Headlamps

[Cobbler]

Good evening and a merry christmas to all,now i have a question about my head lamps,to cut straight to the chase they have started to mist up with condensation,my motor is an 04 thus just out of manufactures warrenty,now i have done a search on here and it seems that most have had them replaced under warrenty.Does any one know what its going to cost me to replace them out of my own pocket(not that i want to)?Is it worth arguing with the main dealer that this is a know fault and hoping for a free of charge replacement or is he going to laugh me off the forecourt The car has only covered 35k and surely this would be the issue here rather than the age?To be honest i have always been dissapointed with headlamps and was also wondering if the moddified lamps were any better?

[tczwoju]

Hi Cobbler,

I have Avensis 2003 and I did ask my local dealer in Trowbrige if they know something about it.I also said to them that I have read on Toyota Forum so they told me Yes it is and they changed headlamps with no cost.So If your local dealer refuse it go and ask other dealer they should accept it ,otherwise it will cost you(about 250 pound,I was told).

Have a look there http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.p...mp;#entry679564

Cheers

Wojciech

[honeygie]

hello and merry christmas! i am new here and am trying to find out how to deal with my headlights as well... i bought my avensis used from a garage its an 03 reg, so im sure i will have to fork out hundreds to deal with the same problem of misting headlights. a couple of our car's lights are busted, and im havin trouble now having them replaced. Halfords wont do it coz its difficult replacement they said so i had to take it to a garage, who unfortunately said they cant do it either... what now?! help please...

[Parts-King]

The warranty period for Avensis headlamps has been extended to 5 years or 100,000 miles, whichever is the sooner, if you outside this period, you will have to pay for them. Go to your local dealer and you should get fixed up. The fix is two new headlamps and two new backing plates where the bulbs fit in. New lamps and covers are 284.66 retail

If the headlamps are broken or damaged in any way, you will have to buy them, the extended warranty applies to faulty manufacture only

honeyqie: Why not take it to a Toyota dealer?

Kingo

[honeygie]

The warranty period for Avensis headlamps has been extended to 5 years or 100,000 miles, whichever is the sooner, if you outside this period, you will have to pay for them. Go to your local dealer and you should get fixed up. The fix is two new headlamps and two new backing plates where the bulbs fit in. New lamps and covers are 284.66 retail

If the headlamps are broken or damaged in any way, you will have to buy them, the extended warranty applies to faulty manufacture only

honeyqie: Why not take it to a Toyota dealer?

Kingo

hiya thanks for the reply, i had taken it to a garage and they were able to change the busted lamps... unfortunately, he said the bulb holder is broken~ both of them.. he's just fitted 2 new bulbs, and then. it got busted again... i will have to take it back to the garage tomorrow and have it sorted... ugghhh pain, pain pain in the b***... you mentioned about the warranty~ will that apply to me as i am third owner already... and i bought it off from a local garage and not a toyota dealer...

sorry, i dont mean to hijack this thread... just tell me to shut up and i'll start me own thread.. thanks...

[taximark]

These headlights by Toyota are a disgrace, how many more post will we read about this very same thing?

[Surfer01]

Good evening and a merry christmas to all,now i have a question about my head lamps,to cut straight to the chase they have started to mist up with condensation,my motor is an 04 thus just out of manufactures warrenty,now i have done a search on here and it seems that most have had them replaced under warrenty.Does any one know what its going to cost me to replace them out of my own pocket(not that i want to)?Is it worth arguing with the main dealer that this is a know fault and hoping for a free of charge replacement or is he going to laugh me off the forecourt The car has only covered 35k and surely this would be the issue here rather than the age?To be honest i have always been dissapointed with headlamps and was also wondering if the moddified lamps were any better?

Have a good read on the Sale of Goods Act. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. In addition, the Supply of Goods Act especially if the car is the subject of hire purchase. Did you know that although the warranty has expired the car is still covered for another 3 years, i.e. 6 years from date of purchase.

If you are still unsure have a chat with your local Trading Standards mentioning this is a known fact. A helpful site is also http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/ Toyotas will repair your car free of charge under warranty if you follow advice but before you do any of the above you need to take the car down to your nearest Toyota dealer and request that they replace the headlights under warranty. If they refuse to repair it udner warranty then proceed with an action plan and you will win!

If you have any specific questions reagrding any of the above please feel free to ask. If I can do it, I am sure many others can.

[Parts-King]

These headlights by Toyota are a disgrace, how many more post will we read about this very same thing?

