Just got an '07 w/ 116K and am a newbie to the Prius. Will eventually make my way through all the great information on here for the newbies. Does anyone know what type of HID replacement is best, stock or aftermarket? My drivers side cycles on and off. Usually comes at start up and clicks off when compressor or something else kicks on after driving for 10-15 mins. Had Firestone look at but couldn't duplicate my issue. Has anyone had similar issue? Does that tend to be a bulb issue or electrical? Second, has anyone done suspension or shock mods? Don't need an expensive set up, just hoping for a little more comfortable ride. Came from an '02 Acura TL so hoping to get a softer ride instead of that small car jarring over every pothole. Appreciate any advice out there? Thx
Softer ride? Then you need to replace the tires with something made for comfort and not high MPG. There a a number of tire threads on Priuschat that can help you.
Headlight flicker or turning off after time is a symptom of HID bulb failure. The general consensus is to use the factory spec Phillips D4R HIDs. I just had to replace both on my new to me '07 at 113K. They were both replaced by the dealer at about 50K as well. The official procedure for HID replacement is to remove the bumper, but I was able to do both without. Check out this article at WikiHow, it's what I used.
^^ Like salguod said it sounds like a lamp failure. That said if you want to confirm it swap the lamp from one headlight to the other. If the problem follows the lamp that's your problem. If the problem stays on the same side the issue is with the ballast or ignitor (not sure if they're combined on the Prius). Depending on what's broken you could probably get perfectly good aftermarket stuff to replace it. You may also be able to get better stuff aftermarket. For the lamps Phillips makes great HID lamps. For the ballasts I'm not sure, but you can send a message to the guys at theretrofitsource and they should be able to help you out.
