Nine problems related to fog light switch have been reported for the 2008 Toyota Prius. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
My headlights went off while I was driving at night. I was out in the country, in the mountains on a curvy road, where there were no street lights. It was pitch dark and a very dangerous situation, to say the least. I'm lucky I didn't run off the road or get in a wreck. I'm 74 years old and my vision is not as good as it used to be and I had to drive 40 miles to my house, with just my fog lights. I called my local Toyota dealer, to see if they knew what caused my headlights to go out and if there was a recall on the problem. They said it was probably a light bulb problem and there was no recall on the problem. They said it would cost me $120 just to assess the problem. I checked on the internet and found this to be a widespread problem for this car and replacing the light bulbs cost around $500 and it doesn't solve the problem. In many cases it reoccurs. So, I don't know what to do. Why would I spend $500 on the problem, when it doesn't solve the problem?? I can't believe there's no recall on a problem of this nature, as it's a very dangerous defect!.
One light randomly went off. Then as we were driving (at night) both front and back lights went off, both high and low beams. Only the flashers and fog lights worked. We called for a tow ($120) and as they were unloading the car at home, the lights came back on again. So it's not a bulb, not a fuse. I found out online that this is a known problem.
The driver's side headlamp has been going off intermittently for many years. Now, both lights go out and I am driving with the fog lights only…very dangerous! if Toyota knows about this, there should be a recall and fix!.
The first time both lights went out, we were traveling south on I-95 near richmond, va. Prior to this, we thought the lights had dimmed a couple times, but when we checked them, they were fine. There is no mistake when you loose both headlights while on high beam, there are no fog lights, so it gets very dark. I think going to low beam gave us some light (the fog lights) but do not remember, I then turned the light switch off and back on immediately, which turned the lights back on. Since that first incident of them both going out, we have seen both the driver's side headlight alone, the passenger side headlight alone, and at least half a dozen times both lights go out at the same time. All but once, turning the light switch off and then on turned the lights back on. The last time both went out, I had to turn the switch off and back on several times to get the lights back on. With a cost of over $200 per light, I decided to change the passenger side light and see if that light would stay on. It made no difference. I found in the user's manual that low voltage could cause the high intensity discharge (hid) lights to go out, so I had aaa check the engine battery. The test showed the battery was good, but it only had 364 cold cranking amps so I had a new battery put in. We were told by two other sources that the right battery had 450 cold crank amps so I thought that might account for the hid light problem. That was just a few days ago, and the passenger side headlight has still gone out several times since the bulb and battery were replaced. So far, we have not had both lights go out again.
Most recently I was driving at night and the left headlight was not working at all. The next day I took the car to my local mechanic and both lights were working fine so they were unable to do anything. Two days later I was driving home late and again the lights worked fine. This has been a constant problem. Sometimes the lights (one or both) work and sometimes they don't. Two months ago I was driving on a dark winding rode with only the fog lights working, both of the headlights were out. You never know when it's going to happen and it's extremely dangerous. Is it a problem with the hid lights or a circuit issue? my Toyota dealer was unaware of the problem despite what appears to be several complaints having been logged. My car only has 66k miles and I don't drive at night very often.
Driving down the highway and the head lights just stopped working , turned them off and back on and worked for about 25 miles and did it again this time I had the fog lights on and it wasn't as bad but again turned them off and then back on worked till I got home . .
The headlights on our 2008 Toyota Prius turned off suddenly while we are driving after dark on the highway doing 55 mph. The headlights would not come back on. We had to turn on our fog light to get home this is dangerous during night time driving. According to the internet, this headlight failure problem has been reported many times to your agency.
I have a 2008 Prius with about 40,000 miles on it, the headlamps are turning off randomly. I quickly flip the switch off, then back on and they remain on for about 2 minutes, then fail again. Very dangerous when on country roads. I keep the fog lights on as back up. Just got back from dealer and they told me $400 to replace. Ouch! I decided to take the risk and keep on driving due to the extremely high cost and no decent guarantee after the install.
2008 Toyota Prius both headlights went out this morning and I was able to get them to come back on for about 5 minutes total while driving to work. I drive 70 miles on freeway each way in the dark. Driver side bright light would come on briefly then go out again. Passenger side bright light did not. I drove to work with the fog lights on only.