My 2000 Avalon has a serious problem with the headlights...they flicker (of course only noticable at night). People think my hazzards are on. I've taken the car to my local Toyota service station and after several trips and bills that total $250.00 dollars, their verdict is "the problem is inherent of the Avalon." Funny thing is, there are no other Avalons (that I can see anyway) with this same problem. I just bought the car in July of this year, and the problem started about a month ago. The Toyota service station checked for bad fuses, even pulled the dash and still couldn't come up with an answer. Help!!!!!!
I just want to make sure we are on the right track here. You say the lights flicker, do you mean "both right and left side headlights when switched on, turn off simultaneously for 1/4 sec or so and then turn back on?" Or "to an observer outside the car it appears that they dim and brighten at times?"
If they appear to flicker to someone outside the car, check the installation of the headlamp buckets. This particular model has large headlight assemblies and one or both may have a missing or improperly torqued attachment points.
If the right and left are not doing this simultaneously, the problem is in the bulb (filament) or the way the bulbs sit and get connected to the electrical system. Remove and clean the headlight capsule's electrical connections and use a contact cleaner. Be careful to not touch the glass surface of the bulb.
If the right and left do this at the same time, can you also see this flicker on the instrument cluster light? If so, the headlight switch/dimmer assembly is in question and should be checked.
On some models, they used automatic headlights (turn on at night and may switch from high beam to low beam when detecting incoming lights from other cars). If you have this option, the problem could be in the control module that activates it. Try tuning the feature off and see if it gets better.
One last idea, place transmission in park, start up the engine. Turn the headlight on and keep an eye on their brightness. Slowly add electrical load to the system. Turn on you A/C, your rear defroster, and step on the brakes .... etc. If the flickering gets worse with additional electrical load, you're looking at a weak/electrically noisy charging system, perhaps a defective battery, or an intermittent idle speed control motor that is not completely compensating for additional engine loads.
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