HID headlight recall,,,sort of

I'm not defending Toyota, but this is standard practice with any HID lamp, not just headlamps. Striking them while hot kills a lot of life.

Tom

 

My interpretation of the letter was that they (Toyota) believe that a lot of the ECUs were replaced unnecessarily by the dealer when only the bulb needed to be replaced. Apparently this was widespread practice (perhaps the service manual was leading to wrong diagnosis?) so Toyota will reimburse you if the ECU was replaced.

I see the HID headlights as a two edged sword; the visibility is much better than any other vehicle I have owned, but I tend not to use the headlights during marginal daylight conditions because of the limited life and cost of replacement.

I see many Prius in my area where they use HID even in normal daylight as psuedo-DRL and always feel bad for those people because they probably don't realize how much they are going to pay for replacement.

A recently enacted California law requires use of headlights whenever the weather is bad enough that you need to operate the windshield wipers. I do use the lights when required by the new law.

 

I have a 2004 with the HIDs. Does anyone know if they are problematic as well? I am fortunate in that I have not had any issues YET. Thanks for the info regarding use of HIDs. I did not know that reigniting hot lamps diminishes their lifespan.

 

The bulb life issue should be the same for 2004, although the 04-05 use a different bulb (D2R) than the 06-09 (D4R). Both bulbs are equally expensive.

 

That law has been in effect in New York for several years now (for once NY is ahead of CA).

 

Does anyone have a copy of this letter, and might be willing to post here? (I think I received it but can't find it). In any case, I'm not sure that it'll do me any good. I'm still not willing to pay $300 + $200 labor to fix a set of headlights (thankfully they're not completely out, just 'cycling').

Regarding the act of complaining to NHTSA: I think this is an excellent idea. How do we do so? I was on their sight, do we just send them an email via this link:
NHTSA Contact Information | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

??? If not, what's the proper way to complain? Has anyone here ever gotten a response from them after complaining? (In other words, does it actually do any good)?

Thanks for the help

 

Someone here posted their letter. All it says is (by memory) "we'll refund you $300 if previously we replaced both the bulbs and ballasts, and we'll only charge you $150 per bulb if you have this issue"

Cheapest way out is probably to buy your own bulbs and pull the bumper to install it yourself. I did this because I generally don't trust Chicagoland dealerships (they couldn't do an oil change right, Wth?) to do a competent job.

Good luck with the NHTSA complaint - I'm not sure it makes a difference.

 

It is a lightbulb, it is not magic. They burn out. Just buy new bulbs. It will cost $50/each online for a reputable bulb. If you cheap out and use ebay bulbs, you will be sorry.

It takes a couple minutes of time under the hood and you are done. Do not touch the bulbs when you are installing them and they will last.

 

Not so true. There are several ebay suppliers that provide OEM (Phillips) bulbs. Other than date code differences, the ebay bulbs I purchased were IDENTICAL to the OEM bulbs that I took out! 12K miles later they are still fine.

 

They make look the same, but the focal point and even salts are different. Phillips does not authorize many factories. The Chinese have no problem labeling something that isnt. It isnt illegal since the copyrights dont cross the borders. There have been extensive salt tests on various ebay bulbs and they do not come close.

 

The bulbs I purchased were made in Europe (don't recall if it was Germany or Denmark). Now some eBay dealers may be selling Chinese imitations, but lots of readers have had good luck buying Phillips D4R bulbs from eBay -

statement is a bit off the mark. "You might be sorry" would be closer to the truth.

 

Ok, just a misunderstanding. Yes you can buy genuine bulbs on eBay. However, the really cheap ones are sometimes marketed as phillips when they are not. I'd you see anything other than 4300k advertised as phillips be wary. They make 5000k bulbs in Japan only and are close to $300 a pair.

"ebay bulbs" as with most things using ebay as an adjective is slang in my circles. Meaning cheap chinese imitations. This is what I was referring to, not the whole of ebay.

 

The US and China do in fact have treaties respecting each others' trademarks (which is the issue here, not copyright). You can't legally import a "Phillips" bulb into the US that wasn't actually authorized by Phillips.

That said, of course there are still counterfeits made and US Customs can't find all of them. But it's certainly not legal, either in China or here.

 

for less than $50 convert your turn signal lamps into drl and you'll reduce your hid usage. They look great as well. Follow the drl threads.

 

Reportedly, at one point there were more counterfeit golf clubs in the U.S. than the actual brands they were counterfeiting.

Tom

 

This is an informative site for those contemplating DIY or those lucky enough to live near this repair shop.
Luscious Garage | Blog | Prius headlight problem, D4R HID bulbs *still overpriced, not covered under warranty*
They include a utube video of bulb replacement by technician with small hands !

 

My 2004 Prius has about 80,000 miles on it. Recently, often neighbors have noticed the right headlight is out as we drive down to the end of our cul de sac. Sometimes it's on, other times it's not. Being an electrical engineer, I assumed that it was just a loose connection. After noticing how difficult it is to get to the bulb, I started googling about how to replace the lamp. I have come to see how many complaints there are about intermittent headlight problems and the cost to have them repaired at the dealer. My Prius has the xenon bulbs. I have seen references to replacing the bulb, the ballast and the computer(?). Is there any to diagnose the problem without replacing everything? I've seen postings about some people paying in excess of $1000.00 to have the problem fixed! Yikes!