general problems of the 2008 Toyota Avalon - part 1

Because my instrument panel is alway illuminated, I was unaware that I was driving one night without my lights on. Now I know why I see more cars at night without their lights. Manufacturers need to fix this problem. Older cars would not turn on the panel lights if the headlights weren't on. You would think this would be an easy technology fix with since we have self driving cars now.

Oem high beam bulbs continuously explode. I’m not saying they just burn out, these bulbs shatter, and send shards of glass on the inside of the headlamp housing. I believe it’s a big safety risk, because for me, it happened while I was driving late at night in the dark where there are deer nearby. Brights are essential to see far and when you’re driving through hills, going up a hill you need your brights to extend higher than your normal lights do. This is a commonly complained about problem for the 2008-2010 models of this Toyota Avalon. Toyota has issued a technical service bulletin back in 2011, but it is a major defect and I believe it should be fixed regardless of whether a customer pays for a warranty or not. A mechanic told me also that they are not sure why Toyota has not warrantied vehicles with this issue. The solution is replacing the headlight housing. So there is clearly a material defect, and I believe it affects safety. Vehicles are required to have high beam headlights for a reason, and the high beams on this vehicle burn out commonly on certain vehicles, and replacing bulbs does not solve the problem. It is a very expensive repair as well. What kind of car manufacturer doesn’t recall or acknowledge a material defect or design flaw in such a crucial safety feature or a vehicle such as headlights? it’s an expensive, annoying, and dangerous issue that continues to happen. There are so many complaints about this high beam issue for the 2008 year. In my mind this really reduces Toyotas reputation and credibility since they did not and will not recall these headlights. We just have to deal with their faulty design. Fix your mistakes instead of making customers foot the bill for your poor craftsmanship. This is pathetic.

I had my car inspected in December 2018 and was told that my high beams were out. I had the bulbs replaced and just recently had my lights inspected. Changing the bulbs did not correct the problem and my high beams are still not working!.

Our high beams went out at the same time. Seems to be a recurring problem.

While driving on a highway at night both passenger and driver's side high beams failed to go on. While fuses are ok, neither high beam will go on in either the flash or permanent mode.

1. High beams and day running lights inoperable (discovered January 2018). 2. Transmission overheated and caused car to decelerate in April 2018.

Left head light goes off after about 15 to 20 min of driving. . This has been a problem with Toyota for years. Why has the NHTSA forced Toyota to fix this. It seems to be a safety issue that NHTSA has known about for a long while. Nhtsa ref# 10033406 and 10037591.

The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Avalon. While driving 55 mph, both high beam head lamps exploded. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that both head lamp assemblies needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 41,000.

Tl-the contact owns a 2008 Toyota Avalon. The contact stated that was taken the vehicle to get service when the technician inform the contact that both headlamps was not corresponding. The vehicle was then taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that both headlamps assembly needed to be replaced due to blow out. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 70,187. Ak.

All of a sudden the high-beam head lights stopped working when the car was in motion on the freeway. Low -beam lights work. This is a real safety hazard and is obviously a Toyota engineering flaw. Toyota did have a warranty enhancement for this vehicle - 75,000 miles or 5 years, whichever comes first. My car has 52,000 miles buts is over 5 years old. Toyota is well aware of this problem and should be required to fix this, free of charge and I should not be required to pay for the fix of $2,500 plus labor, which is outrageous.

Discover that both high beams do not function. I understand that this is an issue with the Avalon, and Toyota had issued a service bulletin, but has not issued a recall. While this issue is not an dire one, it is a very expensive fix. I think the number of vehicles involved my require a recall.

While driving down a remote dark county road, first my high beam lamps failed simultaneously,then approximately five seconds my left low beam lamp failed. I stopped the car, turned all headlamps off, then after fifteen seconds, I turned the low beam lamps on. After a warm up period, the low beam lamps illuminated. The high beams never illuminated again. The day-time running lamps are no longer working.

I was driving on a very dark two-lane state highway using my high beams while cautiously watching for deer. All of a sudden my high beams went to low beams. The switch worked and the dash board light showed that the high beams were on but they obviously were not on. When I had the opportunity to check the lights in a well light area I could see that both bulbs shattered in the housing assembly. There are small fragments of glass spewed everywhere inside the casing. Earlier this year Toyota sent a letter stating a warranty enhancement because they are aware of this problem. The enhancement applies for 72,000 miles or 5 years from the date of first use, whichever occurs first. My car is now 6 years so the warranty will not apply. I seldom drive in the late evening and I seldom use my high beams. I believe this would have happened within the warranty period if I would have used the high beams more frequently. This is going to be a very costly out-of-pocket repair that obviously is a safety feature that Toyota should pay for given the fact that they are aware the high beam/drl bulbs can become inoperative.

Toyota has issue with day time running lights and high beams. They will only warranty if under 72000 mile or 5 years. If they have a problem they should stand behind.

I was utilizing the high beam lights periodically on a dark evening. Near the end of a 1 hour and 45 minute trip, the high beams gave a slight flicker and went out. Upon examination today, both lights had blown or shattered. I ordered new bulbs today with $35 each.

