headlight replacement

[rigormortis]

2007 prius
touring package
50k miles

left hid bulb starting to act up. a couple times had to turn the headlights off and on again
to get them working. complained to nthsb website. called toyota. they didnt seem to want to budge on the headlight. haven't taken car to dealer yet. feel its a waste of time for me to drop the car off and go through the hassle if they cannot repeat it.

maybe the cold weather (37-45) is affecting the lights.

does not seem to happen when turning lights on with switch.

seems to happen when you turn on / start the car, with the headlight switch already on.
( leaving the light switch on, turning the car off, exiting through drivers door automatically turns off headlights)

[andyprius]

Originally Posted by rigormortis

2007 prius
touring package
50k miles



does not seem to happen when turning lights on with switch.

seems to happen when you turn on / start the car, with the headlight switch already on.
( leaving the light switch on, turning the car off, exiting through drivers door automatically turns off headlights)

That might be a real clue. Maybe a special relay in the door close circuit, is not resetting.

[KD6HDX]

Our HID's have been working great for 108K miles. We have a 2005 prius package 6. Driving our 2000 Camry and or my 95 Dakota pick up at night is like driving blind. The HID's rule the night. I will always order them (if available) in new vehicles. (Wish us luck on ours as they approach 4 years and about 50 thousand miles of perfect operation. I figure half of my commute is in the early morning, so the lights are on.)

The car was built in June of 2005. Gen 2

[rigormortis]

Originally Posted by andyprius

That might be a real clue. Maybe a special relay in the door close circuit, is not resetting.

yeah my post was probably confusing.

what i mean is that if you leave the lights on and then turn the car off and then exit through the drivers door, the lights will turn off. the very next time you power on the car, the car will automatically turn the headlights on. this is a feature.

the problem came up a couple times at 2am and 6am

when i walked up to the car, turned it on, and the headlight misfired.

if i walk up to the car, do not insert any keys or turn the car on in any way, and turn on the headlights, they fire fine.

[windstrings]

I always "almost always" turn off my lights when I park because I don't want them to come on automatically the next day when its daylight and then have to turn them off.

I feel like restarts shorten thier life, so I avoid them.

I said that to say, I always turn on my lights manually with the switch and I had the problem.

The ballast either fires or it doesn't, I can't imagine that going through a switch or this relay verses another would have any bearing since the ballast controls the high voltage was well as stabilizing the low voltage.

I suppose its possible that the input voltage to the ballast could be low when routing a certain way.. causing the output voltage of the ballast to suffer, but I would be surprised.

[qbee42]

Originally Posted by windstrings

<snip>
I suppose its possible that the input voltage to the ballast could be low when routing a certain way.. causing the output voltage of the ballast to suffer, but I would be surprised.

If the HIDs fire before the inverter comes on line, they will be driven by a lower voltage from the 12V battery, instead of the nominal 14V bus, especially if the 12V battery is getting a little weak. I can envision a scenario where this could lead to HID striking problems. I don't know that it happens, but it is possible when the HIDs are left in the ON position.

Tom

[windstrings]

INteresting.... although the bulbs usually don't go out till they have been on a while, that could explain why they need a second fireup to continue, then they are usually ok... repeated events such as this, may shorten their life...

I suppose new bulbs would survive the punishment for a continued time until they too finally started showing symptoms....

It would indeed be funny if the problem all along was how toyota rigged up the input voltage, rather than a fault of the bulb or ballast!

Seems that cars before 06 didn't seem to have this problem.. but I believe they used the D2R bulbs instead of the D4R... I don't know if thats the issue or not... but I heard the D4R bulbs were new starting 06 too.

[biphnest]

Does any have a photo or a drawing that shows the location of a 2006 HID ECU?

[Mike Dimmick]

Originally Posted by biphnest

Does any have a photo or a drawing that shows the location of a 2006 HID ECU?

There is one headlight light control ECU per lamp, and it's bolted to the bottom of the headlight assembly. There is also a headlight levelling ECU which is behind the glovebox, beyond the Engine Control Module and HV ECU.

You did not see this link.

[biphnest]

Mike -

Thank you very much for the link. That is exactly what I was looking for!