Both PIAA low beams went out at the same time, after 20K miles

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by subjective, Oct 10, 2013.

  1. subjective

    subjective Member

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    The PIAA H 11 low beams went out at the same time after just under 21 months and 20K miles which alarmed my wife in the dark. I talked with the PIAA TECH REP. and it was his opinion that there was a surge created by the generator or the battery. He told me, honestly I think, that these Night Tech bulbs have a higher gas content that are more likely under these conditions to create an early sudden failure. These bulbs certainly out performed the OEM bulbs. I replaced these low beam bulbs with the Phillips OEM bulbs but we will miss the better more uniform performance of the PIAA Night Tech bulbs. At my Toyota dealership, their best electrical Tech checked everything he could and could find no present problems to cause both low beam bulbs to fail at the same time.
     
    #1 subjective, Oct 10, 2013
  2. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    PIAA are overpriced IMHO.

    See if you can get a good price on Sylvania Silverstar zXe bulbs. I have them in both our cars and the output is quite good.

    FYI, all of the high output bulbs burn brighter than standard halogen, the trade off is shorter bulb life.

    It's possible that both bulbs were nearing failure. When one failed, there would have been a very slight increase in voltage to the remaining bulb, which caused it to fail as well.
     
    #2 xliderider, Oct 10, 2013
  3. subjective

    subjective Member

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    THANK YOU
     
    #3 subjective, Oct 10, 2013
  4. cyclopathic

    cyclopathic Senior Member

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    IMHO Silverstars overpriced too. You can pick up Kensun HID conversion kit on Amzon for less then pair of Silverstars. Almost twice output (2600 lumen) and the bulbs will last 2-3 times longer then OEMs. Replacement bulbs? 10-13$ for pair.
     
    #4 cyclopathic, Oct 11, 2013
  5. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    Technically, aftermarket HID kits are illegal to install unless they have autoleveling.

    Also, there seems to be more than a few people with HID kits that experience problems. Mostly ballast related (flickering, failure to ignite, etc.).

    For these reasons, some of us would rather stay with the halogen lighting sysyem the car was designed with.
     
    #5 xliderider, Oct 11, 2013
  6. cyclopathic

    cyclopathic Senior Member

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    well whatever works best for you. If you don't feel comfortable and wanna stay with halogens, do it.

    Kensun has good reviews (read on Amazon), and no prob with flickering/bulb failure got 60K on it.

    Kit was 54$ shipped. Even if it fails tonight and needs to be replaced still better value then PIAA.
     
    #6 cyclopathic, Oct 18, 2013
  7. magnumrtawd

    magnumrtawd Member

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    I have
    SYLVANIA H11 XtraVision Halogen Headlight Bulb, Pack of 2 from Walmart for 19.75 +tax .
     
    #7 magnumrtawd, Nov 6, 2019
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