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HID Diagnostic Help Needed

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by miscrms, Feb 8, 2012.

  1. miscrms

    miscrms Plug Envious Member

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    Hi all,

    I could use some help debugging my wife's HIDs on her '08. Got pulled over last week for a drivers headlight out. Assumed a bad bulb as that seems the most common culprit. Ordered the Philips D4R from amazon for $50 and swapped it out via the youtube "10 min" method. All seemed to go well, but after reassembling (and dissembling again and re-reassembling) it still won't fire.

    I guess its possible the new bulb is bad, but I'm wondering what else I should check. Are there voltage points I can check for instance to see that the fuses, relays, ballast etc are functioning correctly? I'll probably try pulling the passenger side bulb and swapping it into the drivers side but I'm hoping there are some easy things to check first before I risk leaving her with no headlights :)

    Only other thing I have noticed is the same drivers side headlight has had some significant condensation inside at times, though its currently dry. We hadn't noticed it going on and off or working intermittently as some others seem to have.

    Thanks,
    Rob
     
    #1 miscrms, Feb 8, 2012
  2. drew935

    drew935 Member

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    I would check the ballast and wiring before buying bulbs. If you want, swap the bulbs to the drivers side and see if they fire up. Typically the ballast will die first before the HID bulbs and will kill them as well. How does the bulb look like? Should be pretty clear.
     
    #2 drew935, Feb 9, 2012
  3. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    Try the bulb swap both ways. Put the old bulb in the passenger side, and the passenger side bulb in the driver side. That should be definitive of bulb vs. ballast/etc.
     
    #3 seilerts, Feb 9, 2012
  4. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    I think many folks here w/06-09 Priuses w/HIDs would disagree with you on that, including me.
     
    #4 cwerdna, Feb 11, 2012
  5. drew935

    drew935 Member

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    /\/\ Like I said, typically and I know that it may not be on all cars. ;)
     
    #5 drew935, Feb 11, 2012
  6. dhancock

    dhancock 2 Prius Family

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    If you are a regular reader, you would realize that the ballasts are RARELY the problem.
     
    #6 dhancock, Feb 12, 2012
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