Intermittent Headlight / Headlamp

It shouldn't do that so there is some fault there.

Most likely the battery in the fob needs changing. A new battery should be ~ 3.2 to 3.3 volts. At around 2.9 volts the fob starts doing things as you mentioned.

You might need to shop around that sounds like a very over-inflated price for a new fob. A new fob on its own is around $140 to $185 (depending on SKS or not) and I can't imagine more than about $200 to program it. If you have a working fob there is no need to pay for a new one to be added.

I'm glad that overall you're liking your new (to you) Prius.

 

And you're how old getting your first Toyota do you where eyeglasses exceptionally short? Just curious The light reflecting issue generally shows up to somewhat short or folks as I have become as I got older but I remember this car 13 years ago when I hadn't start shrinking yet. And the reflection from the what I call heads up display made no difference when my spine started to get funny and I lost two inches of height now that bar graph display and whatnot on the heads up Shinrs right and reflects in my field of vision. The answer for me is simply been to set my dimmer properly I'm very light sensitive to begin with so not having bright lights on inside of the car is very key for me to drive at night and it always has been many times I drive my regular Corolla with the dash turned down solo most people can't see it I can see it fine and it's not reflecting in my windshield at all. The keys and fobs have pretty much been addressed they can be dealt with unless you're the type that loses remotes and sends them through the wash You should be pretty good I live out in the country not in the city limits there's zero crime where I live in my yard all my Prius which there are four sit in the yard with the fobs or remotes in a drink holder or in the door panel cubby I rarely take them out of the car except when I am going to town and going to have to park the car somewhere where I can't physically see it as in go around the corner to get something from the store on spring Street when I'm parked on main Street. You're driving one of the lowest maintenance cars ever made on the planet with a nice engine. Point blank enjoy

 

Regarding the window reflection...

There is a dimmer wheel on the dashboard to the left of the steering wheel. Yours may be turned all the way up, past the "click" which makes it full bright all the time. If that is the case the dash will not dim when you turn the headlights on. In CA there is a rule that the car's headlights must be on whenever the wipers are going, so when it rains during the day the opposite problem appears - the display is too dim to read on rainy days. Scroll up to fix that, forget about it, and the next time one drives at night the reflection you describe is observed.

 

Turn down the brightness on the cluster illumination. I find that reduces the reflected glow on the windshield (like pasadena said).

Remember, much of the technology was brand new in 2004, so there's some teething problems with implementation. Many things were improved for newer cars and made better and cheaper because of it.

If anything on the steering wheel controls is inoperative, then I might suspect that the clockspring cable is bad.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

If the dimmer doesn't fix the problem, and all driver's are roughly the same height, the "shade" over that display could be extended with something like a piece of flat black cardboard to block the reflection.