Extended Warranty issues "HID bulbs"

Whats the best way to challenge What the dealer says is covered through an extended platinum warranty bought through Priuschat?

I have seen many get warranty work done for their failing HID bulbs on their prius's which seems to be a real problem that should have a recall IMO.

I bought "two" prius's in Jan of 06 and both have about 58K on them and I got pulled over the other day for a failed right headlight.... it goes on and off when it likes... so far turning it off and then back on refires it.

But you can't reproduce it upon demand as it does it only when it wants.


Now my wife got pulled over yesterday too for the exact same problem?

Thats "two" different cars having the exact same problem and they won't cover it under warranty?

The dealer only says they have to be able to reproduce the problem and trace the cause and that bulbs are not covered under warranty.

Since an HID bulb is supposed to last 10 times longer than halogen.. I think its defective....especially since so many others are also having this problem.

But how do I challenge this?

Who do I call... Toyota directly?.... if so what division or number?

Its quite ridiculous to charge 330.00 per bulb and then labor on top of that for a product that should only cost 10.00 bucks if thats all the long its gonna last????

I would even be willing to buy a set off of ebay and install them myself, but I can't find a dealer that will tell me the exact type of bulb I have.. they don't see the "D2S or D2R 0r D4S or D4R" markings and none ever have them in stock to look.

Its quite frustrating dealing with dealers who don't want to deal unless you just drop it off and be at thier mercy to charge you what they want.....

Shouldn't this platinum warranty be good for this?

 

Humm.. I don't know.. but we get 300 days of sunshine a year here, and no salt on the roads.. and its happening to "both" of my prius's... I still think its defective parts.\


Did he change your ballasts and not your bulbs?

 

Based on my limited understanding of HID... I tend to disagree.
Ramping up to thousands of volts is just to vaporize the material inside so it turns to a plasma state, then the voltage drops way down to around 70 or so to maintain the state once its hot.

When you turn off your switch and then back on, you are merely turning off the 12V "low voltage" and then back on that supplies current to the ballast.

Whenever I've had a flashlight, walkie talkie, TV remote even a car battery terminal.....or whatever thats gone bad due to corrosion or an imperfect connection,... simply turning of the power and back on will do nothing until you "physically" bang the connection around or clean it....... this is why I don't think its the ballast.

I would think a ballast would get all the current it needed to maintain adequate "low voltage" if the connection is good enough to allow adequate amperage when the high voltage was ramped up.

On the other hand, the bulb "thats loosing its ability to stay fired up at the lower voltages" gets a fresh new blast of high voltage and thus more current when the switch is turned off and back on, which allows it to re-fire and shine again....... the reason I think its the bulb. a failing HID bulb will need the higher voltage for longer and longer before it can run at the lower.

Too many other people have found it to be merely the bulb as their problem too.

I also suspect that anytime a warranty is involved, the dealership adds as many parts as they can to avoid the need to troubleshoot which takes time and skill and also increases their profit margin on parts and labor, not to mention it rules out the likelihood the customer will need to return and be angry.

Unfortunately, because of this..... it ruins the incentive for Toyota to try and man-up to the bulb problem because they know it will cost them thousands for each occurrence when fixed by dealers to fix or recall both bulbs, instead of only hundreds if the problem was spelled out as "only the bulb with instructions to fix as so.
Those types of instructions from Toyota to the dealer would turn around and bite them for the few cases it really was the ballast.

I know some will call me suspicious, but I see it and the wisdom of being alive for as long as I have dealing with people and companies, I've discovered companies do whats best for them, unless doing what right will cost them less in the long run and they can see that.
Its usually all about the money, all the time anymore.

If the price of the goodwill towards the customer cost more than the payback it "may" bring, they won't do it.
Remember, we now live in a time where companies take what they can and can what they take.
look how the CEO's are taking advantage of those under them before they leave the company bankrupt from their ridiculous rape and pillaging? Remember when they used to take care of their employees and customers, with a faith that doing good always will pay back?
Now they realize, with more and more insecurities arising from dog eat dog, they too may not be around for the payback, so they take what they can right now.... anyway... enough of that as I drift off the subject.

Sometimes as long as they think the problem only exists with a minor few, they will try to keep it under hat and not institute a "recall" as to attract attention to inferior workmanship in any way.

People are emotional, and tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater once their emotional trigger gets flipped and they will dog the whole car instead of just one minor part.

I do like the suggestion about taking a picture..... that says a thousand words!.... thanks.....of course that could easily be rigged and won't hold too much water.... but a traffic ticket is harder to rig.....especially two of them on different days by different officers.

 

Thanks for the link dogfriend..... here too is a link at an unbeatable price to my knowledge.

30% off right now...... 69.00 for "two" bulbs!.... since I need 4 bulbs go fix both of my cars... thats quite a savings.

I talked with Stan... seems like a very nice guy and I learned a few interesting things.

06 was the first year HID was offered in HID for the prius "which I thought I knew",
but also the D4R bulb... "the one needed for the 06 Prius" is a bulb thats only for the prius and the lexus.....no other car supposedly uses it.
He also said that the ballasts are pretty good in the Prius and usually the bulb is the problem as they must be a bad lot or wasn't perfected yet.

Not only was it a major pain in the butt to find out exactly which bulb my car used "without taking mine out first", but it was also interesting to know its a new "type" of bulb....(being a D4R) so maybe it wasn't perfected at first... I don't know.

He said they last about 3 years.... at that price, I guess thats reasonable for me.

But at 300 - 400 a piece, its certainly not.

A sidenote*
For what its worth, I do prefer the 4300K...its the brightest of all the choices...... some will tell you the higher K's are brighter, but they trick the eyes as they are at a "frequency" normally associated with very powerful lights.... like arc welders or even lightening etc so that your eyes "think" they are brighter.... similar to an LED light that looks bright when looked at directly, but when you shine it out into the distance and are depending on the lumen's reflected back off of objects.. its not.

4300K is the closest frequency to sunlight, so it renders colors of objects at night more accurately.
I think the brains ability to interpret whats laying on the road or the side of the road is partially dependent upon accurate colors..... how crazy would it be if you put glasses on that made the world black and white or even rose colored glasses and tried to drive at night?

 

I can't remember the post... I think it was a guy named "aaron" or similar, but he did just that and the problem followed the bulb and replacing his bulbs fixed the problem.

 

I agree Tom, if the ballast was overheating, after restriking, it should soon repeat the problem.....
but usually the problem happens fairly soon after turning them on.... "within 10 minutes" and once restruck, they stay on till I get to my destination.

 

Well.... thank God for ebay and free enterprise..... what would cost me 330.00 a bulb X 2 plus labor will only cost me 69.00 total for two bulbs plus shipping.....
Sometimes you are better served to just do it yourself rather than fuss with stealers....... I mean dealers.

I'll be glad when the extreme overprices HID bulbs come down..... its quite sad when a 400.00 a bulb "genuine phillips you know" only last 1.5 years or 58K miles.

I know how much "genuine" phillips really cost....... and thats a joke!

When they think they are the only guys in town with the goods, they can't stand just an honest profit..... they can only live with rape and pillage all the way to the bank.

I guess its the American way....... the sweet with the bitter..... At least in America the greedy can be cast down with good competition.

One good thing about internet and world trade.

 

The bulb required for the 2006 is the D4R... I don't believe they were even available on earlier versions?

I bought an ebay D4R 4300K bulb (4 of them) and they are all working great.

BTW... funny that service bulletin didn't explain why the stock 06 bulbs flickered and wouldn't work?