This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
My 2006 Toyota Prius headlights go off unexpectedly while driving. When I notice one going off, I turn the lights off then on again and the light comes back on. Only one goes off at a time. Most often it is the left light, but sometimes the right. I have received one ticket already. This has been going on for six months. My father's 2007 Prius has the exact same problem. Toyota replaced his small battery, but he still has the problem.
2nd headlight problem to report. 1. normal driving. 2. right headlight turns off at random times. This is in addition to left headlight problem reported earlier.. have notices several instances where both headlights were off at the same time. I do not drive after dark very much at this time of year, problem becomes apparent when pulling into garage or when noticing reflections. 3. turning the headlights of and on again initiates a restart. Problem recurrence is random.
2006 Toyota Prius. My headlights failed on mountain road without any warning. I was doing about 50mph and swerved into the shoulder to avoid going off cliff. This vehicle is a death trap after dark and somebody is going to lose their life because Toyota doesn't seem to take this seriously. I called their consumer hotline an was told I would have to foot the bill of nearly $900. I was then told by Toyota to have the car repaired and they would reimburse me. I found a Toyota dealer to do repair for $502 and now Toyota tells me this was not a participating dealer even though it was an authorized factory Toyota dealer. It truly seems like Toyota is trying to avoid this problem. I now want to sell this car asap but am concerned for the safety of the person who will ultimately buy it from me. I'm wondering if I could face a lawsuit for knowingly selling a car with this serious safety defect ? please help us !!!
Headlights turn on and off, one at a time with out rhyme or reason. Sometimes the passenger hl will be out, sometimes the drivers side, other times both are on.
We own a 2006 Toyota pruis. The headlights turn off. We had the same issue repaired about 2 yrs ago when the car was relatively new. Now it's back. Looking on the web, there is significant anecdotal evidence that there is a significant design flaw with the lights. There are literal thousands of pointing on this particular issue. It is not a major financial problem for us as the first was fixed under warranty and we bought the extend warranty that cover this also, but it is a safety hazard as the lights will eventually totally go out when driving. To restore them, you have to rotate the light switch from on to off and back on. My guess is they have a problem with the circuit card, but aren't doing anything to deal with it. It would be interesting to know if Toyota changed the circuit card design.
- Bowie, MD, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
Approximately 2 mos ago the driver headlight began to flicker then fail, intermittently but regularly each time it was turned on. I would be able to get it to come back on by turning my lights off then on again. A few weeks ago the passenger side headlight began to do the same thing. Now everytime I use the lights, one, the other or both at the same time will fail, forcing me to do the of/on thing to re-engage them. They will both fail again shortly thereafter.
Driver's side hid headlamp shuts off after being on for a short time. Turning the headlamps off and back on restarts the headlamp. This started at around 40,000 miles and now the passenger's side headlamp is occasionally showing the same symptoms.
My 06 Toyota Prius has the hid headlamps. At about 40,000 miles the left hand lamp began going out at odd times and coming back on again by turning the switch off and on again. Before I got Toyota to agree to replace them (at $850) I was driving down a dark road with no moon at night and they both went out on a turn. That was when I increased my complaints and they replaced them at Toyota cost. The car now has about 76,000 miles and the left lamp is acting the same way. I will replace the lamp and complain to Toyota, but feel this is a safety issue and the lamps should be redesigned or recalled en-masse.
2006 Toyota Prius has had headlights on both sides replaced due to intermittent operation which can be temporarily recovered by turning the headlight switch off then back on. All Toyota wants to do is replace bulbs when the bulb obviously is not the problem. I am sure they are being disingenuous with customers in an attempt to postpone the inevitable. It is way past time for a recall - please!
While under warranty, driver side headlight flickered and would go out. It would always come back on after turning the headlights off and on again. Same thing happened a few months later with passenger side headlight. Dealer replaced or repaired both at different times while under warranty. No longer under warranty, and I have paid for a replacement headlight once. At present, both headlights flicker and go out, now with remarkable regularity. Fortunately, turning them off and on again corrects the problem for a few minutes, so I have never been forced to stop driving at night (although I have been stopped for driving with only one headlight at times). At this time, I am at the point where I turn my headlights off and on every five minutes day and night. It has become a nervous tic.
