Halogen Headlights Keep Failing

These are normal low-end halogen bulbs right? Not the super extra bright ones?

 

1. I hope you are aware that you cannot touch the halogen bulb glass surface with bare fingers, as salt and oil contamination (from fingerprints) will weaken the quartz glass. Use a clean cotton handkerchief or paper towel when handling the bulb.

2. It is not normal for the headlight intensity to dim and brighten. The wiring may have an intermittent connection or a loose lamp socket. Perhaps that is the reason that you are experiencing short bulb life, and this should be investigated.

3. If you think that replacing halogen bulbs is expensive, then it is good that you did not buy a Prius with HID headlights.

4. As another data point, I have a 2007 that has logged ~50K+ miles, equipped with halogen headlights, and the original bulbs are still working fine.

 

I am seeing the same issue with my 2007 Prius. I have been using just the standard halogen replacement bulbs and have tried different makes. Just had one burn out again yesterday. My S10 pickup is 12 years old and only have replaced one bulb on it just a few months back.
I think I have replaced my Prius bulbs about 4-5 times now on both sides.
I know that they are being installed clean as I use surgical gloves to do it and am very careful with them.
I don't see any dimming or brightening of the headlamps while driving.

 

I suggest you use a good digital voltmeter to measure voltage on the 12V bus when the Prius is READY. It should be ~13.8VDC. If much higher, that might be a reason for a short service life on your headlight bulbs.

 

From my experience, the European replacement bulbs which are commonly sold here do not last as long as the Japanese made bulbs which come in Prii from the factory. Also, the (crap) Chinese and Korean made bulbs that are available are trash that doesn't last half as long as the others. I had a conversation with a customer about this last week. I a will soon be offering OEM, Japaneese bulbs to my customers. At the moment I do not know what is in the box when you order the part number Toyota gives as the replacement, 90981-13058, but you might consider stopping by your local dealer and seeing if they are the original Kotto brand bulbs. If so you might try them out and see how they compare.

On a different note, the brightening and dimming of the lights is not normal. This could easily be causing your headlight problem. I would say the most likely cause is a bad connection somewhere. I would make sure the battery connections are good and that the inverter ground wire is in good shape. Sometimes the headlight bulb sockets get damaged. You might look for signs of burning on the bulb and socket.

Don't forget to report back


Avi

 

I purchased replacement HID lights from Amazon and had the Toyota dealer install them ($175). They work every time and no glitches.

 

I just experienced the same problem this weekend. I replaced the right side bulb with a
Sylvania XtraVision® Headlight bulb and the next day it was out. I was careful to use a paper towel while handling the bulb.

Is this a common problem that many others are having? Does anyone recommend a better bulb? I've only lost one bulb so far, but I'd like to stop it there.

Thanks for any advice.

 

I just replaced my halogens on my 07 the other day with Phillips Super bright. There super bright but I don't expect them to last very long. Only the bulbs from the dealer last long.

Like Avi said: I drive with my headlights on all day and noticed the connector on each side that plug into the bulbs were burnt up.
Yours may be burnt too. Are they brown and slightly malformed? if so they will be intermittent and dim now and then and eventually go out. Dimming on the bulb will shorten its life also.
Its hard to tell as there's alot of grease on the connector so flush the connector with electronics cleaner to clean it and examine closely. Any malformation of the connector will result in a bad bulb to connector connection.