How can I tell if I've got HID lights? 2004 Gen2.

US models with fog lights have HIDs. A dealer should be able to tell you how the car is equipped with the VIN.

 

This highlights (pun not intended) a pet peeve of mine that should be easy to fix now... Why can't car companies give me a manual for MY car, instead of a manual for 3 different models sold with 27 different option packages etc? I'm paying enough, print me up a proper manual. I can get a model specific manual for a $12 toaster but not a car! All they would have to do is type the vin into a computer program that would create the manual for your car... print it out and burn a cdrom of it. This bugs me every time I crack open my manual and have to find the page that refers, for example, to the sound system in my car not the other possibilities.

</ rant mode>

 

Be very glad if you don't have em, as it costs an arm & a leg to get them changed out ... no simple task, as a DIY - for the faint of heart.

 

Project your lights at night, against your garage door or other flat object. First look at the low beam pattern.

Then put on the high beams. If you have HID lights, the bottom of the low beam pattern will remain unchanged and the top of the pattern will jump up. This is because the HID only has one light within. A mirror moves up and down to create the high beam.

Another way to tell is that the light produced by the HID light is whiter and brighter than regular halogen headlamps.

A final way to tell is that there's a warning label near each headlamp assembly, visible when you raise the hood. The label warns about high voltage danger.

 

Yep to all of these. Halogen headlights are generally a lot more orangish than HIDs. There's a big difference between HIDs and halogens.

 

I believe that the Gen II Prius in Australia has never had HID lights as either standard or optional equipment (but has always had fog lights as standard equipment).

 

Yes, they're available on the 2010 Prius. I hear Audi has equipped some cars w/them too.

 

This means that since my left light comes on with the high beam but is burnt out on the low beam, I definitely don't have the HID. But since on my wife's prius she has fog lamps, she therefore does have the HID. Thanks for the level of detail in your post.

 

I had a set of Plasmaglow Igniters for H4 bulbs that I used in both my T100 pickup and later my Gen 2 prius. I would avoid them like the plague! $160 a set and I had to RMA them 3 times at $10-$20 a pop for shipping/return. They were crystal clear bright white light, but LEDs just don't handle engine compartment heat well and each set would start to flicker around 6 months or so of use. They claimed that they would last 10,000 hours and they would be the last bulb I would ever buy but I would be surprised if they clocked even 1,000 hours. Autoparts warehouse finally gave me store credit instead of replacement and I switched back to stock halogens bulbs and picked up a hitch.

 

The LED's give less light than the HID's usually.
Can't beat a good HID system for light output.