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How to clean and/or make headlight brighter?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by darkgiant, Oct 13, 2017.

  1. darkgiant

    darkgiant Member

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    I was having a bit of trouble putting a proper title to this, but basically, my 2011 Prius had some condensation issues on the driver side headlight. I actually solved the problem by literally drilling drill holes on the bottom area of the headlight. The holes were in the area to not protrude nor damage the integrity of the headlight. Just recently, I have noticed that during night time the driver side headlight is less bright than the passenger side, I first took the actual assembly out, and got a piece of paper with soapy dishwater and cleaned the low-beam area thinking that would improve the headlight visibility at night, but it did not. I was now thinking of using something more aggressive such as Bar Keepers Friend mixed with some water (to have a paste-like solution) and use a toothbrush or something to clean the low beam area.

    My question though is, how common is this kind of issue? I know I can simply just get another headlight, but I really want to solve the issue because I cannot think of what exactly I did that caused the brightness to suddenly become so low. The light just doesn't go "north" as it should, it's mostly sideways and all over the place really, I would provide pictures/videos but I am having a hard time of having it reveal the current state of the brightness, and it has been pouring a ton so that doesn't help either.
     
  2. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    Sounds like the bulb isn't installed properly, it may be at an angle instead of straight in. Check it sooner than later, if it is mounted off angle, it can melt the plastic of the headlight housing.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  3. KennyGS

    KennyGS Senior Member

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  4. StarCaller

    StarCaller Senior Member

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    yep, your headlights will never be brighter than on the day you put them in/
     
  5. darkgiant

    darkgiant Member

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    That is what I thought too, but the bulb sits just fine, I have bought three different H11 bulbs and the problem is the same for all three. Fortunately, the driver side is having the issue, as I am 100% positive Toyota made it impossible to replace the passanger side headlight bulb unless you are a wizard.

    I should have mentioned this with the post, I actually did try three seperate H11 bulbs but the problem still persists with the driver side headlight.

    Similar to the above responses, I have tried few H11 bulbs and the problem still persists.