Visibility Problems of Toyota Prius - part 1

The contact owns a 2014 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that the driver and passenger side sun visors were fractured. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, but was not repaired because the mileage was out of warranty. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 42,000.

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2004 & 2010 Toyota Prius. Consumer writes in regards to rear view visibility and braking issues in both vehicles.

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The contact owns a 2006 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, the rear window shattered without warning. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was contacted. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 54,000 and the current mileage was 54,500.

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No one injured. Minor problem, but Toyota refuses suggestions "for legal reasons", so I have to report it to you, and hope that you will relay to Toyota. Good car, good dash lighting system, nice rheostat to dim the instrument panel lights at night, to assist in night road visibility. The problem is that as you dim the instrument panel lights, the lighted symbol for the emergency flasher light switch goes completely dark before the instrument panel lights do. So, on a dark night, you dim the lights to make the instrument panel lights just bright enough to read, without excess reflection or distraction, and the emergency flasher switch becomes invisible because its light went completely out before the other instrument panel lights did. This increases distraction and reduces reaction time when you need to find and turn on the emergency flasher light switch. I doubt this problem is limited to just my car. The simple solution (everything seems simple to the guy not doing the work) would be to design and wire the dash panel lights so that the emergency flasher switch light stays a little brighter than all the other lights, as they all dim. That way, the switch you might most need in a hurry will be visible, even if you have dimmed your instrument panel lights. Quicker turn-on of the emergency flasher alerts following drivers sooner, increasing their safety, and mine. Thanks for working to keep us all safer on the road, and to improve the vehicles we drive.

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2007 Prius headlight failure - passenger side headlight goes out frequently. By turning lights off and back on it stays on for a while. I can't reproduce the problem when I want to. Looking at consumer complaints it seems to be a wide spread problem and very expensive to replace bulb which doesn't help the problem. Major safety issue at least that Toyota is just brushing aside. I am not a satisfied Toyota customer by all means.

Tl- the contact owns a 2011 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that the side windows would become extremely foggy and the contact was unable to utilize the side-view mirrors when needed. The contact would have to open the windows in an attempt to clear the windows but to no avail. The contact spoke with the manufacturer and was advised that the failure was not considered a safety defect and that they would be unable to assist. The failure mileage was 5 and the current mileage was 6,000. Kmj.

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The contact owns a 2011 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that in foggy or rainy weather conditions, condensation would build on each window, preventing the contact from seeing the roadway. The contact stated that the defroster would not clear the windows. She also tried opening the windows to allow the condensation to evaporate but to no avail. The dealer was contacted and advised that repairs could not be made because the failure was contributed to the design and manufacturing of the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 30 and the current mileage was 31,059. . . . Update 01/20/12.

Hid headlight bulbs go out and come back on sometimes both at the same time. I am told by many other Prius owners that this happens a lot.

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Rear visibility seriously hampered because no camera installed in vehicle. Toyota motor car company knows from experience the serious safety & financial consequences of not addressing a safety issue & a camera providing the driver rear visibility could dramatically save the life of person(child) at rear of vehicle. It is to be noted Toyota installed camera in the Prius only when navigation sys. Is purchased.

The driver's side hid headlight, intermittently, unpredictably and inexplicably shuts off. It will occasionally return to service on its own, but usually requires a cycling of the light's power switch before full function is restored. After which, the length of time before the light shuts off again varies from a few seconds to not at all. After researching this issue, it seems to be a rather systemic problem with the 2004-2009 Prius. Obviously, the situation this condition creates is unsafe at best, can place me personally in an unexpected illegal position - and (should both lights go out together, as some have reported) could quite possibly be life threatening. For the safety of the driving public, I would strongly urge NHTSA to investigate this issue. Toyota must take responsibility for their design flaw, and engineer a resolution to this problem.

Headlights go off for no reason while driving. This happens several times a week.

Headlights go on and off for no reason. Happens anytime and anyplace.

The rear window on 2010 Toyota Prius , while driving at night,generates the vertical light bars attached to the source of light , headlight of the folowing vehicle, thus image of the cars traffic on the busy highway is totally distorted by the presence of the these unwarranted light efects. This defect introduces the safety issue while driving in heavy traffic, the driver is presented with the light effects that totally blurs the back view . The issue is augmented if the rear window is tinted . The issue had been been verified by round rock(texas) Toyota and appears to have been a test escape. However the dealership refused to address the problem arguing that there is insufficient field data that would justify action to be taken. Being the user of the multiple Toyota product in the past, I can express the heavy concern about the potential safety breach while driving at night, primarily in heavy hiway traffic.

