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07 headlights, ~6 month life

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by theclarinetguy32, Apr 27, 2015.

  1. theclarinetguy32

    theclarinetguy32 Member

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    Alright so the scenario is with how often people have seen various headlights last with this Gen of Prius.

    MY 07 prius had the original factory bulbs in for nearly 5 years, no problem. One burnt out so I got a dual pack of Philips 9003 CrystalVision Ultra from amazon. Fairly high rated so I figured as an non-factory option it must be decent. Replaced both bulbs and thought I was set for a while.
    Wrong! give or take a bit from 6 months one burnt out. I thought maybe it was just the Philips unit so I tried for the Sylvania 9003 SU SilverStar Ultra bulbs. To make the story short, I've gone through both Philips, and now both Sylvania bulbs with roughly 6 months life on each.
    One caveat for the headlight usage is I keep them on for the role of DRL. I know the higher intensity bulbs have lower life spans but this seems rather drastic compared to the 5 years the original bulbs lasted.

    So this puts me to the point of trying to get an idea from folks on this board as to what headlamps have worked best, lasted longest, overall best performance. I have another set of Sylvania bulbs arriving tomorrow, but obviously the cost of a pack of these even from amazon isn't the cheapest.
    Any advice on this general scenario would be appreciated!

    Thanks
     
    #1 theclarinetguy32, Apr 27, 2015
  2. kammssss

    kammssss Member

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    You know, I had a similar experience. I have an 05. The original lasted about 5 years. The second set lasted about the same. The third set lasted less than 6 months. One of the bulbs blew out. It was Sylvania. Maybe a quality control issue? I just upgraded to LED. Love them. They produce almost no heat, so it should last a long time. You can find them on ebay. Lots of options. Make sure you get CREE if you decide to go this route. Was only $90.
     
    #2 kammssss, Apr 27, 2015
  3. theclarinetguy32

    theclarinetguy32 Member

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    Forgot to turn on notifications for this thread...
    Interesting you mention LED conversion as I had noticed a few listings on Amazon with decently high remarks. These were around that same price $90-100. You don't happen to remember if there was a certain brand or anything I could go off for matching? The amazon listing mentioned something about length of the bulb and whether it fits properly into the existing 9003 socket.
     
    #3 theclarinetguy32, Apr 28, 2015
  4. theclarinetguy32

    theclarinetguy32 Member

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    Also, what is the wattage rating of the units you bought? I can see a range from 20 to 80. The current Sylvania bulbs I just got in are listed as 60w, but I don't know if that is making a piece of collective wattage.
    All the led listings rate the light output far brighter than halogens but I don't know what is considered to high of a watt rating for this car. Don't need it to light up the neighborhood! The led pair I saw on eBay with a few thousand buyers is 30w each. Must be working good considering the high number of buyers.
     
    #4 theclarinetguy32, Apr 28, 2015
  5. kammssss

    kammssss Member

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    Yeah...I found the thread. I bought a H4 Led Kit by Gennsi. I love them. I can see much further. It is rated 30w, much less than OEM.
     
    #5 kammssss, May 9, 2015
  6. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    I was getting about 3 months out of halogen bulbs on my delivery route in my civic and then the prius and the higher output "ultra" bulbs from various manufacturers. I too had the lights on anytime the car was on. If you buy the yellow long life low output bulbs, they last a long time, like what comes with the car.

    I replaced the bulbs with a full D2S HID retrofit and now it has been 5 years on the same bulbs with no loss in output like HIDs should be.
     
    #6 2k1Toaster, May 9, 2015
  7. pverde9901

    pverde9901 Junior Member

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    I just had my first head light bulb go out on my 08. I bought a couple of bulbs thinking that I'd change them out... wrong. Taking it to the repair shop for a 2hr visit? Please tell me this is not right
     
    #7 pverde9901, May 18, 2015
  8. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    You can take your car to the dealership to refill windshield wiper fluid if you want. It is your car, time, and money.

    To change headlights, it is a 15minute job at most. A couple minutes if you know what you are doing. The only tools required would be your hands. If you want to do it more easily, then add a screwdriver and a socket bit for a drill.
     
    #8 2k1Toaster, May 18, 2015
  9. pverde9901

    pverde9901 Junior Member

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    Really? we took off the black plastic cover from the front but then it wasn't intuitive at all how to change the bulbs and the manual didn't tell me anything. The shop said the bumper would have to come off
     
    #9 pverde9901, May 18, 2015
  10. theclarinetguy32

    theclarinetguy32 Member

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    pverde do you have HID or regular lights in your car?
    For regular bulbs, once the black rubber type plastic cover is unscewed/rotated and is pulled away, the bulb is only held in by a wire clip. Yes it can be a bit frustrating doing it for the first time but not something is waste money at the dealer for.
     
    #10 theclarinetguy32, May 18, 2015
  11. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    What can be more intuitive then stick the bulb where the light shines from?

    I find it easiest to pull the bumper off and the headlight itself so that I can see exactly what I am doing. I have it down to a couple minutes total to do all of that. You just popup the black plastic covering under the engine, remove 2 screws in the wheel wells and then the whole bumper slides out and drops down. It is still connected on the bottom to other bits of plastic but you don't care. Then you can see the headlight has 3 bolts with phillips heads in it. Unscrew those and voila the whole headlight assembly is removed. With a power drill, this entire maneuver can be done in 2-3 minutes.

    Without pulling the headlight assembly out, you just feel around by the bulb and it unclasps for HIDs or unscrews for halogen. Voila. If you have small hands, it can be done really fast. My hands do not fit that description, but I can still do it. It is easier for me though to spend the extra few minutes ripping the front half of the car apart and then put it back together.
     
    #11 2k1Toaster, May 18, 2015
    Last edited: May 18, 2015
  12. theclarinetguy32

    theclarinetguy32 Member

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    100K maint - 3
    This link appears to cover the bumper removal but I guess my hands are just small enough I've been able to replace a halogen bulb on my 07 within 5 minutes and never had to touch the bumper. The link also shows what the back side of the headlight assembly looks like for reference
     
    #12 theclarinetguy32, May 18, 2015
  13. pverde9901

    pverde9901 Junior Member

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    Thank you for the helpful info, I'll check it again and see if I can figure it out.
     
    #13 pverde9901, May 18, 2015
    theshark likes this.
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