Avensis Headlights

[esco1]

my '53 d4d is currently in the main dealer having service and lights done

i had issue when both bulbs blew at the same time on M4 at night (not happy!) only 18 months or so after taking delivery from new

dealer replaced bulbs foc, but the lights have been getting worse

didn't realise how bad until recently started more off-motorway driving at night

been told that the warranty for these items has been extended to 100kmiles or 5 years..

funny that mine is now 120k !! so about to be stung for £550!!

NOT HAPPY

will be speaking to Toyota today and having a word

anyone got any other 'bright' ideas ????

[uumode]

Sorry to raise this topic again - anyone carried out a replacement on a T180 56 plate Avensis. I am thinking of upgrading to a better bulb but not as far as Xenon. Any advice on which bulb and as to simplicity ( or otherwise) of changing etc. please

Try the Philips Xtreme bulbs

read my other post here

http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.p...st&p=688214

[Zimmy]

Auto Express are doing a report/test on 30 bulbs in there next issue.

[taximark]

Auto Express are doing a report/test on 30 bulbs in there next issue.

That should be interesting to hear what they come up with.

[enyajtrebor]

Before I rush out and get a set of Phillips bulbs for my T180 is it a easy DIY fit or something thats going to take hours ?

[uumode]

Before I rush out and get a set of Phillips bulbs for my T180 is it a easy DIY fit or something thats going to take hours ?

apparently it's very hard - access problems. I paid £28 for the dealer to do it and handed them the bulbs.

It can be done I've read but you lose the skin on your knuckles. The dealer I think removes the front bumper for easy access.

[rob001]

Before I rush out and get a set of Phillips bulbs for my T180 is it a easy DIY fit or something thats going to take hours ?

It is possible to change the headlamp bulbs but you need small hands, particularly for the Drivers side as the neck of the washer bottle is in the way.

I managed to do mine by unclipping the cover and pushing it downwards (not fully) this exposes the rear of the bulb which can be unclipped and the bulb removed. I did lose some skin from two fingers! Beware - if you have an unmodified headlamp unit the bulb is unlikely to locate correctly and when used will melt the reflector. The modified headlamp units have proper recesses for the bulb location. If your car is not five years old get the headlight units changed under the extended warrenty.

[MyEvilTwin]

Just adding my own experience for the record - I've got a UK 57 (late 2007) plate Avensis hired at the moment and this evening couldn't believe that a new car's left the factory with lights set like these!

To be honest I felt the beam intensity and the pattern looked to be OK as far as I could gauge, this problem is with alignment. These were aligned like an amateur DIY jockey's been at them. There's just 2500 miles on the clock and Enterprise have had it since new so I'm certain nobody will have been tinkering at these lamp units yet. Somebody ticked a checklist for this dire light setting.

The nearside lamp is angled so low that the triangular shape hits the road just 3 meters in front of the car. That's right, THREE METERS.

Interestingly, the offside lamp is angled a good bit higher for some reason, but is still miserably low, the horizontal cutoff and triangle section hitting the road about 7m in front of the car.

At best they're where they should be with the alignment control set to the lowest setting. Oh, and the lowest setting drops the left horizontal actually out of view. Oh my god.

I had a look under the bonnet on the off chance there was a handy manual adjustment but there's nothing there to be twiddled as far as I can see. Not my car so that's as far as I'm going there.

I was thinking about calling the hire company's call-out people to come and fix it, but from what I'm reading here I bet I'd end up with shrugged shoulders and a different car. And I don't want a different car, because this is a lovely cruiser for me over the next week or two - I'll just try to drive during daylight... ;-p

So there you go, a recently registered new Avensis still featuring dipped headlight woe. You've got to wonder how a design team (or perhaps final inspection crew - I suspect these would be decent lights if just turned up a good bit)gets a paycheque for OKing stuff like this, although it's not just Toyota by any means - I've just changed out of a new Corsa with some equally unbelievably mental designs (try to find and use the fog light switches, in fog, and you'll be in a field when your head comes back up from the hunt for them, for example :-p )

[Pjotr]

I have now run the car for 6 months (Tourer 55 D4D) and felt the need for new (better bulbs).

I popped into my local garage (non Toyota) who checked the lights and they were within spec but set at the lower end so I will have to have them lifted to 'upper limit' by Toyota Dealer next week as I could see no way of adjusting them.