You will read about misting headlights until they are all replaced, it's no good banging on about how poor they are, Toyota know that, that's why the warranty has been extended and the parts upgraded

It does'nt matter who you bought the car from, call in at your local dealer to have the lamps inspected, if they have failed due to poor manufacture and they are inside the extended warranty period, then you can get them replaced free of charge, there is no need to start quoting trading standards

Surfer01: I like your simplistic view, if only everything in life was that simple, unfortunatley it isnt. I would'nt recommend anybody starts qutoting 6 year warranty and trading standards, it's only likely to put your dealer on the back foot, you may have SOME redress against the manufacturer, but the dealer doesnt have to deal with you if he doesnt want to, and can easily ask you to go away........politely. :D:

Kingo

[honeygie]

It does'nt matter who you bought the car from, call in at your local dealer to have the lamps inspected, if they have failed due to poor manufacture and they are inside the extended warranty period, then you can get them replaced free of charge, there is no need to start quoting trading standards

im sorry to sound really dumb.. do you mean my local toyota dealer? thank you....also... the car was 03 reg and about 71T miles.. by the way.. i do need to get new headlights accrdng to the mechanic who fixed it... ugghhh there goes my savings...

[JohnYossarian]

It does'nt matter who you bought the car from, call in at your local dealer to have the lamps inspected, if they have failed due to poor manufacture and they are inside the extended warranty period, then you can get them replaced free of charge, there is no need to start quoting trading standards

im sorry to sound really dumb.. do you mean my local toyota dealer? thank you....also... the car was 03 reg and about 71T miles.. by the way.. i do need to get new headlights accrdng to the mechanic who fixed it... ugghhh there goes my savings...

I had the same problem, bought a 03 T3X D4D Avensis and had the fogging headlights. I followed the thread on this forum and called my local Toyota garage (Queensferry it is, yes Parts-King aka Kingo is from the same place ;) ). They put me on the list and in a week I had everything replaced at no cost whatsoever. Trouble free fix indeed. Of course to a great extent it depends on the local dealer, not all are as helpful as these guys are. In fact a couple of days ago one of the lamps got bust, I called in and it was replaced again at no cost, it turned out there had been something wrong with the first one. Excellent service. If you are anywhere near Wirral simply pop in and you will not be sorry:).

Cheers!

[Parts-King]

I had the same problem, bought a 03 T3X D4D Avensis and had the fogging headlights. I followed the thread on this forum and called my local Toyota garage (Queensferry it is, yes Parts-King aka Kingo is from the same place ;) ). They put me on the list and in a week I had everything replaced at no cost whatsoever. Trouble free fix indeed. Of course to a great extent it depends on the local dealer, not all are as helpful as these guys are. In fact a couple of days ago one of the lamps got bust, I called in and it was replaced again at no cost, it turned out there had been something wrong with the first one. Excellent service. If you are anywhere near Wirral simply pop in and you will not be sorry:).

Cheers!

That's us

Kingo

[Realistbear]

I have 53 Plate T3-s with a misting headlight and am currently speaking with my local dealer on the issue. They are not aware of any extended warranty to cover misting or condensation issues.

My headlight has now lost dipped beam capability and I am reasonably certain the condensation is the cause.

They will not repair under the factory warranty--I bought the car used from a dealer in a large network that included a Toyota dealership who issued a 12 months parts and labour used car warranty that it will probably be repaired under.

If misting/condensation is widespread it seems that the extended warranty should apply to this issues as well as the melting bulb syndrome others are reporting.

It may be harder to get Factory input as the UK runs on a multi-tier marketing system where dealers deal with another dealer (distributor) and not the factory direct as in the US for example. This may also explain why we pay more for cars in Britain than in many other markets. I have experieinced quite a few defects with my Toyota and am dissappointed overall as I have owned 4 Camrys, a MR2 and a HiLux pick-up truck in the past and had excellent reliability from all. Maybe its just Toyota UK quality that is not up to the usual Toyota standards. Welcome to Britain!

[Cobbler]

I have 53 Plate T3-s with a misting headlight and am currently speaking with my local dealer on the issue. They are not aware of any extended warranty to cover misting or condensation issues.

My headlight has now lost dipped beam capability and I am reasonably certain the condensation is the cause.

They will not repair under the factory warranty--I bought the car used from a dealer in a large network that included a Toyota dealership who issued a 12 months parts and labour used car warranty that it will probably be repaired under.

If misting/condensation is widespread it seems that the extended warranty should apply to this issues as well as the melting bulb syndrome others are reporting.

It may be harder to get Factory input as the UK runs on a multi-tier marketing system where dealers deal with another dealer (distributor) and not the factory direct as in the US for example. This may also explain why we pay more for cars in Britain than in many other markets. I have experieinced quite a few defects with my Toyota and am dissappointed overall as I have owned 4 Camrys, a MR2 and a HiLux pick-up truck in the past and had excellent reliability from all. Maybe its just Toyota UK quality that is not up to the usual Toyota standards. Welcome to Britain!

