Melted Headlight Issue

Hi All,
This is my first Blog and it has taken a frustrating event to prompt me to write this.

Background

A few weeks ago I had an incident with my 2010 Toyota Prius. Basically The sump cover was extensively damaged and was leaking oil. Luckily I was able to get it fitted in at my local Toyota Service Centre at Mona Vale in Sydney run by Bill Buckle Automotive. I considered this to be good service and was very grateful.

The work involved not only replacing the sump cover but also having to replace the oil pump, which involved taking out the timing chain etc. Quite a big job.

I also asked for the car to have a service as it was close to it's 70000km service.


What Happened

I picked up the car and went to work. When I got home I noticed large white "blobs" on both headlights. I couldn't believe it! It looked like someone had put glue or epoxy on the headlights.


You can see what I mean from the photos.

LHS Light

RHS Light

This was not like this when I took it to the service centre. I know because I was working around the front and underneath the car for at least an hour and a half checking out the damage to the sump and taking off the under-body panel that had also been damaged. If I had seen this I would have had to rectify it myself, with the lights in this condition it won't get passed for re registration!

The next day I took it back to the service centre to show them and they denied it was them that caused it and claimed it was there when the car was brought in. They showed me the inspection report that they did when the vehicle was first brought in (this is the one with the diagram of the vehicle where they mark on any existing damage). On the diagram they had marked both headlights as being damaged.

I have a problem with this... I should have been shown this the day I brought the car in. They should have walked around the car with me and then have me sign off what had been picked up (this is what happens when you pick up a hire car).

Why Wasn't I Told

The biggest concern that I have is this:

If the car had this issue when it was brought in that any service centre worth it's salt would have brought this to my attention as a priority, even if I the car already has this problem! As I said earlier my car would not get re registered with a fault as severe as this.

All the work cost $1500 AU. The lights come as a complete assembly at $450 AU each. That's another $900 AU on top!

How Did the Headlights Melt
 
From my research it appears that this can happen but needs some specific circumstances:

• Lights need to be on high beam.
• Lights need to be on long enough for heat to melt poly-carbonate.
• Battery needs to power lights long enough for the above to happen.

As the service centre manager told me that the small battery in the Prius wouldn't last long enough to do this. He also tried to explain it away by saying that UV damage had weakened the lights which had led to this happening. This doesn't stand up according to my research.

There is, however, one factor that can speed the process up... That is if the lights are covered by something, which would then trap the heat. From the link below you can see that the lights were only on for 10 to 20 minutes. The Prius battery would certainly last this long!

Follow this link to see another car owner who managed to do this himself


My suspicion is that the car had protection sheets placed on it as any good mechanic would do when working on the car and somehow the lights were accidentally left on and the heat build up under the cover caused the light to melt (they did replace the parking globes so would have had to turn on the lights to test them...).

The Prius also has a feature that allows you to be able to turn it off with the headlights on and not give you a warning buzzer. This is because as soon as you open the drivers door the headlights automatically turn off. When you get back into the car and turn the ignition on the headlights will remember that they were previously on and turn on again. This feature could be a cause for the lights being left on.

I have also noted that on some of the melted plastic there is discolouration which  might be from a cover.

Conclusion

I have written this Blog as a warning for others, not just with this particular issue but just to say be careful when leaving your car with others.

I trusted these people because of the good reputation of Toyota but that trust has been broken.

I want Toyota to give credence to the facts that I have laid out here and replace the headlights. Then my trust will have been restored.

In future I will be taking pictures or video all around the vehicle before I deliver it for any kind of work.

Thanks Ian




Update One - 26-02-2016

Tweeted Toyota and got a reply back to contact their Guest Experience Team by Direct message within a couple of days. Have DM'd them but no reply yet. This could be a Twitter issue though.

Rang NRMA Technical Support and the person there said he had not heard of this type if thing happening in his 20 years in the auto industry. He did give me a number to call at Toyota so will try that.



Update Two - 29-02-2016

Rang Toyota and contacted their Customer Engagement team and they are going to investigate.

Update Three - 11-03-2016

Have not had any contact back from Toyota. They said 36 to 72 hours. Now 288 hours. Have retweeted my frustration back to them. Disillusionment "Oh What a Feeling!"

Update Four - 21-03-2016

Toyota did get back to me shortly after previous Tweet. They have spoken to the service manager and he is standing by his original comments. No surprise there! I laid out my case again and Customer Engagement are going to review it and get back to me.

Update Five - 19-04-2016

Toyota are standing by their service centre who claim is was not them that caused this to happen! I have no recourse now but to take this further to Dept fair Trading and maybe to Motor Traders Association! Might even contact some motoring mags.