HID Head Lights Problem, Please Help!!

Not sure if this will help... but this is what my husband, a Toyota tech, recommends.

First check to see if the whole headlight assembly will move if you push it under medium pressure.
If it's nice and tight, have a few people bounce the car's suspension from the front and try to shake it side to side. You stand in front of the car and watch the cone in front of the lightbulb (the diffuser plate) for any movement. No movement is good. If you're still not sure, open the hood and tap on the back of the ballast pack behind the bulb (on the back of the headlight assembly), but not hard. Still should be no movement or rattling sound.

If all else fails, remove the headlight assembly (be careful, don't crack mounting brackets) and gently shake it. There should be no movement or rattling sounds. While it's out, check the adjustment screws for vertical and horizontal to check for slipping.

If there is movement, your mounting screws for the diffuser need to be tightened.

Hope that is of some help. Let us know how it turns out.

 

Please put your location in your Profile . . . it helps people to answer questions if we know where you are located.

IF you live in Virginia it looks like the Lemon Law covers you for 18 months.

"Serious safety defect" means a life-threatening malfunction or nonconformity that impedes the consumer's ability to control or operate the new motor vehicle for ordinary use or reasonable intended purposes or creates a risk of fire or explosion."
http://www.carlemon.com/lemons.html
http://www.carlemon.com/lemon/VA_law.html

Just the mention of the words “Lemon Law†may send a shot of adrenalin into Lilian and cause her to pick up the phone and call you back.

Start asking for stuff in writing . . . email, fax, etc.

Me personally, no matter how well intentioned the suggestion, I would not do the maintenance/repairs as referred to by galaxee while under warranty and/or Lemon Law coverage. If you do so, Toyota can turn around and say that YOU broke it!

Let us know what happens.

[P.S. I ain't not no lawyer type :? )

 

That wasn't a "self maintenance" procedure. It was a quick check to see if the diffuser plate was loose so you could tell the dealer what's going on. Really, completely non invasive unless you chose to remove the whole assembly to check for diffuser plate movement.

Anyway, kdr, I hope you find the problem. Let us know so we can be alert for that type of thing ourselves.

 

First off, the headlight auto-leveler does not send out DTC codes, though it does tell the combination meter to flag the headlight leveler malfunction indicator.

There are specific speedconditions where the auto leveler is inhibited, that's why the vehicle speed is sensed.

The leveler only operates at constant speed between 19 and 112 MPH, or while stopping at less than 0.4 MPH according to page 5-1667 of repair manual. It stops controlling when accelerating. I believe the beam is supposed to be perfectly straight on at low beam, maybe Kyle can clarify this.

I would agree, if the headlights are moving strictly up and down (not side-side) in tandem, it does sound like the leveler system is not working.

There is a proceedure to reset the leveler. On the DLC, if you ground pin 8 while in Ig-On, then flash the headlights about 5 times once a second, the leveler warning light should light, then shut off.
Be sure the car is level and you have 3 gallons of gas and nothing else in the car.

It is also possible the ECU or the 'load sensor' could be bad. A few posts have reported the leveler warning lamp coming on.

 

Regarding the headlight leveling issue:

I have a new 2005 Prius and the system registered a problem after putting a light load in the rear. I went to the dealer and was told that they couldn't find a problem. I suggested we all get on the back of the car and watch the headlights not function properly, which we did. It became evident that they were not moving at all.

So the short story is, they spent a day with the car, gave me a loaner and ended up calling Toyota international. TI said that when there is a problem like this, it is usually the computer, so they are going to replace it.

Now the interesting thing I discovered is that the headlights can be adjusted in place and the computer can be completely disconnected. (No warning messages or exclamation mark) So the headlights beam out at a reasonable distance making night driving possible, taking care to keep the brights off when mounting hills etc.

When the warranty is up, I won't replace the system if it fails again. I'll have it disconnected and perhaps use slightly weaker headlamps.

Good luck with the problem. M

 

That might not be legal. HIDs are supposed to level as they are very bright and can easily blind other drivers. Put a decent load on your car, and the lights start shooting up into people's eyes, even though you have the beams on 'low'. With HID, by low it means beam cut off and slightly down. There's only one intensity with HID. Don't know where you'll find weaker HID lamps.

 

Weaker HID = dimmer HID, right? Then anything higher than OE's 4100K color temperature will output less than OE.

35w 4100K HID capsule outputs 3000lm typically. 35w 8000K HID capsule outputs 2000lm typically - with all things being equal.

There is this newer 21w HID capsule & ballast now. But probably not plug-n-playable onto OE systems.

 

I think my car has this same issue at 10,000 miles. The low beams point about 10 feet in front of the car.

At the next oil change, I was going to ask the dealer about it.

 

Hi Rick,

If I understand you correctly, you want brighter fog lamps and a closer coloration to match your HID output, am I right? You can use IPF’s 9006 HIR bulb. It genuinely outputs 2x that of regular halogen & it comes in 3800K (plug-n-play too). Your HID capsule comes in 4100K, so I hope this is close enough color matching for you. If you want even more output from your fogs, you can probably use the Hyper Beam System to boost it to 2x brighter. I am not 100% sure if the HIR bulb can take this extra boost as the HBS is originally designed to boost regular halogen bulbs, not HIR bulbs. But they may work well. Next step will be to turn your fogs into true HID but it requires customization.

I just PM’d you too.

Edward

 

Priusham

my 2005 with 15000 miles on it has the same issue. What I found out tonight is that when it is doing it (pointing strait down), if I turn the lights off and then back on I will see them move up to normal position and then all seams well. Hopefully that will fix it next time it happens as well.

Cheers
Wino

 

That's one of the first things I tried... "cycling" the lights on and off.

Sadly, in my case there is no diff.

I also started and stopped the car... next, I'll kick them and see if that helps things.

Mechanical things
They have no heart
When the going gets tough
They fall apart

 

[font=Comic Sans MS:7540c5b722]You could try bouncing on the rear bumper. If the level lever sensor is sticky, this might help. Has the dealer replaced the level sensor?[/font:7540c5b722]

 

Three times for the same safety-related problem? "New car time" under most states' lemon laws.

Tell them you want a brand new car. Then see how hard they try to fix it.

 

[font=Comic Sans MS:33a856a326]Thanks for the update, Rick. I'm sorry you are having such problems with the car and the dealers. It may be time to get the district service manager, or even Toyota USA, involved. Misaimed headlights are a definite safety issue. Tell the service manager you're going to report the problem to NHTSA, and do if they brush you off. If you have to drive at night you are endangering your own life if you can't properly see the road, and potentially blinding other drivers, causing them to lose control of their car.

I'm going to guess that the problem is the sensor or the ECU that controls the leveling. Just because adding weight to the back lowers the beam doesn't mean the sensor is good, just relatively good. The relative change in the angle of the car causes a relative lowering of the beam. But the absolute angle isn't detected.

Good luck getting this fixed and please keep us posted. [/font:33a856a326]

 

If turning the headlights off and on tends to cause the headlights to shift level, I bet the problem is the headlight servo, probably the sensor in it that determines where the beam is aimed. It may have too much hysteresis.