HID Headlight intermitently fails to start even after bulb replacement

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by tmorrowus, Mar 9, 2013.

  1. tmorrowus

    tmorrowus Member

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    Around 100k miles, my 2004 prius started failing to light the right headlight. It only happened every now and then, perhaps 5-10% of the time. It seems to fail more often in cold weather. I can always get it to light by turning headlights off and on a 2-4 times.

    I had luscious garage in San Francisco replace both bulbs with the ones I bought on amazon.com. I couldn't install them myself since it required more grip strength than I had to twist off the cover that had been in place about a decade.

    That seemed to help, but I still get intermittent failures where the right HID doesn't start sometimes. The left always works reliably.

    Obviously replacing the ballast should solve this, but that is expensive and I wonder if perhaps there is some connection that has developed a high resistance that could be solved by reseating. Any suggestions?
     
    #1 tmorrowus, Mar 9, 2013
  2. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Which bulbs did you buy from Amazon? Brand, make and model? Were they being sold by Amazon itself or a 3rd party reseller there?

    As for obvious, don't know until we know the above.
     
    #2 cwerdna, Mar 9, 2013
  3. tmorrowus

    tmorrowus Member

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    #3 tmorrowus, Apr 8, 2013
  4. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Did you buy Philips D2R bulbs sold by Amazon or some other 3rd party listing on Amazon?
     
    #4 cwerdna, Apr 8, 2013
  5. tmorrowus

    tmorrowus Member

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    I bought them from amazon, not any other seller on amazon.
     
    #5 tmorrowus, Apr 8, 2013
  6. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    I guess you could check the wiring and the connector before replacing the ballast. You could also swap bulbs from side to side to help see if it really is the ballast.

    How many miles are you at now, out of curiosity?
     
    #6 cwerdna, Apr 8, 2013
  7. tmorrowus

    tmorrowus Member

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    106k miles. Thanks for the suggestions and any others.
     
    #7 tmorrowus, Apr 8, 2013
  8. PriusDIY

    PriusDIY Junior Member

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    #8 PriusDIY, Apr 9, 2013
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