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Mornin', Phish,

Great news for you!! I'm glad you persisted & won & that Toyota saw it in their best interest to reimburse you, consider'g what you & many other unfortunate owners are going through with the HID problem with the '06's (& an occasional '05). As I said above, Toyota really needs to start a serious all out investigation on the safety issue of why their HID lights are acting this way, develop a fail-safe trouble-shoot'g/repair proceedure that gets sent to ALL the dealers, & if necessary make it a SSC (Special Service Campaign) or a full blown RECALL.

Everybody with this HID problem should continue check'g in here to keep us updated on their success (or lack of) in solving this problem. In other words, how many times have your lights failed, which side is it & is it the same side each time, how many trips to the dealer to fix it & what exactly did they replace/do, how long did it last before it started to happen again, & will Toyota agree to pay for the repairs (as they did in Phish's case---remember to call Toyota & start a case file as she did).

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

The latest update.

My car has now spent a total of 20 days in the shop.

Now we have an "expert" from Toyota Technical at the dealership (been there all of this week) trying to figure out what is going on.

They cant get the fault to repeat during testing.

They are going through a procedure of cleaning all of the negative electrical grounds having replaced both bulbs and controller previously.

My personal diagnosis is there is something fundamentally wrong with the controllers fitted to '06 models.

I am not hopeful.

NOTE TO ALL: START ELEVATING THE ISSUE TO TOYOTA DIRECTLY. IF THEY SEE THE SPECTER OF A LOOMING RECALL MAYBE WE WILL GET A RESPONSE.

I am sorry I did not get back with everyone sooner, but I was waiting to see if this was the fix. They switched the blubs and installed a new one, so.... the dealership told me I had two BAD BLUBS. So far so good! The dealer clams this has not been a problem that they have seen, the dealership is the largest the Metro Detroit area.

Well Longo in El Monte is apparently the largest dealership in the US top sales all that top stuff.. and I was the first person that any of them had heard of having the issue. The "fix" by Toyota corporate tech support (to Longo's techs) was to change EVERYTHING, the ECUs, bulbs, wiring.. changing some of that (like bulbs only, or ECUs only) was not an option..

I have been fighting this problem for more that a year. Each time I go to the Simi Valley dealer they act like the problem is non-existant. In my case the left headlight goes off and on as I drive. I never turn of the lights except by turning of the Power button. Yesterday, at the dealers, I was finally able to have this happen while the manager was watching. I was happy to hear that someone got some relief from Toyota but with this such a safety issue I can not believe that the Toyota group has no worked on a solution.

My question is " Is the only fix replacing everyting?'

That is the fix relayed to my service manager by Toyota Corporate's Tech-whatever. Tell them to call Longo Toyota service in El Monte, Tan team, and talk to Darrin Shadle (my Service Manager). Maybe they can get a better understanding from him. I'll try to rustle up my case number with Toyota Customer Care for you..

Hi all,

I found this forum while searching for info on my intermittent HID. Big ol' thanks to all previous posters, esp. Phish Phood for passing on the info about calling his service manager. I'll be taking the car in next Monday 10/1, along with some choice posts from these pages and my customer care case number. Let's keep this thread going in case we need to file a class action suit! I'll update my progress...

Cheers, Charlie

I have a 2006 and the same problem - noticed it about a month or so ago. Drivers side both high and low are out when I get home. Power off, open&close the door, power on - restores the headlight function. Told the dealer - he said he couldn't reproduce the problem.

I was planning to wait until it happened and I could drive straight to the dealer with the light off ... but from reading this forum I doubt that he would be able to fix it -- or worse, he might try replacing something and charging me without it getting fixed. This is bad.

As suggested, I snapped a photo of the light out and brought it along, with printouts of this thread. Service advisor is sympathetic...he called Toyota Technical and was told the first step is to replace the bulb - under warranty! He says there was condensation in the bulb which may have contributed to the failure...we'll see. I assume the next step is to replace the controller. Hope it doesn't come to that.

Cheers,

Charlie

Wow. I started seeing problems with my headlights matching the descriptions in my 2007 when I hit ~36,500 miles. The response from the dealer is that since they can't reproduce it they can't fix it. After seeing the number of posts it seems unlikely that they don't believe there is a problem, but likely that they don't know how to fix it. It's a big disapointment as I've been really happy with the car and overall would give the dealer high marks on quality of service.

In any case, in preparation for the next round I've printed the thread to take with me (so I can have the "what hole are you hiding in that you're not aware of this problem" discussion), packed a camera in the car to get the evidence, and following the advice on another site posted a complaint to the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency (http://www.nhtsa.gov). The suggestion is that if enough complaints are filed and since this is a safety issue that maybe Toyota will get serious about getting a special program going to fix this. Hopefully Toyota will get their act together on this one and take care of their loyal Prius base...

Well, the dealer replaced the bulb, under warranty. Wait and see, of course, but he seems ready to proceed along the lines described by others here (new controllers, etc.) if the problem persists. So far, so good...

Cheers,

Charlie

My case number with Toyota Customer Care is 200707121022. Just as a reminder note: my controllers/wiring/labor was charged to my extended warranty. Extended warranty did not want to cover my bulbs, I paid for the bulbs, and Toyota reimbursed me the $667 or something for the bulbs (Goodwill).

I'm having the exact same issues. Lights go out -- sometimes both at the same time and you turn the switch off and on and the come on again. I had pictures of one light out. The Dealership stated they had no idea about what could be wrong and wanted to change the bulbs. I told them no and now have pictures of each light failing independently and both -- although both doesn't mean much since the daytime running lights are still on. I will print this information out to take along with the other pictures, but I really haven't see a fix yet -- has anyone been successful in solving this problem?

Robobecka,

This thread is about failure of the high intensity discharge (HID) headlight system which only some higher-end Prii come equipped with. These vehicles don't have daytime running lights (DRL); only the regular "old-fashioned" halogen headlight systems do. That's because HIDs die way sooner if you leave them on all the time, which I found out the hard way. If your headlight switch has a "DRL" position, you have the regular headlights, and it's probably just the bulb.

I have HIDs (which I wouldn't have ordered if I had had the chance to say no, since I'm not a bling kinda guy), and after printing out and showing my service advisor this thread he called Toyota Technical, who was familiar with the problem, and they told him to first replace the bulb. He was kind enough to do this under warranty - they're pretty expensive. If the problem reoccurs, the next step is to replace the controller.

If you do have HIDs, the main thing is to use them as little as possible!

Good luck,

Charlie

I don't think I have the HID, but I do have package #6 which came with the Nav system -- all but leather. If it was just the bulbs, wouldn't the failure be permanent? Same symptoms as all the rest I read about. Driving along and one light goes out. Doesn't really matter which side, sometimes the driver's side and at other times the passenger side. This now sounds as if it is a problem endemic with the 06 model, not just with the HID for that model. I don't think I have a DRL position on my headlight switch either. I just know the daylight running lights are on. I did purchase my car on January 2, 2006 if that means anything. ??????