HID bulb covered by 36K warranty???

[AJ-Prius]

I got my 2008 Prius (package 4) in November. It was purchased used with around 26K miles on it. This means that I have up to 36K left on the factory warranty.

Anyway, my wife informed me that one of the headlights is out. Firstly, the bulbs looked difficult to get at. Secondly, there is a risk of high voltage, although I am not overly worried about that as I build my own high voltage HiFi gear (only around 500VDC mind-you).

But, given the expense of the HID bulbs, should they be expected to last longer than 28K miles, especially considering that they only get used briefly at night??

So, are the bulbs covered by the 36K warranty?

Thanks,
AJ-Prius

[qbee42]

There have been a lot of problems with the Prius HID system. Usually the problems can be fixed with a pair of replacement capsules from eBay. You can find instructions on this forum.

As for warranty, Toyota has replaced some. It usually depends on who you talk to. Search PriusChat for HID and settle in for some reading.

Tom

[AJ-Prius]

An Update!

I contacted Toyota Customer Service and they agreed to replace both headlight bulbs under the 36K warranty. There appeared to be an indication that Toyota are aware of the problems with the HID's.

It was well worth my phone call to Toyota.

So far, their quality of customer satisfaction has been impeccable (IMO).

Charlie

[icarus]

I have a 2007 with hid lights. Mid-way on the return of a 9000 mile trip the right headlight quit intermittently, followed soon by both headlights. The return trip was on a weekend,, and in the course of that trip, the car went over 36,000 miles. The headlights light up and then quit without warning.

I'll be damned if I am going to spring for multiple $100's for bulbs that I know I don't need,, when I know I will probably need a HID controller, and I'm not going to spring for that either!

Does anybody have any good strategy for dealing with what I expect to be a fight with a dealer that I don't have a lot of faith in?

Icarus

[icarus]

By the time I got to the dealer,, the car had 39k+ miles on it. The dealer agreed to replace both bulbs if I paid the labor of ~$90. I have politely refused,, and I am awaiting a call from the service manager.

I just know that I am going to be on the hook for ongoing repairs to this system for years on end and I am not very happy about it!

Any suggestions as to how to approach Toyota Corporate about this?

Icarus

[firepa63]

Originally Posted by icarus

By the time I got to the dealer,, the car had 39k+ miles on it. The dealer agreed to replace both bulbs if I paid the labor of ~$90. I have politely refused,, and I am awaiting a call from the service manager.

I just know that I am going to be on the hook for ongoing repairs to this system for years on end and I am not very happy about it!

Any suggestions as to how to approach Toyota Corporate about this?

Icarus

Call Toyota at (800) 331-4331. Open a claim. They have had so many problems with the HIDs, they will probably cover the material and labor. You should also file a complaint with the NHTSA at Office of Defects Investigation (ODI), File A Safety Complaint. If enough people complain, maybe there will be a recall.

[icarus]

Up date,

After insisting to speak with the "service Manger" he said he was sure that Toyota would make good,,, and indeed they did. They did the labour and parts for nothing.

2 things stand out. The first is if I hadn't of spoken up I would be out the $90 plus tax. The dealer would have still made out,, since the bulb cost ~1/2 of whatever it is they quote and the labour hard cost are ~1/4,, so just the markup on the labour would cover them for the bulbs. So I think the first offer was just a blatant attempt to screw me!

The second thing that stands out,, is no one can assure me that if the headlight controllers fail that they didn't mis-diagnose the problem now,, and in 2 weeks I will have to foot the bill for controllers.

I did file a report with NHTSA,, just to keep the issue in the public eye. I think that Toyota is making good on warranty claims so that they don't have to do the right thing and issue an expensive recall. My guess is that the OEM supplier is taking a hit on this as well.

Finally, they did their multiple point inspection gratis. This is a complete BS service. It is the same service that they charged ~$250 for for the 30k service,, minus the LOF and Air filter. They checked off the tire pressure and wrote in 32psi. I know that no one checke the tire pressure since as soon as I walked out of the service bay,, I checked it with my own gauge and,, just as I suspected,, it read 42 on the front,, 38 on the back,,,just as I knew it would. They also wrote down 3/32 tread depth,,, and my tires are Nokian Wrs with less than 3k on them,, and they have like 16/32 of tread depth.

The point is,,have dealers become perfectionists at raking profit from every angle of every transaction? I have no problem with dealers making a profit,, but this BS kind of stuff sucks,,, and I will never darken the door of a dealer until it is demonstrable that they are honest!

Icarus