Intermittent headlight failure on Toyota Prius (2006) headlights (hid) without warning. Teenage driver received two summonses for driving at night without lights. Toyota (dealer and corporate) recalcitrant re:acknowledging problem (confirms lights working normally) requiring replication in shop (charging diagnostic fee to examine whether lights are off or flickering) despite law enforcement summonses.
I have a 2006 Prius with hid headlights and have noticed that on one occasion one of the headlights was out. The problem was intermittent as turning the headlights off and on a little later fixed the issue. I understand that this is a common problem at this time with the Prius and wanted to lodge a safety complaint against Toyota on the issue.
I have a 2006 Toyota Prius with less than 45,000 miles. The driver's side headlight is either failing to light, lighting and then going out at some point while driving, and sometimes can be reset. Cost to fix is between $400-500 and is not covered by warranty. Problem could lie in the computer that controls the headlights and may be causing damage to these bulbs that run around $150 or more each. If that is so, then this problem will reoccur.
My 2006 Toyota Prius had intermittent headlight failure for over a year - I am aware from Prius owner website of several hundred others with this same problem. After being stopped for faulty equipment, stranded in an extremely dangerous area of downtown miami, I paid $963 on 6/26/09 to have both hid sub-assemblies replaced. They failed again on Sunday July 5, less than two weeks later when I was on the fl turnpike, over 150 miles from home, miles from a rest stop or help, alone and in the dark. I was forced to drive in the dark for miles before I could pull over and wait until daylight. Toyota has been made aware of this dangerous issue but have done nothing to correct it. It is not a mileage issue - I have put less than 200 miles on the car since the blasts were replaced. Someone is going to be badly hurt if Toyota does not step up and find a more permanent solution to the faulty hid ballasts.
I had the passenger side hid headlight fail on my 2006 Prius long before it should have failed. I have 40,600 miles on the car and have owned it since April of 2006.
Both headlights on my 2006 Prius go off intermittently. When I turn the headlight switch on and off they come back on (until they fail again). This has been happening for over 6 months but was infrequent at first. Now the failures occur almost every time I drive the vehicle. I understand that many Prius owners have the same problem. Some have been charged as much as $500 per headlight to repair. This is not an ordinary issue of replacing worn out parts but is clearly a safety related engineering defect. I am trying to get Toyota to repair this without charge - but from what I know there should have been a recall to fix this problem.
Hid headlights on my 2006 Toyota Prius both failed within the time frame of 2 weeks. This left me with only partial view at night. Notably, Toyota has not taken action to correct what is now becoming a glaring design safety defect. The cost to repair these lights is astronomical and the dealers have been taking advantage of customers charging very high prices for the bulbs and the labor to replace them. Unfortunately, the problem only returns and I expect to have this problem for the life of the car, leaving me at the mercy of Toyota corporate, who thus far has agreed to pay only a portion of the repair. In summary; the Toyota Prius has a design defect that causes the high intensity headlights to fail. At first they go on and off, then completely off. Due to the cost, many customers do not have these replaced. This should not happen on this vehicle.
I drive a 2006 Toyota Prius with the hid headlights. I read that my problem has been happening to a lot of Prius owners and their is an investigation started, so here's one more case to add to the books. One headlight would go out randomly. It would alternate between the passenger and drivers side, but would never happen to both lights at the same time. It would happen about every other day. There were no particular events that led to this problem starting, but I did notice that sometimes braking hard correlated with the light going out, but they went out without braking hard as well. Whenever one light went out, flipping the lights off and immediately back on would make both lights function again. I took it in for work 3 times. The ballasts got changed, then the bulbs got changed and the wiring harness checked, finally both the bulbs and ballasts were switched out with brand new ones of a different brand. It appears to be working so far. My mechanic probably still has the old parts if you wanted them. Consequences: I got pulled over twice for lights being out that I thought I had fixed, very irritating, luckily they understood and gave me warnings.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Prince Frederick, MD, USA