We were driving on route 95 in south carolina it was raining we had been using our bright lights when we suddenly lost our bright lights. When we got to our destination we pulled into a Toyota dealership we were informed our head light and fixtures would need to be replaced due to the fact they both sides had exploded we were treated very poorly by Toyota. Upon investigation this is a common problem with the Toyota Avalon and a extended warranty had been issued of which we were never notified of and it had expired. A short period of time before the event happened and it cost us $2600 dollar and had to drive with a hazardous vehicle.

Lights just stopped working. Toyota acknowledged there was a problem with the head lights and wrote several dealer service memos concerning this problem. After talking with Toyota consumer affairs that this was was their problem and they should fix it, they said it was out of warranty. They even advised me that the low beams may fail. They were not concerned about my safety and told me just about to pound sand. They could care less about this, even though they're aware of the problem. My safety means nothing, even after owning 5 Toyota vehicles.

Head lights randomly go off at night when driving. If I turn them off then back on they come back on. Sometimes they stay on. Most of the time I have to repeat this off and on procedure again and again! this is a real safety hazard. I live in an area where there is not a lot of street lights, and winding roads. Why won't they make this a recall?.

I was driving in a rural area in illinois where we have a lot of deer, so I flipped on my high beams for better visibility. I had purchased the car with 87,000 miles on it that summer and may not have even used them yet. The high beams stayed on for a few seconds and then flashed and went back to low beam. I checked them upon arriving home and could see that they shattered. I replaced these with bulbs from o'reilly auto - using gloves to avoid touching them - these high beams were seldom used but worked. It is now November of 2014 and these also failed; did not shatter but failed to illuminate. I assume they are burned out. I am concerned that I may never be able to use the high beams for safety on this otherwise fantastic car. I have avoided using the high beams ever since I replaced them the first time, so I am not sure when they actually quit working this time.

My 2008 Toyota Avalon has a defective high beam / low beam headlamp. The high beam bulb burst while in use one night. The vehicle has less than 43,000 miles, but the 60 month warranty expired in July 2013. I noticed the problem in August, just after the warranty expired. My vehicle was due for a safety inspection in October, so I researched information to repair the headlamp and discovered that it is a common problem for 2008 Toyota Avalons. I went to the dealership in September to determine the repair cost. When the service rep. Saw low mileage, he thought the car was under warranty and estimated the repair to be approx. $1000 to replace the defective headlamp assembly. When he realized the car was out of warranty, he suggested replacing the $65 bulb. I'm concerned that a $1500 repair was instantly reduced to $65 because the car is out of warranty. If the problem is reported within the original warranty period the whole assembly is replaced at no charge and the warranty is extended another 12 months or 12,000 miles. Now I am concerned that the bulb will blow out again at some inconvenient time. High and low beams are required in MA as an annual safety inspection item. Obviously, they are critical for safe driving at night. Why isn't a repair for a common problem / safety hazard like this a recall issue?.

Low beam light flickered on and off, tried the high beam lights of which neither would come on. Took the car to the dealer the next day. The dealer tried new bulbs which immediately blew out. The dealer said that both light assemblies were defective and needed to be replaced at a cost of $ 1400. 00 each. Was advised that Toyota knew that these lights were defective and issued the service bulletin tbs #0044-10 rev 1 extending their warranty from 36,000 miles to 72,000 miles but would not recall them. This car was 1600 miles past the warranty so was not covered. If Toyota thinks that lights going out while driving down the highway at night is not a safety issue, I don't know what is.

Driving in dark 2-lane country road, needed high beam for safety and better visibility. High beams did not turn on. During the trip almost hit a coyote but was able to avoid due to driving 45 mph (20 mph below posted speed limit). Also, due to slowed speed we constantly were creating a long queue behind us causing many vehicles to unsafely pass us, thus creating another potential hazard. Went to the dealer to fix problem but it would cost $2000 to fix! Toyota was aware of this problem (service bulletin#TSB-0044-10) and they did extend the warranty, but they wouldn't honor that in our car because we were 2 months past the extended warranty period. That was the only time we needed to use the high beam after owning it for 6 months, so the problem could have happened way before the end of the warranty period. Toyota customer service of course was not willing to step up and or at least partially pay for the repairs. Their customer care representative was very indifferent. Toyotas have definitely slipped in quality and customer satisfaction. I will not recommend any other Toyotas to my friends and relatives.

We were driving on mountain roads in a snowstorm at night, and discovered we did not have high beams. We took the car to our mechanic once we returned from our trip, and were told that both high beam light bulbs were shattered. Our mechanic told us that this is a issue that Toyota is aware of, and that they had issued a service bulletin in January of 2010 for this specific problem. We purchased this car pre-owned certified from a Toyota dealership in February of 2011 (more than a year after the service bulletin was released). This problem should have been taken care of before we purchased the vehicle, since the dealership was aware of the service bulletin, and the car was "certified. " we were told that the repair would cost $2,400, and was not be covered under our extended warranty. This is a very dangerous problem with this vintage Avalon that should warrant a recall, not just a service bulletin.