[Cobbler]

Thanks to all, and a happy new year. A visit to my local Toyota dealership to rectify my hadlamp problem hopefully under the extended warrenty seems the way to go. Hopefully I will manage a visit this week, thanks to everyone for your input, and its nice to know that this is a known issue with Mr T.

[Zimmy]

Regarding Toyota Queensferry, I bought a Carina E from them in 1993 and had excellent service from them, moved out of the area and have now moved back. When my Avensis is due for a service I will definately use them and they are not my local dealer. Obviously kept there standards. We should see more forum members recommending there dealers.

Zimmy

[honeygie]

wehey!!! a happy new year indeed! thanks to sir kingo, i heeded his advise and here i am with new set of headlamps from my local toyota dealer in cardiff, wales... no problems at all.. just gave them a call, they asked me to bring my car in to be checked... and a few hours later, all settled without my pocket getting severely bruised..

hopefully all will be well... they also said they checked everything from tyres to steering to oil and even done hoovering and washing.. well.. im impressed and pretty relieved..

its easy to please me.. really..

hats down to you sir kingo...

[Realistbear]

I am pleased to report that Listers VW from whom I bought my '53 plate Avensis replaced the nearside headlamp under their used car warranty which is quite comprehensive. Listers also have a Toyota dealership but they declined to fix the problem under the factory warranty as Toyota are apparently claiming that misting headlights is not a "defect." IMO, it must be a defect if a significantly large number of owners are reporting the same problem. It must be a manufactured-in defect. If a lamp were to fail and cause an accident it could be an issue for Toyota given the history of problems.

My car is covered under the used vehicle warranty until next summer and I only hope the offside lamp doesn't go after that time! I may sell the car before the warranty runs out and switch back to Audi as my trusty old P reg. A4 has 107k miles on it and never seems to have any problems other than usual wear and tear.

http://www.whatcar.com/car-review-readers....&Submit1=GO

.../

It has had two new headlights - the old ones just kept misting up. It has needed new front disc brakes at 15,000 miles. 2000 miles later the brakes are again making enough noise to wake the dead.

[Parts-King]

wehey!!! a happy new year indeed! thanks to sir kingo, i heeded his advise and here i am with new set of headlamps from my local toyota dealer in cardiff, wales... no problems at all.. just gave them a call, they asked me to bring my car in to be checked... and a few hours later, all settled without my pocket getting severely bruised..

hopefully all will be well... they also said they checked everything from tyres to steering to oil and even done hoovering and washing.. well.. im impressed and pretty relieved..

its easy to please me.. really..

hats down to you sir kingo...

Glad to have been of service...:D:

Kingo

[Parts-King]

Have a good read on the Sale of Goods Act. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. In addition, the Supply of Goods Act especially if the car is the subject of hire purchase. Did you know that although the warranty has expired the car is still covered for another 3 years, i.e. 6 years from date of purchase.

If you are still unsure have a chat with your local Trading Standards mentioning this is a known fact. A helpful site is also http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/ Toyotas will repair your car free of charge under warranty if you follow advice but before you do any of the above you need to take the car down to your nearest Toyota dealer and request that they replace the headlights under warranty. If they refuse to repair it udner warranty then proceed with an action plan and you will win!

If you have any specific questions reagrding any of the above please feel free to ask. If I can do it, I am sure many others can.

I missed this post earlier, so sorry for the late reply.

I just need to clear up something which maybe very misleading to those unfamilier with the sale of goods act

As a supplier of goods and services I do have to have a little understanding of what the Sale of goods act means, your theory of having an automatic warranty extension to 6 years is not correct. Rather than me explain the act, you could read the quick facts notes on the dti website here

In particular, Q3 which I have copied and pasted for reference

Q3. Are all goods supposed to last six (or five) years?

No, that is the limit for bringing a court case in England and Wales (five years from the time of discovery in Scotland's case). An item only needs to last as long as it is reasonable to expect it to, taking into account all the factors. An oil filter would usually not last longer than a year but that would not mean it was unsatisfactory.

So, it would be up to the customer to prove (if over 6 months old) that the part was inherently faulty from new. So in the case of the oil filter, if it was say 3 years old, it would be difficult to prove that a part only expected to last 1 year, had lasted a further 2 years and you expect a warranty for a further three years on top of that!

Of course the example of the oil filter is a flippant use of the act, however in the case of the headlamps, Toyota have extended the warranty to 5 years, This will take into account their interpretation of the act.

So to sum up, there will always be "wear and tear" with a part or car, and the court would decide if the item being claimed should or should not last six years, maybe a headlamp should, who knows? but it would be difficult to say that a brake disc has the same wear and tear rate to that of a headlamp. As in all cases of law these days, it is not cut and dried, and your comment of everything having some sort of extended warranty for six years is clearly incorrect

Kingo