about ~6000-7000
"purple" HIDs are 7000+