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Hi and Low Beam out at same time

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Technical Discussion' started by Tray Weeds, Feb 8, 2018.

  1. Tray Weeds

    Tray Weeds New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2018
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    Location:
    Wisconsin, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    I was driving home tonight in the dark on the highway and both hi and low beams went out at the same time. Yes lights are on when twisting the stalk back and forth. I checked fuses 19, 31 and 32, all look fine. Turned car off and on a few times, still no lights.

    I have a 2010 with about 150,000 miles on it. I've change the bulbs a number of times and should get that recall taken care of, but what are the chances 4 bulbs go out at the same time, next to nil.

    Any other ideas? Was very dangerous getting home, luckily I was less than 10 miles from home and could limp on side roads, but geezsh...
     
  2. Danny3xd

    Danny3xd Active Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Howdy Tray. Welcome. Some great and knowledgeable folks around.

    Man, that had 2b some scary stuff. My suggestion would be to get the recall thing done asap. I'm thinking some sort of short. But the fuses being ok is perplexing if that's the case.

    Perhaps something as simple as a disconnected wire in the harness? So tight in the 2'10, really hard to run down.

    But again, hello and welcome!
     
  3. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I've had headlight relays trip out on two very-long-ago cars. It was temporary, they would come back -- temporarily, until they tripped again.

    On the second, it happened just enough for me to realize that only the high beam tripped, so switching to the lower power low beam would halt the trip-out cycling.

    Checking voltage at the lamp sockets should help separate simple failed bulbs from a relay (or other) problem.
     
    Danny3xd likes this.
  4. Kurzweil

    Kurzweil Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Atlanta
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    There is separate fusing between high and low. Some cars have a fuse PER BULB. Consequently, a blown fuse will almost never put you in the dark. A defective dimmer switch can however, especially if it switches BETWEEN high and low (only one or the other is on at a time). I believe that on my car the low beams are on all of the time, indicating that only the high beams go through the switch. That may be true of all Gen III cars. The old single bulb systems switched between the two. The old sealed beam systems used a lower wattage filament in the low beam whenever the high was switched on (probably to provide the cool look of four beams running simultaneously).

    This problem requires an examination of the simple headlight wiring diagram. It will show the possible common failure points that could take out four bulbs simultaneously. I wonder if the taillights and instrument lights fail also? That would indicate that the problem is in the light switch or the power supply TO the light switch. It has to be something common to ALL of the lights that are failing.