During a routine 70000 mile maintenance check I had the dealer look into a flickering driver-side head light. They said the bulb was going bad and also discovered that my high beams didn't work. Toyota said the problem is inherent to 2008-2010 Avalons because of a poorly engineered head-lamp assembly and the cost to fix the problem would be $2820. 85.

We have a 2008 Toyota Avalon. The highbeam lights were hardly used and they went out one night at the same time. We brought the car to a dealership and they had the bulbs replaced. They did tell us that bulbs usually go out one at a time but had no explanation why both went out at the same time. We indicated that the user's manual suggested to look at other parts as burned bulbs would usually be caused by a problem in the electrical system. We were told it was only the bulbs. We just learned after the visit that Toyota had sent a bulletin to the dealers about the problem that some 2008-2010 models have a problem with the bulb housing, not the bulbs and the fix is to replace the housing. However, this is not a recall.

High beams /drl exploded inside housing assemblies, both sides at same time while driving.

Both high beam lamps went out at the same time while driving at night on a hilly road without any other lights on road -- both bulbs went bad. Dealer at service just wanted to replace them. Several months later I came across bulletin online that stated Toyota would replace housing for lamps with new one provided car was under 72,000 miles and 5 years. Although my car was at 4. 5 years at time of incident, when I called into Toyota, I was at 5 years 1 month, although still under mileage. I was told to have dealer call Toyota, which they did not do, despite me repeatedly asking them to do so over the next few months. In the end, I called Toyota again and after they were able to reach the dealer, they said that since it was out of the warranty, I am responsible for any repairs or replacement of housing to their new design. I had replaced the high beam bulbs of course, at significant expense since they are not standard bulbs available at auto parts stores, but I fear they will again fail me at night while on a dark hilly road. Plus now, right after finishing another dealer service, one low beam hid lamp is not staying on and goes off. Checking online, I do not seem to be the only one with headlamp issues on this model, high beam or low beam. Please investigate.

High beam headlamps stop working. Replacement bulbs burn out prematurely. Toyota refuses to fix even though they had a customer support bulletin. Toyota had incorrect address on file so I did not receive bulletin within warranty enhancement period (1 month late). Dealer promised to check but over the course of 4 months, did not contact Toyota. My direct contact to Toyota was then 5 months outside of warranty. High beam bulbs replaced twice, and still problems on a regular basis.

Driving home from work I noticed that my head lights weren't on after being on when I left my job, so I turn them back on and about another 20 miles they were off again I experience this for about a month and was wounding this car isn't that old so something has to be done because the car is not that old for the lights to be going out there is no shortage or any other electrical problem with it. Went to a electrical shop and they informed me that most Avalons have the same problem so I'm writing this report to see what I need to do next so this won't occur for the next 5yrs or so. It happens all the time at night when I drive eventually they will not come on at all is this suppose to be happening I need to know. Thank you,.

Tl-the contact owns a 2008 Toyota Avalon. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the low beam head lamps functioned intermittently. The failure recurred on numerous occasions. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown. Oo.

I have the 2008 Toyota Avalon touring. The hid/low beam passenger light went out. Dealer advised both light assembly need replaced at $1088 each plus 2 hours labor. There is a major problem and they are backlogged 90 days. Dealer just received one that was ordered 90 days ago. Driving with one light (maybe 2 soon) is dangerous and I can't park it in the garage for 90 days. Toyota should be replacing free and supplying a rental car while they are on back order.

I started having problems with both front low beam light bulbs. The passenger and driver side would work only intermittently keeping me at bay as I could not drive @ night. Both driver and passenger went out at the same time I took it to the dealer and the passenger side along with the drivers side were replaced on two appointments at $192. 50 per bulb along with labor. . The total came to $310. 20 x 2= $620. 40 that's a huge amount of money for defective parts. I was informed that I was using the lights too much and that was the reason for the lights going out!! my car has low miles and it told him that was a defect from the factory. I am very discouraged with the outcome of having to fork out so much money for a factory defect, shame on Toyota!.

Running/bright beams both went out on left and right around sept 2011. Lites use the same lamp. Had repaired at freeman Toyota in hurst TX. Was not told it was a temporary fix. Toyota issued warranty enhancement notice sometime after that repair. Right lamp out again now April 2012. Dealer says they cannot repair/replace and to deal with Toyota direct for refund, etc.

High beam lights stopped working suddenly. Indicator on the dash shows they are on but the light bulbs do not turn on. Checked edmunds and other auto web sites and see this is a problem with many 2008 models - very expensive ($131 each)light bulbs burn out within a year and design has been modified on 2009 model. Toyota admits it has a problem but is not replacing anything after 36,000 miles or 3 years. Seems the ones reported are going out at about our mileage. Tsa has reported it as tsa odi #TSB-0044-10. Cost to replace has been quoted as high as $3,000. My concern is that the entire lighting system could go out when I am driving at night on the interstate at 70 mph. Another concern is that driving the speed limit with low beams is dangerous here where there are deer that get on the road. Why does Toyota expect consumers to pay for their design mistake that creates the potential death for their customers?.

Low beam head lights both right & left go off intermittingly, I had originally had problems with nigh beams they were fixed under warranty.