anyone still have their broken HID level sensor??

The HID headlamp level sensor is made up of 3 parts: the main black unit which includes the part that corrodes in northern climates and a small black 'arm' and a small grey 'arm' (not sure what the technical term is)

I ran over something and snapped the small black 'arm', its not popping up any warning lights or triangles but i'm sure my headlights are pointed as down as far as possible as it assumes i have nothing in my trunk, i can't see very far at night and I have to use hi beams in situations where I don't have to in my other Prius.

So if you had your whole unit replaced and never threw it away I'd like to buy the 2 small 'arms' from someone who no longer has a use for them. cnschult at hotmail dot com, thanks guys.

 

I appreciate your thought Tony, but I've made my sensor problem is even worse now

just for fun I opened up the sensor and found only 1 spring reusable, i cleaned everything out to give good electrical connections, I cut a click pen spring in half to put in the other 2 'wells'. The first problem is that the rotating black pastic thing inside the sensor broke off so I'm not sure rotating the 'stub' will work. This was confirmed when I reattached my newly refurbished sensor (no arms attached). My triangle warning light of course stopped coming on but rotating the stub in either direction did nothing to raise or lower the headlights. I had plywood in front of my car and carefully marked the upper and lower threshold of the brightest part of the light and it never moved.

the second problem is the nut that attaches my broken thin black arm to the sensor itself is rusted on, WD-40 didn't help because there is not enough of the bolt sticking out to get a good grip with my locking pliers.

In fact spinning this seized nut/bolt all the way around to try and remove it is most likely what broke the rotating plastic thing inside the sensor itself. This is because they are one unit and the bolt is designed to spin slightly in either direction to indicate trunk load to raise and lower the lights but it cannot be turned very much at all before hitting the plastic wells that houses the 3 springs. Since 2 objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time something has got to give, and it's always going to be that rotating black plastic thing.

There are some great pdf instructions on refurbishing a corroded headlight level sensor here on priuschat but they should include a stern warning not to rotate that nut so as to not damage the rotating black plastic thing inside the sensor.

anyways, so with 2 parts of my unit physically broken I don't think my unit can be saved, so I'll be looking for a replacement. If someone had a structurally sound unit replaced due to corrosion cause you didn't feel like refurbishing it and kept the old unit, go ahead and shoot me an email and I'll buy it off you: cnschult at hotmail dot com thanks