Changing a HID bulb in a 2004 Prius.

 How to Change a HID headlight bulb on a 2004 Prius.

Step 1: Buy the bulb - it costs 80-90 bucks from your local NAPA Auto Parts store. If you are in a smaller town you will probably have to stay in that town another night while waiting for the bulb to arrive.

Step 2: Open the hood. Take the plastic cover off - it requires a Phillips screwdriver and a slotted one for leverage to pop the little plastic screws up and out. If you are replacing the left bulb you will also have to remove a second piece of plastic with the same tools. I used a Gerber multi-tool and the last of my wits for the job.

 

Step 3: Once you have the plastic out of your way - you will need to turn the fins of the headlight assembly casing counter-clockwise or in my case struggle with it never being opened before for 20 minutes before deciding to use penetrating oil on the seals and waiting then coming back and struggling more before it finally budged.

 Step 4: Once that is turned you then need to wiggle it and work the plastic case out of your way. This may take upwards of 10 minutes if you're lucky. Then there is a secondary coil in place which you will need to turn it counter-clockwise as well and then remove it. This actually isn't much of a pain unlike the rest of the process.

Step 5: Now the assembly case and the coil is out you need to reach up on top of the actual bulb and feel around for two little metal clips that need to be pushed in and then one to the left and one to the right so the clip can fall out of the way of the bulb and allow you to remove it.

Step 6: The bulb should then slide out pretty easily. Once it is out now you have the fun task of doing the exact same thing, but in reverse. It's actually pretty easy going in reverse, just make sure the metal clip is in the exact right place otherwise it all falls to hell pretty quick.

This little piece of glass, wire filament, and plastic is forged in the depths of Hell and will consume you.