Prius Gen II HID headlight Question

if you never changed HID on prius before>you have to remove the bumper
if you are experienced, you need 2 minutes + without removing the bumper

 

SFV41901 I pm'd you (or posted to your profile, or whatever) but never heard back... any other good samaritans in/near LA who might be able to help me change the driver's side headlight?

 

I never get notices about messages left on my profile page. Sorry.

I work in commerce M-F. I take the 5 from commerce all the way to the 14 freeway. I can meet up with u that's not to far off my route.

 

Meet up with metrolens after work today & got his bulb changed in 5 mins without removing his bumper.

 

Thank you so much Sean! Even though the headlight cover was on ridiculously tight, he made it look easy.

You rock. As does this forum!

 

Anytime.......glad we could make it happen & get u legal again.

 

Wouldn't you know it. Now my passenger side headlight is dying. It turned a deep shade of pink, and has started to turn itself off periodically. Which confirms the advice to change your headlights at the same time.

I just ordered a second bulb, waiting for it to arrive now. Sean told me the passenger side headlight bulb is actually easier to replace, because you're able to remove things like the wiper fluid reservoir. I'm willing to attempt to do it myself - however does anyone know if I'll need special automotive tools, beyond normal screwdrivers and so forth?

 

I received the new bulb, and had it changed in around 15 minutes. Again, the headlight cover was very hard to twist off, but having seen the amount of force Sean needed to get the driver's side to come off, I applied similar strength and it came off.

One thing that wasn't clear in any instructions I've found online, is that to remove both of these headlight covers, you must twist them both COUNTERCLOCKWISE from the perspective of sitting in the car. Not from the perspective of standing over the hood - in which case you'd be twisting them CLOCKWISE.

The rest was actually quite easy and took 5 minutes. In all, I had to remove two plastic screws, the weird black plastic piece blocking the headlight cover, and unplugged the two cables connected to the wiper fluid reservoir. Everything reassembled without a hitch. And, to answer my own earlier question, the only tools needed were a flathead screwdriver, a phillips head, and rubber gloves.

Thanks again to everyone here for the help and advice!

 

Haha.....just seeming this. So it was about 1 wk since we changed ur driver side headlight for the passenger light to start failing.

Glad u were able to get it changed by urself.

 

Well, a bad development.

My driver's side light has started to fail to ignite. It doesn't fail every time, and seems to stay on once lit, but I'm quite dismayed to see a headlight problem returning.

I replaced both bulbs only 11 months ago (thanks again to Sean for helping with the first one). $50 a pop. The bulbs I bought were Philips from Amazon, the correct bulbs, from the vetted link above in this thread.

Interestingly, I've found that if I turn the headlight switch very slowly to the on position, the light seems to ignite more reliably. Is this indicative of anything?

What should I do?

There is obviously a huge defect with the HID systems in Prii (perhaps all Gen II?). A lot of people online have had the same problems. So, in addition to advice on what I should do, two larger questions:
1. Is there any way to swap to Halogen lights? (If it comes to paying a ton of money to have new ballasts installed, I'd much rather spend money to change to Halogens.)
2. Class action suit underway? This is unacceptable.

 

This is something that I experienced with my Gen3 with the JDM Prius G HID headlights....sometimes they wouldn't stay lit after turning them on. I came to realize that the ballasts weren't getting the full required amount to current from the OEM harness. I decided to install a HID relay harness & this has solved the problem.

Since the lights sometimes don't ignite for u, maybe this is what will be needed to solve ur issue.

 

Double post

 

Triple post........sorry I seem to be a post whore right now

 

Thanks again Sean (x3)!

Is this a good kit that has everything I'd need:
DDM Tuning 35W and 55W HID Kits

I'm a newb at mods like this, and couldn't find instructions anywhere online or on the DDM website (which has a lot of broken links) to clue me into what installation would involve.

I don't want to "pimp my ride," so much as to simply have good, reliable, and affordable headlights! So I'd probably just want the 35w version, which I imagine would be less demanding on the electrical systems and so forth.

Any advice on all this?

 

To piggyback on my last post, Sean, do you mean that this is all I might need - a new HID harness?
HID Kits, BMW Aftermarket Bumpers & Lighting, DEPO - DDM Tuning

How hard is that to install? Thanks again!

 

An HID wiring harness is very easy to install. You just need to find an always hot 12V power source in your fuse box and a good ground connection. Then your stock light connector serves as the signal wire to switch the relay to send power to your ballasts.

SCH-I535

 

To add a relay harness isn't really all that hard but will require the removal of the bumper & headlights to do it correctly.

The relay is not going to be something u want that's cheap......u want it to last & do what it's suppose to do without the worry of it failing. I would strongly recommend this relay:

Low Beam: H8/H9/H11 - Relay Harnesses from The Retrofit Source Inc

I've used them & have never had 1 fail........yes, it's $25 more than the 1 posted but again, u get what u pay for.

If anybody is interested in this just pm me & we can set up a time.

Just to be clear, this worked on my gen3 using the Prius G OEM HID headlight which uses the same Denso D4 ballast that's used in the 06-09 Prii. I'm not aware of any other gen2 Prii to try this relay mod so I cant say for 100% that this will solve the issue but seems like a logical approach than continually replacing ballasts & bulbs.

 

Thanks for the info xliderider and Sean.

I have an '05 Gen II... using the D2R lights. So that's not ideal; it's an unknown.

Would installing a new harness like this have any effect on how much power is routed to the lights? Does it affect the battery efficiency or the health of the electrical system?

 

It's better for the electrical system because you draw power directly from the fuse box instead of through the headlight circuit. The harness includes a relay for the power switching.

It's more important when fitting an HID kit into a halogen based lighting system because it isn't designed for the high current draw when igniting the bulbs at startup. A properly designed HID system will accommodate the current draw from the ballasts when igniting the bulbs.

SCH-I535