Dim headlights?

Are the headlight covers polished and shiny or foggy? If they're foggy, you can buy a kit to polish them and then paint them with clear laquer. If they aren't foggy, have you mentioned this issue to your eye doctor?

 

If you replaced the lens's and they are still dim, perhaps you have a bad ground and/or wiring.
Clean the lens's with windex or other cleaner, and dry them well.
Then you can get some Mother's aluminum polish, and a buffing wheel for a drill or other electric device.
Put some on the pad and start buffing. You don't have to press hard. Then use a micrfiber cloth to clean it off.
If that doesn't work, you can clean them with baking soda and water, then use the mothers polish.

DO NOT USE LAQUER! It will start cracking and look crapy and be hard to get off.

 

Definitely not normal to be dim. After another long interstate drive, I was noticing the number of people who flashed me (no not that, their bright lights!) even though I had low beams on. So lows must be pretty good normally.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure it's actual lacquer... But all the best headlight kits come with clear coat paint. Polishing out the lens clean doesn't last more than a few months or so before it fades again. That's where I'm at. Gonna eventually figure out what the clear coat paint they use is so I can make that polishing effort last longer.

 

2.5 months ago I did mine. They still look new. And my Prius sits in the sun.
You can also try this: Meguiar's G17804 Keep Clear Headlight Coating, 1 Pack , 1 | eBay

or this:

Plexus Plastic Cleaner Protectant Polish - 7oz. 7 oz 20207 53-1101 27-4837 7 oz | eBay

Both are supposed to work very well.

I will be using the Meguiar's next time I polish mine. Walfart has it.
I want to see how long just the polishing lasts. It took 5 minutes or less for each lens.

I guess that would depend on how bad they are. Mine were fairly bad.
If I have to do it every 6 months, I'm happy with that!

 

I noticed my passenger headlight is real dim the lens is clear but the bulb is dim dealer says oh well tried LCD after market still no better i notice a lot of Prius’s are like that

 

Check the ground connection. Also, check the voltage at the bulb.

 

were they custom made? I can’t find any lcd headlights for mine.

 

I think poster may mean LED?

 

Replace the halogens with HIDs.
You can buy on Ebay for less than $30 and the install just takes about 30 mins
They last for years

There was a recall on the lighting harness for 2011. Check into that. You may need to replace the harness