Continued HID bulb problems

So on Friday Dublin Toyota replaced my driver's side HID bulb for the second time in 1 year and 1 week. This morning I opened my hood and found a bolt sitting in the wiper tray under the hood which was not there before. I called my service advisor, Kasey Wills and she asked me to bring it in and she would put someone on it immediately to correct the problem. Kasey was polite and professional and I was satisfied.

I took the car in and after five minutes she came to tell me the technician who worked on the car told her the bolt which I found in my wiper tray, under my hood, actually came off another car he was working on at the same time and he had set the bolt from that car in my wiper tray and then could not find it for the other car. Now I have to admit I was suspicious of this explanation but Kasey said she trusted this particular technician 100%.

As I was driving home I got to thinking about that and began to worry about the quality of the job. I pulled into my garage and turned on my HID headlights and noticed that the headlights were different colors now. My original passenger side bulb has a slight blue tint to it and the driver's side now has a yellow/white color to it. I was not happy.

I called Kasey and she agreed both bulbs should be the same color and said she would get back to me.....That was at about 3:00 PM. I am patiently awaiting the resolution.

I have to say, with the exception of Kasey, I have been totally disappointed with Dublin Toyota.

 

No; the one bulb went out not the igniters for the HID's. Why replace both bulbs when Toyota charges about $300 per factory bulb? The technician apparently installed the incorrect bulb and they will have to make it right. I have owned over 50 cars of all types, Ferrari to Chevrolet. I have had HID lights in all of my cars for the past ten years and have never had to replace bulbs in pairs to make sure they were the same color when they were factory bulbs. I am not talking about buying those inexpensive HID bulbs on eBay.

 

Just when you think the problem is solved.... On Thursday Dublin Toyota looked at my car and agreed the headlights, when on, were absolutely different colors and asked to keep the car to research the problem and solve it. I left the car and they gave me a loaner Prius -nice.

On Friday Dublin Toyota called and told me that Toyota had done an update to their HID bulbs, they are actually different bulbs now, which are a different color. Dublin Toyota said Toyota authorized them to replace the other bulb at the same time so both would match under "good will". I said, "Great; Thank you. I will pick the car up later today".

I go to pick the car up and turn the lights on and they are now both the same color and I go home- it is still daylight out.

I get out to look at my car and realize they have installed used, completely different headlight assemblies out of an '06 or later model car into my '05. The difference being the fake LED strip and slightly different chrome reflector design. I am shocked. They are not my headlights and they are covered with bugs, nicks and scratches from use.

I then turn them on in my garage and they appear to not be HID units either as they do not do the warm-up color change and they make a high pitched squeal when turned on.

I called Dublin Toyota, tell them someone got my HID headlights, with clearbra film to protect the lights from rock chips, and I got their headlights which are nicked and scratched and apparently non HID. Dublin Toyota checks with their technician who worked on my car and he absolutely denies the headlights came out of my car and said all he did was replace bulbs. And they apparently do not realize the headlight design changed in '06 at the same time the taillight design changed. Because they are denying what I am telling them.

I called Toyota customer relations and have not heard back from them yet. I have yet to take my car back to Dublin Toyota as I want Toyota Customer Relations involved first.

What the hell is going on at Dublin Toyota?

 

I took the car to Totoyta 101 in Redwood City for an independent inspection to verify the headlights in the car. No surprise, they are 2006 or later headlights. They took photos and sent them on to Toyota Customer Relations.

Toyota Customer Relations gets a gold star from me. They have been all over this problem from the very beginning. I could not be more impressed with the attitude. I am looking forward to hopefully fully resolving this matter by the end of the day.

 

Ken-
Thanks for the thoughts. I have been told by Toyota Customer Relations that they are processing a check to reimburse me for my initial HID bulb failure in July of '08 as well as the labor I was asked to pay by Dublin Toyota this time around. Dublin Toyota did "good will" replace the actual HID bulb, which was nice of them, but still charged me the labor for the install, $165.00.

If I have my wishes, I would want Toyota to replace the headlights with two new headlight units and bulbs. I would ask them to install the newer 2006 headlights because I like the added additional side marker on that headlight and the faux LED strip which kind of jazzes it up a little. That will be up to Toyota though. I would also ask them to have the clear-bra installed on whatever headlights I end up with as I do not want to lose a headlight due to freeway/rock damage.

