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Prius car side headlight connectors missing

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by Andy64, Sep 9, 2016.

  1. Andy64

    Andy64 New Member

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    Hello, need some help. I bought used 2013 Prius and found that the passenger side headlight and daytime turn light wires are all cut on the car side. So can anyone help me in how to connect the car wires with headlightconnectors? Just to be the clear the connectors on car side are totally missing.

    Thanks
     
  2. Montgomery

    Montgomery Senior Member

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    Photo would help us out. But I would take it back to where you bought it asap. That way, they can't say you did it.
     
  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    As Montgomery suggests, you could get the seller to fix it, or otherwise (if either the seller's unwilling to do it for you, or you'd just trust your own workmanship more than the seller's), you can do it yourself.

    The by-the-book way would be: each connector that's missing consists of a plastic housing and a couple of metal terminals crimped to wires and clicked into the housings. There are part numbers for the housings, and part numbers for the terminals that go into them. When bought from Toyota, the terminals already have short lengths of wire attached, so the way you attach them to your existing cut wiring is with a crimp sleeve, which you then cover with heat-shrink tubing and shrink it down. (To avoid the classic newb mistake, be sure to slide the piece of heat-shrink tube onto one of the cut wire ends before you crimp them together!)

    There are several things you'd need to know to tackle the job: the part numbers of the housings and the terminals, and the color-codes of your existing cut-off wires, so you know which ones to attach which terminals to. (It usually won't match the color that comes crimped to the new terminals; that'll just be whatever color they had lying around.) Also, the proper crimp techniques to use, and how the housings work (there are usually two different provisions that both lock the terminals into place). All of that info is in the online Electrical Wiring Diagram for your car at techinfo.toyota.com (you get at least two days access for $15, possibly more if you time the weekend right). There are intro sections that give you the background info on how the housings work and the repair techniques; there's a System Circuits section where you will see the headlight and parking light wiring in schematic, and you can click on the connectors you need. With those connectors highlighted, there's an orange "info" icon down in the lower right corner, that takes you to the pictures and part numbers of the housings. Above each housing picture there's a link "[+] Wire Harness Repair" which, when clicked, expands to show you the pictures, part numbers, and specs of the terminals that go in the housing.

    Hint: on the System Circuits page, you can highlight more than one connector, say, all the ones you need, and click the Info icon once, so you get one page showing all the connectors you need, and you can expand all the "[+] Wire Harness Repair" links and then use the Print link, poof, it's your shopping list.

    In your case, for the headlight connectors anyway, as they're fairly standard, you can probably find them for less money at a generic auto parts store, already assembled with wires sticking out, and then you only need to complete the repair by looking up the color codes and crimping them to the correct wires.

    Either way, be careful as at least one of the headlight wires each side may be made of aluminum instead of copper (Toyota usually uses a lavender color on the insulation when they do that). Crimping copper to aluminum can be a fire hazard if not done just right, and Toyota has separate crimp barrels (with their own part numbers) and fussy instructions for doing that. It also takes a special crimp tool. You might not feel like spending the money on the tool if you don't see yourself having much future use for it, and in that case you might choose to just have a dealer or your friendly independent auto electric shop do the repair.

    If you use the friendly independent shop, make sure they know about the aluminum wire issue, too.

    -Chap
     
  4. Andy64

    Andy64 New Member

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    Please see attached pictures, this is on right hand side.
     

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  5. BZzap!

    BZzap! Senior Member

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    Looks like the vehicle has been in a wreck. Did you buy it as-is? Something tells me we're not getting the whole story here. I could be wrong but ...
     
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  6. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    A picture is worth a thousand words:).

    Looks like something did clip the front. Any other damage to the car, or is this the tip of the iceberg and we will get the details eventually?
     
  7. Andy64

    Andy64 New Member

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    Yes, I bought a damaged passenger side vehicle and am trying to fix theses things: missing car side headlight and daytime running light connector on passenger side, missing washer fluid reservoir, missing fender and damaged front passenger door.
     
  8. BZzap!

    BZzap! Senior Member

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    I see.
    Just to let you know, headlight wiring repair on a Prius is not a straight forward proposition as you would imagine. As you may or may not know the Prius has had some controversy about this wiring being subject to fire hazard. As a consequence, any repair should be done by a properly trained tech.. It has to do with aluminum wiring and the specific soldering and crimping techniques. You may want to do some research on the matter and educate yourself as to the procedures that are paramount to the proper and safe repair requirements.
     
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  9. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    If it were me and I were in this situation , I would look to the salvage yard for a replacement wiring harness for all equipment on the passenger side ( in addition to all the other parts you will need;)).

    There are plenty of rear ended prii out there. As @BZzap! mentioned, the wiring is a combo of metals and if you do not have specific tools and knowledge, you could add additional hazards to the car as you go.

    Good luck on your project(y).
     
  10. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    If you've picked up a project car from a collision, you might find yourself referring to techinfo enough that the $75, good for a month subscription saves you money and hassle over the $15-for-two-days option.

    As BZzap! reminds, you will want to be alert to which wires are aluminum rather than copper; when splicing on those, be sure you are using the crimp sleeves designed for aluminum to copper (they have their own different Toyota part numbers), the crimp tool designed for those sleeves, and the sealant-lined heatshrink tubing (which also has different part numbers from the plain stuff ... but if you search for sealant-lined heatshrink tubing elsewhere, you can probably beat Toyota's price for the stuff.

    -Chap
     
  11. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Also a good suggestion from Raytheeagle about just looking for a complete salvage harness, emphasis on the word complete. A lot of recycling yards cut the wiring when they remove various parts for sale. Sometimes it saves them time compared to getting the old stubborn connectors apart, and sometimes it benefits the buyer of a part, who gets the needed connectors with it and short tails of wire attached. But it doesn't benefit somebody who wants to buy the wire harness later, so if you're looking for a wire harness from a recycler you have to be sure it is one they went out of their way to keep intact.

    The wiring diagram on techinfo will show you which harness you would need, how it is routed, and what are all the other things plugged into it, ground point locations, and so on, so you'll see what to get and how to replace it.

    -Chap
     
  12. Andy64

    Andy64 New Member

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    Hello, Can you please advice me what the reason for this could be. I have been working on this Prius and when I jump start this car using another car, the car starts using the smart key on power button but after 3 to 4 minutes, the car stops. I looked a the car battery indicator and found that battery life is at two bars. Also just to prevent any confusion the car is parked after jump start and it's in P mode. Can you please help me as to what to look for.
     
  13. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    3 to 4 minutes is quite a while, nothing comes right to mind to explain that. Are there any warning lights? If so, have you read for the codes causing them?

    -Chap

    ... By the way, the 'battery life indicator' is just a battery charge indicator; it will go back up once the engine stays running long enough to put some charge in.

    On the other hand, be careful, as every engine start uses some battery charge, and if the engine isn't running long enough each time, the charge could be slowly dropping. Normally it can charge at a pretty good rate though, and 2 to 4 minutes can put a good amount of charge back.

    Using something like a ScanGauge or the Torque app (or Mini VCI and laptop), you can numerically watch the charging current and the % charge remaining. The concern is once the charge drops below 20% or so, the computer can decide it's not trying to start the car any more, and you need an appointment with a dealer high-voltage charger to resume your project.
     
    #13 ChapmanF, Sep 18, 2016
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2016