Bought new bulbs: Philips Extreme 80+ - H7 for dipped and Philips Vision Plus 50+ -H1 for the main beam.

Clearly a better result to whatever was in before, I would recommend it to anyone, HID sound good but I'll leave them until well past the warranty.

Fitting was a bit fiddly but I got there in the end by taking my time. I agree that the water bottle neck is a bit of a pain but gently bending it back allowed the lid to come off. I found that letting this lid drop down was the best solution. It was a pain to get the bulb into place without touching it, childrens hands would have been good. I also noticed that it was easy to get the bulbs into the wrong 'slot' ie it sat at a slight angle, check before you lock the clip in place. If it is angled then pull out slightly and rotate anti clockwise until its in the correct place, the bulb 'lug' is meant to be just below the locking clip hook, which you can see to your right as you look down onto the housing. Fitting the lid back is probably the biggest headache, I recommend a torch and that you visually line up the rear lug on the lid with the hole that it has to slot into, get this right and you'll find that you are sorted. Overall it took me 30-40 minutes to do the 4 bulbs but I took my time, it should be quicker next time.

[Parts-King]

Don't know if this was mentioned but with the new extended 5 year coverage on the headlight issue i have been informed today that it only relates to if the Headlight bulb holder is melted therefore causing condensation to leak in, no other fault with the headlight will be handled.

That's correct, I did mention that if you have a fault for any other reason (damage etc) they would not be covered.

The bulbs are a pain to fit, it is better done with the bumber removed

MyEvilTwin: I would not be suprised if your Avensis had not had some sort of bump, it is not possible IMHO to have the lights so far out of alignment without some sort of interference. The lamps have small plastic lugs holding them to the bodywork, just check that they are not cracked/broken, that can happen in the slightest of bumper nudges!

Kingo

[YGK]

Hi guys, writing from Netherlands.

I am an expat working in Netherlands, and I bought a 2nd hand 2005 made Avensis in 2011 with a 1 year Toyota warranty. I have been taking it to the official dealer garage since then. All that is just to avoid unpleasant surprises. However, for a year or so, I have noticed that my lighting is noticeably dim and poor. I also happen to be in lighting industry, so clearly, i can see that there is obviously something wrong with the beam-shaping therefore the intensity. Anyhow, last week I brought it up while leaving the car to the garage for annual maintenance, and at the end of the day they told me that it is just normal, and that in time the plastic headlight cover and the reflector inside wear out due to the UV in daylight and sometimes due to car shampoo. And they also added that next year or so, the lighting would fail to comply the local norms so would have to be changed at a cost of 1000 euros including labor. I actually thought the dealer was just giving me crap so i was still confident Toyota NL would somehow be able to help me out, but unfortunately for me, they also told me to "go fun myself" (so there is more to that motto than the new toyota aygo campaign apparently). Now I escalated the issue to TOyota Europe and if the reaction is negative will also try contacting toyota global but to be honest i have very little hope.

BTW, to my surprise, while also looking through dutch blogs and sites using google translator (i don't speak dutch), i came across an interesting blog by toyota NL, stating they would replace all the xenon headlights of avensis models produced between 2003 to May 2007 free of charge, accepting the design fault, yet since my headlights have halogen inside, I cannot claim anything - apparently if you got a halogen lamp in instead of xenon, your headlights become a state of the art unit (http://blog.toyota.nl/updates/xenon-koplamp-avensis-geen-concessies/#.U81NF4CSzmU )

As I said i am working in lighting business, and we also happen to produce road lighting luminaires, and we do not give such pathetic excuse like UV and cleaning detergents messing lighting (although it is true that this might happen to a certain extend but for god's sake i am driving literally blind at night, come on!). I also responded to Toyota sarcastically saying i will recommend my colleagues in warranty department to consider it and asking why on earth they didn't think of that?

Lastly, they said that the warranty was 3 year, so it was already over when i bought it second hand. So, I also told them in response <<my compliments to you guys for guaranteeing a critical and functional element like headlight will work for 3 years so I will always consider Toyota for cars to be replaced every 3 years!>>

So, in summary, use sun protection and use baby shampoo if you do not want rubbish headlights. Toyota doesn't give me any chance but be sarcastic about it. So much for Toyota reliability and quality. BTW, we are talking about a class D sedan here, just to give some perspective on the discussion.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Have your headlight lenses yellowed?

The following may be useful - http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/146892-headlight-cleaning/?hl=%2Bheadlight+%2Bcleaning