I will keep this posting current and add the final outcome for this forum's review.

 

Good to know.

This matter took a hard right turn yesterday afternoon when Toyota Customer Relations kind of backed away from helping me by saying this was really more of a dealer service issue and not a manufacturing issue.

They have asked me to take my car back to Dublin Toyota to have them correct the problem. I actually had to ask Customer Relations to speak with the service manager at Dublin Toyota to discuss what the correction would be. I reluctantly agreed to return to Dublin Toyota and called their service manager, Larry Atkins (sp?) and asked he call me.

When Larry called he said he was fully aware of my problem, had also spoken with Toyota 101 service manager Randall and though they had bent over backwards to accommodate me with the warranty of the actual HID bulb, they wanted to make it right. I asked what exactly they were going to do to correct this and he told me....

We will replace one headlight and bulb. There is no way that anyone here took your headlights out of your car and swapped them for different units. That makes no sense; there is no reason for anyone to do that. Regardless, we will replace one of your lights with a new light and bulb. I said I am sorry, but both of my headlights were swapped to the '06 lights. He said no they weren't. I (Larry) spoke with Randall at Toyota 101 who personally inspected your car and said only one headlight was the '06 headlight so that is what we are replacing. I am not going to argue about this, that is what we will do.

Now at this point I was mad. Rather than get into it with him I said OK, thank you; I will get back to you.

I will take my car in to Dublin Toyota this morning for them to actually see my car and realize both headlights have been changed and see what they say then.

I have to say that Toyota Customer Relations was hitting the ball out of the park until yesterday when they kind of backed away and said it was a matter between the dealership and I. What the heck is that all about?

 

OK, I went in to Dublin Toyota and met their service Manager. Seemed like a busy, nice guy. Looked at my car and acknowledged that the headlights were the same. But did not have time to go look at and 04/05 to see the difference. He said he would take my word they were different.

He said they would take care of it, whatever it would take to make me happy. He said they would order the parts and put me in a loaner, etc. Then he again said there was just no way in the world that anyone removed my headlights and swapped them out with another car. I pointed out that my concern was these were used headlights and they now made a high pitched squeal when turned on. He said well, if they are not good enough for you, we will order new ones for your car.

I just felt like I was being talked down to and it was like I was trying to pull a fast one or something. Regardless, I will take my car back to them on Monday and they will order the parts and I should end up with two new headlights, new balasts and bulbs. At this point I am just so tired of dealing with this that I want it over.

I look forward to speaking with Toyota Customer Relations on Thursday to see what they have to say. I still will have to address the clear-bra which is on my car and now won't be on my headlights, as it was before.

 

OK, this is a bit wierd but here it goes to finish my above comments re my headlight problem:

same HID bulb went out 1 year and one week later.

Dublin Toyota, after a bit of arguing, agreed to warranty the actual bulb and just charge me $165 labor to install - and no they would not just give me the bulb to install.

I took it in to Dublin Toyota and paid the $165 and ended up with two different color headlights when illuminated- one blue tint and one yellow tint

After much argument, Dublin Toyota agreed to replace the other bulb so they both matched, saying Toyota had updated the bulb for the '05, resulting in a different color.

I get the car back and the color is correct but now my car has two used, scratched, chipped, 2006 or newer headlights installed with no clear bra, and a high pitch squeal when turned on like a ballast going bad. My car is an '05 and the headlight design changed slightly in '06.

I point this out to Dublin Toyota and they tell me I am nuts and no one removed the headlights from my car and I do not know what I am talking about. They merely replaced the bulbs from the back side of the headlight (impossible by the way)

Car goes to another Toyota dealer and they confirm different year headlights and squeal and also suspect ballast going bad.

Several more arguments with Dublin Toyota and they finally agree and replace both my headlights, bulbs and ballasts with all new 2005 parts on their dime.

Took 6 trips total to resolve. I ended up complaining to the Bureau of Automotive Repair, Toyota Customer Relations, and letters to the owner of Dublin Toyota and their GM. Needless to say, I will never take my car back to Dublin Toyota. I was quite disappointed with the way this was handled by Dublin Toyota.