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2005 Prius Passenger Side Headlight ballast

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by faludob, Dec 29, 2019.

  1. faludob

    faludob New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2019
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    Location:
    USA
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    I bought my 2005 Prius in September from a buy here/pay here. It runs great and only has a little over 100, 000 miles. Catch is, after I already had the car for around a month the passenger side headlight went out.

    Occasionally it will come back on/flicker on and off but more often than not it's just dead. Sometimes if I mess around with flicking the lights on and off it'll come on but not always. It's working less frequently. Usually it'll flick on for half a second when I turn them on and right off. The driver's side headlight works perfectly.

    The mechanic at the buy here / pay here bought some bulbs on Amazon but it didn't fix it. He said he thought it was the ballast and he'd fix it for me but he's kind of gone silent on it and it's been months (he's not the one I pay the bill to).

    I noticed the driver's side headlight looks much newer and is designed different (they don't match...the passenger side is not only "cloudier", probably from age but designed slightly different. I'll include a picture but it may be hard to tell). I'm not sure if this is part of the problem.

    AutoZone etc don't know what to sell me but to be honest I don't have the mechanical knowledge to fix it. My dad tried to help but he doesn't know anything about a prius. Local mechanics seem intimated by the hybrid aspect of the car. I went to the Toyota dealership today and they want $139 just to diagnose the problem. That's not including labor/ordering the parts to fix it. I'm a bit puzzled here. I love this car to pieces until I have to drive it at night! I already have a decent amount of money in this car and still owe a good chunk more on it so any advice would be appreciated!
     

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  2. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 14, 2012
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    Location:
    Wellington, New Zealand
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    I can't really tell how it is designed differently.

    Get a bottle of Turtle Wax headlight restorer polish and it will bring that passenger side lens back to new. After the initial effort, you will need to polish the headlight lenses with the headlight restorer product every one to two months to keep them looking shiny and bright. Just like you need to polish your car every 4 – 6 months to keep it looking great.

    Chase up the guy to replace the ballast with an OEM new one, then when that has been done, replace the bulb with a new genuine Philips HID lamp (Check whether your car takes the D2R or D4S fitting).
     
    #2 dolj, Dec 29, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2019
  3. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2008
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    Location:
    Green Valley, AZ
    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    2004 - 2005 models have a slightly simpler headlight appearance vs. later 2G models which have a more intricate cosmetic detail. Probably a headlight was damaged and replaced, hence the difference in cosmetic appearance.

    Since you have replaced the HID bulb, the next step is to replace the ballast which produces the high voltage powering the bulb.