Other lighting problem on the 2005 Toyota Prius
When other lighting problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Toyota Prius report other lighting problem at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 150,000 miles, from 86 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 86,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 52,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 185,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 133,336 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
5% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52,348 miles | 80,913 miles | 111,000 miles | 150,000 miles | 185,684 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $120–$1,200 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2013 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 412; the 2005 has 101. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I have a 2005 toyota prius. One of my HID headlights burned out after only 35,000 miles, just 3 months after my warranty expired. Toyota claims on their website that HID headlights last longer than halogen bulbs, but by e-mail said that they had not determined life expectancy of parts in my vehicle. Looking at the many prius chat rooms on the web, this is not an unusual problem. As the replacement part alone (a single bulb) runs $350, there is a substantial problem with having to replace the bulb so soon after the warranty expires. *tr
Toyota's HID headlights seem to only work intermittently. Toyota would like us to replace the bulbs. Labor and the bulb run about $500. This seems to be a problem with many of toyota's vehicles and seems like consumer gouging on a faulty product/design to the nth degree! *tr
Headlights began illuminating very short distance. Repair center found failed sensor. My concern is that system failed into unsafe condition when the onboard systems are perfectly capable of remembering the last safe condition. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Toyota Prius
Headlight failure or clouding
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
Loss of braking
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 101 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other lighting problem happen on the 2005 Toyota Prius?
Across 86 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 150,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other lighting problem on the 2005 Toyota Prius?
101 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed