Why does a High Intensity Discharge lamp for my prius cost $150, and how do I go about putting it in? I bought the bulb at the dealer, and after he sold it to me the parts guy asked if I was planning to put it in myself. When Isaid yes, he suggested I talk to the guys in the shop. he said their procedure was to remove the bumper, then pull the light housings out to replace the bulb.
After looking under thehood I could see why. the back of the bulb housing is completely obstructed, on one side by the fuse box and on the other by the coolant reservoir. The last ime I changed a headlight, it cost eight dollars and took 15 minutes. Is this kind of expense what we call progress?
Now I seem to notice a lot of cars running with one headlamp. does anyone think this might be because it cost $300 to replace? What kind of nonsense is that?
Anyway, what is the real procedure for replacing this bulb?
That makes no sense at all. It certainly doesn’t explain why it’s a good or even reasonable idea to make someone have to remove a bumper to change a light.
I’m always the last to know and so sorry if you all knew about this site but http://www.carcarekiosk.com/
Is excellent at first glance giving video lessons for routine Basic maintenance of common cars for those of us who can’t/ won’t read. :=)
“Why does a High Intensity Discharge lamp for my prius cost $150”
Because the manufacturer is more interested in his profit (this year) than selling the best possible cars.
I can buy a good sealed beam lamp for less than $10.00.
Now my question, why did you buy that car? Do you think that the lamp is the only thing done by the manufacturer in total disregard for the future owner owner? Do you think this is the only thing on the car that the manufacturer totally disregarded the real value to you when it conflicted with with his short term profit?
@littlemouse
I was answering his first question; why it cost $150 for the bulb.
As to why taking the bumper off would be easier, maybe it is. I know on my Mazda it says to turn the front wheel all the way to the left or right, unscrew 5 or 6 screws on the inner fender, remove the fender, reach up inside the engine bay, remove a clip, and remove the bulb. To me, it might be easier to remove my bumper as well.
The dealership probably changes the bulbs frequently enough that they’ve figured out an easier/quicker way to do things.
Toyota charges $150 for a bulb ? That’s quite reasonable considering they wanted $80 each for the plastic center wheel covers for steel rims for a 4runner. Used Isuzu covers at $5 each does just as well, thank you. I will NOT buy a Toyota OEM part if I can possibly help it for my Toyotas. Anyone who does completely negates any reliability savings they supposedly have? Sorry for the out of place rant. Just my spiteful opinion realizing most other(all) dealerships are the same.
Duh.
Which is why I posted what I did. There may be a different way listed in the owner’s manual and they got a TSB, or a tech was experimenting on someone’s car, and found the bumper thing out.
The point was that taking the bumper off seemed difficult. You didn’t explain how taking the bumper off was a more cautious approach. What you wrote before is provided below for your ready reference.
"bscar2 December 24 Report
HIDs use an electrical arc instead of filaments to produce their lighting. Thus, more caution is needed when installing the new HID bulb.
littlemouse December 25 Edit Report
That makes no sense at all. It certainly doesn’t explain why it’s a good or even reasonable idea to make someone have to remove a bumper to change a light."
Well, since none of us on here actually designed the car, how it was assembled on the line nor the actual light bulb itself, why would we know the reasons behind any of those? We can only report what we know, not what the manufacturer’s and their engineers were thinking.
Let’s try the common sense approach. Next time you design a vehicle, you can explain all the quirks to us.
The dealer may or may NOT be correct. Sometimes independent mechanics have figured out other ways then what the dealer suggested. According the Nissan dealer I had to remove my battery to replace one of my bulbs…Well there was an easier way by accessing from a different angle.
Trust me, if there is any shortcut, the dealer mechs have figured it out too. The difference is many dealer mechs get book time regardless how long it takes so it’s gravy. The independent is just more likely to pass some of those savings along to get business. You’re absolutely right, it’s probably going to cost less but not because they solved some big puzzle that eluded the dealer mech who sees that same brand almost exclusively, day in and day out.
I believe the interweb rules, the bumper does not need to be removed. Sure the driver’s side is easier but the passenger side can be done by removing the plastic instead. It looks like it takes more time and patience, but do able.
So how many of us DOES it take to replace a bulb? LOL…yeah NOBODY but NOBODY asks or thinks about all the fancy pantsy hardware they equip us with on new cars and how on earth to go about maintaining it. I can see the HD bulb being 150…and I can also see having to disassemble half the car to install it.
Mfgs think NOTHING of making life hard for us wrenches…some procedures are still even hard for the dealer mechanics to deal with…they will tell you the same thing if you ask them.
WHY this occurs I will never know…sometimes bean counters are to blame…sometimes lawyers…lawsuits…who knows why they do what they do. If all cars were user repairable friendly…not all of us would know cause they don’t fix their own cars…I guess mfgs are trying to make more money with their dealerships service dept…I don’t know…I will NEVER be able to answer this question properly. Just grin and bear it…the alternative is to go nuts.
For electrical grid powered lighting fixtures, HID lamps last much longer than incandescent lamps. Toyota possibly expected this to be true for automotive HID lamps as well, even so far as to expect them to last the for the life of the vehicle so less priority could be given to ease of headlight maintenance and lamp replacement cost.