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I have a 2005 Toyota Prius and the lights go off while I am driving. If I turn off the lights completely they will come back on. The dealer does not know what to do in fixing it. The lights go off in the middle of driving at night. This is a safety hazard that needs to be addressed. This incident happens day to day. I have been stopped by the police several times not knowing that the lights have gone out. There needs to be a recall to investigate the electrical system.

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2004 Toyota Prius cost $449 (includes labor) to replace passenger side head light.

I bought a Toyota Prius v 2010. I have complained to Toyota about the braking system. I am also filling a formal complaint with NHTSA. Also the back auto dimming mirror doesnt work properly. They cant find a fix. Lane keep assist works really poorly. I would say I doesnt work! also bluetooth systems doesnt work properly. There is a delay in answering the call.

Condensation in 2007 Prius headlamp for 6 months. I have a platinum extended warranty in effect. Toyota will not repair or replace the defective headlamp under the warranty & will not acknowledge responsibility for an obvious manufacturer defect that according to internet research is a very common problem in Toyota vehicles.

The 2005 Toyota Prius that I drive, has a failure of the manufactures hid headlight bulb; the bulb is intermittent and is an expensive flawed system. The Toyota dealership in huntington beach quoted me $432 for the bulb and $250 to remove the front bumper to get to the bulb to replace it!!!.

I own a 2008 Toyota Prius. Given the already many complaints, I would like to add my comments on this Prius. First this car is very unsafe due to poor visibility. You can not see out of this car. Second, I had the headlight failures that these cars have. I have had both headlights replaced in this car. The headlights would go out while driving in the dark. Many times I had to turn the switch off and back on while driving in the dark to get the headlights to come back on. This is not safe and many, many Prius's have this problem. The dealer replaced the headlights but not without a struggle on my part. Last point I would like to make is that this 2008 Prius has the same exact issues with brakes and stopping that the 2010 does according the accounts I have read. For example, I went over a railroad track recently which when it hits an uneven surface it is very hard to stop! I almost hit a car that was turning just past these tracks because it feels like the car does not have a good "grip" to the road. It happens also with even a small cluster of small pot holes. This car is not safe in my opinion. I do not understand how the headlights alone did not make a recall. It is an ongoing unsafe situation. The car not stopping however is something that needs to be recalled and not just limited to the 2010 Prius.

On 12/03/09 we were ticketed for a left headlight out on our 2008 Toyota Prius. We didn't know it was out or going out. It looked on to us. Two miles from home it looked as bright as ever. The next morning, as much as we tried, the garage could not find a bulb out, going out, weak, on or off, nothing was wrong! we had a funeral to go to and paid the fine. Two weeks later, a letter was mailed from Toyota listing issues regarding these hid lights stating that these suddenly go out, and on and off, among other things, near the end of their life. My car is a 2008. My husband and I cannot replace these expensive, exotic hid bulbs because access is in a very tight place and the bumper must be removed--seriously!!!! even if we could do it, these hid bulbs cannot be purchased in a normal automotive store. Anyhow, again on 10/17/10 I was several hours out of town, driving home on the interstate, at night, on a weekend, and the other headlight went out!!! I could not put in a new bulb myself. I had no one to call with this exotic hid light and certainly no one that would take off a bumper on the interstate. Sudden, complete light outage at night is a very serious safety issue. On top of this, hid headlamp problem, any light bulb needs to be relatively easy to replace. At $150. Per bulb, very pricey light plus bumper removal labor expense at 1 hour ($288), the Toyota dealership service clerk actually said "you chose this option. " help before someone gets killed on one of these dark roads (chances are this has occurred with no one alive to know this was the cause)!!!.

2007 Toyota Prius hid headlight failure. Headlight goes on and off intermittently. Was told that the bulb was ready to fail. It would cost $150 for the bulb plus 1 hour of labor. I have a Toyota service plan but was told that this was not covered. A little research revealed that many people are experiencing this same problem.

Headlamps on both sides go out intermittently. Dealership said to turn them off and back on to make them work again. This doesn't solve the long term problem with the car.

Both hid headlights failed on a winding country road. I quickly turned the headlights off, then on then was able to swerve the car to prevent going off the road. I had intermittent problems with one light failing. This was the first time both lights failed at the same time. I spent over $400 to replace the lights. There is a class action case against Toyota that covers Prius with under 50k miles. Since I had over 70k miles on my Prius, I was hesitant to make the repair, because of the cost until both lights failed. This is an intermittent problem that gets worse as time goes by and should be recalled before someone is killed.

I was pulled over by cops for defective drivers side tail light and found to have my passenger side head light is also defective. Later on it was noted both tail lights and head light on right side is flickering and suddenly are malfunctioning.

