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New headlights with or without motor?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by R-P, Feb 7, 2024.

  1. R-P

    R-P Active Member

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    I did search and undoubtedly it is covered somewhere, but I couldn't find it...

    I have regular H4 headlights that have been a problem with each yearly inspection for years now. At first they'd just polish them a little so it would pass and last year I did that myself before the inspection, but maybe just replacing them is a better, longer lasting solution.

    Looking around I find headlights from under 100$ to 300$ a piece. If it is anything like my Volvo parts, they are all the same (sometimes I get off-brand parts for 20% of the Volvo price with the word Volvo milled of off the aluminium, but still readable...)

    But one thing that does seem to differ is that some come with an "electrical motor" and some without (or not mentioned).

    I'm assuming if they lack the motor, there will be mountingpoints to reuse the old motor? I have the heightregulation button/wheel next to the steerringwheel which I assume is the goal of the "electrical motor".
     
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    I'm thinking in the Netherlands you're talking about a generation 3 car 2010 up but in your country it may have come out in 2009 It's the newer version the generation 3 well it was now it's old. Is this possibly correct electric motors would mean you have HID or xenon lights with a ballast on the bottom of the headlamp assembly and electric motors to adjust the beams up and down automatically via a sensor in the back of the car.
     
  3. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    The adjustment wheel was fitted to Gen 2 with standard halogen lights in Europe. The purpose was to be able to adjust the headlight beams downward manually from inside the cabin to compensate for loads in the back that pointed the front of the car up. It was pretty cool to be able to do that on the fly.

    The advent of HID and LED led to the mandatory automatic system.
     
  4. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    You could buy such systems here and mount to other cars or seemingly kind of pointless if you're going to be telling a load like that you can just lower the headlight beams three turns or whatever Europe is always ahead of the game on headlights and bulbs and things like that because you can't change any of that in Europe when you're on the TUV standard You just can't go out and buy bulbs and slap them in your car they have to meet the standards for the position on the car and all of that You will be fine in your car can be taken off the road All this running around with blue lights and that mess Good luck at least that's how it was when I was living there You weren't playing around with your car like the kids do here.
     
  5. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Me thanks you'll have to buy original housings that had this feature from the country where you are that has the feature I don't think you could take the generation to HID lights and stick them in that setup but maybe it's possible and then you could I guess why are them to a switch or there's a switch in the car already and what do you do just hold the switch and stop the lights when they get where you want seems like that would be room for some kind of abuse people would always have their lights aimed up as high as possible so there must be some kind of cut off or it goes by how high the back end of the car is or how low the back end of the car is what have you? I would have to go look all that up certainly doesn't seem something to be doing so you'd probably have to buy the housing and you're given market I don't think you could buy a Depot headlight housing and slap the motor on it per se but without looking I certainly wouldn't know I would think that would be market and area driven
     
  6. R-P

    R-P Active Member

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    Not sure you'll be able to see this link, but this is what I am looking at: just the glass* from/for a Gen 2.

    The headlight adjustment came handy when driving around like this... ;)

    [​IMG][​IMG]
    * If it actually WAS glass, I wouldn't hve the problems I am facing now. My other car is a 2004 Volvo with glass lenses and there's not a scratch on them.
     
  7. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Yes no glass for a Gen 2 I can probably get you a clear piece of plastic off of another headlight You tell me which side and to where in the Netherlands I don't think you can buy just the headlight plastic but I can heat it in the oven and get it off gently.
     
  8. R-P

    R-P Active Member

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    Both sides are equally bad. I'll try to polish them before my MOT* test next week. If it fails because of the lights, I'll just order two of them (180€). Prii are pretty rare in my local junkyard and they'll probably still charge 50-100€ for a pair so might as well go new.


    Thanks for the offer of shipping them! But that'll be quite costly too. Once ordered some used motorcycle parts from the US (including a headlight (WITH GLASS!!!)) and iirc that was over 100$ just for shipping... (But couldn't get the headlight used here and it was like 700$ new).


    * I just use the British word (acronym?) MOT as that is much more internationally understood than the Dutch acronym APK, Algemene Periodieke Keuring (General Periodic Test)