LED Day time running lights

[clarke4104]

I drive a 2016 Avensis model WWT270R, bought it at 8 months old and have been working in it (taxi driver) to present day, issue I’m faced with is that offside DRL is half illuminated which is a psv failure in Northern Ireland, bearing in mind both headlight units were changed late 2018 for same reason, Toyota tell me it’s not their  problem and quote £511 plus VAT to supply same, with fitting cost on top. Seems totally ridiculous for essentially a bulb change surely this is an engineering design mess up, have been working in toyotas for over 20 years and cannot complain about reliability but surely this can’t be right? Any thoughts.

[FROSTYBALLS]

What mileage is the car on?

[clarke4104]

135600 miles, it would appear from my experience these LED DRL’s have a lifespan of approximately 2.5 years. Mine is the type that has LED strip running across the top and down the inner side, not the 3 round LED’s on the inner side that I see Ona lot of models.

[FROSTYBALLS]

2 minutes ago, clarke4104 said:

135600 miles

Presumably Toyota have declined to help as the car is outside the new car warranty - 5 years/100,000 miles.

[clarke4104]

Yes totally declined any help

[mrfixer]

See a few failures on LED light units. I think the LEDs themselves are extremely long-lived but the problem seems to be failure of the soldered connections inside the light unit. Unfortunately it is virtually impossible to take the unit apart to attempt a repair.

Only cheaper solution is to get hold of a secondhand unit. Another possibility it to buy a couple of aftermarket drl strips for about £25 and fit them on the lower part of the bumper and give them an ignition feed. Would that satisfy the NI regulations?

[Heidfirst]

When you say half-illuminated do you mean dim or only lighting over 1/2 it's length?

What trim is your car?

 

 

[clarke4104]

It is only illuminated over half the total length of the strip. It is the business edition plus sport wagon. I have spoken to my local auto electrician and he said I was the third person in this week with same problem ( not all Toyota) and showed me a box with two Nissan ones he replaced recently at £800 each from dealership as the aftermarket trade does not seem to have caught up with this technology yet. He said he would investigate and research the option of repair as this is going to become a more common problem, there certainly seems to be a business opportunity out there for someone in the repair side.

[clarke4104]

Not sure the cheaper solution would work as psv taxi test is quite stringent in these parts as it would be regarded as a modification and would require supporting paperwork