2007 Toyota Prius ~30,000 miles. Passenger headlight fails intermittently. Two trips to the dealership have not solved the problem.

The hid, high intensity discharge headlights go off intermittently without notice, usually right headlight, sometimes left, sometimes both. Started with right headlight at approx 18 months after purchase of new vehicle at approx 45000 miles. This week both headlights have gone off while driving at night without notice. Extremely dangerous. Last month the local Toyota dealer, who knows of this issue, wanted $800 to repair/replace right headlight. Now that both are bad, much more money to repair. This is unacceptable, considering the premium cost of this optional item, the short life span, and especially the extreme danger of a possible fatal accident. If this were brakes, fire, or seatbelts, there would have already been a recall under warranty. There are hundreds of documented complaints and Toyota and the NHTSA have not yet acted! are we waiting to start counted accidents or fatalities? please get Toyota corp. To issue recall under warranty.

Headlight flickers off while driving. If you turn the lights off and back on again, the headlight will light up again. However, while driving the light will eventually turn off again. This makes driving at night hazardous since visibility is very limited at that point. My Toyota Prius is a 2007 and has 52,000 miles on it. The dealership said it was the bulb and replaced it. The bulb was $150 and labor was $133. 50.

We have 2008 Prius that first began having left headlamp go out when driving, we would have to pull over safe place along road turn mess with turning headlights on and off. . . Created unsafe driving remainder of trip, aprox 200 miles night drive to get home with one headlight. . . Not good on montana roads with wildlife prevalent on roadway. . . Dealer replaced under warranty. . . Two weeks later same trouble with right headlight while driving home at night from spokane wa. To bigfork, mt again dangerous 5 hr drive at night on freeway with poor visibility. . . This time dealer said they needed to replace both the right headlight and a computer sub assy. . . Help. . Both instances caused unsafe driving conditions, night with only one headlight with lots of wildlife crossing the hwy. . . And it is important to know we can not simply pull into service station and replace the headlight, it is a dealer only item that we are told involves removing the front bumper to replace. . .

My 2006 Toyota Prius has a problem with headlights going out intermittently. Toyota says they replaced lights after we insisted there was a problem. They noted problem was caused by a short that they say nothing about fixing. It took 2 visits to get problem resolved due to intermittent nature. I think this is a defect and dangerous. They need to address this problem. There are numerous postings on web of this and all indications are that lights and control modules have problems. I am writing to national center for dispute settlement, but think odi needs to step in. Thanks.

Hid lights turn off independent of vibration, heat, duration of time on. Occasionally both turn off at the same time. Turning brights has no affect. Turning lights off and then back on fixes the problem. Dealership has replaced entire headlight assembly, computer, and bulbs and then began to re-occur after 10,000 miles.

I own and operate a 2007 Toyota Prius. To date I have been extremely satisfied with the vehicle. However, recently I have been experiencing intermittent failure of my passenger headlight and occasionally the brake light on the passenger side. This is a safety concern because I do not know when the light is on or off. The other day I was pulled over by the police and received a repair order. The cost from the dealer to replace the bulb is $535. 00, apparently this is maintenance and a non warranty item. Personally I think there is a design flaw if it requires a mechanic to change a lightbulb. I am posting a message here in hopes that this will convert into a safety recall. I am going to work with the dealer and Toyota to try and get this repair covered. Wish me luck!.

Driver side hid headlight was lighted but failed during driving. Driver side hid headlight would re-ignite after turning headlight switch off then on. Had 36, 724 miles - at first dealer said "out of warranty by 724 miles", raised issues found here and got the computer and light plus rental Prius free. . . Over $1,600 otherwise. . . Seems this is a regular issue as found on mycarstats. Com.

For the past few months my drivers side headlight has been going out. It comes back on if I flick the headlights power off then on again. Recently it has been getting worse, happening everytime I am driving at night. This is upsetting because I haven't even had my car for 2 years, and I get my vehicle regularly maintainenced every 5,000mi as recommended with my extra care warranty.

2005 Prius headlights leveler causing headlights to lock into one position. This vehicle locked in lower position creating very poor visibility. Thinking that if this was to lock in upper position it would be blinding driver in the oncoming vehicle. This should be always on recall if problem persists.

Intermittent problem with hid head lights. Both right and left head lights have gone out individually (not at the same time) during operation of the vehicle, and then by turning light switch off and then on again the head lights work. On a different trip, either head light may stop working again. This doesn't happen on every trip, and it seems to happen during operation of the headlights (I. E. , turn the lights "on" and both head lights work, and then after some period of time one of the head lights stops working). This has happened multiple times during the last month.