The strange thing is that I can not manually leave my headlights on the bright setting. I can hold the lever and engage the brights but as soon as I let go, it reverts back from bright to normal.

Turn off the Automatic High Beam switch to the left side of your steering wheel.

 

I'm not trying to turn OFF the Automatic High Beam. Since having the new windsheild put in, even with the lights set on Auto, it does not show "auto". Im sure since I am getting the message "HEADLIGHT SYSTEM MALFUNCTION" is the reason. I just can't figure out why when if push the lever forward to the position that would normally keep your lights on bright/high beam, nothing happens.

 

Our '17, purchased last December developed the infamous spontaneous crack at 1300 miles (yes thirteen hundred!) Toyota, after looking at it (Maybe 200 people worth) stood behind it and ordered me a new one. Local guys knew ALL about needing the calibration-regardless of OEM or not. Toyota did it after the glass change out, no problem, once they followed ALL the instructions, CAREFULLY!

Your local glass guys must be especially -or intentionally clueless!

 

?.... Yep, you guessed it. I see warning lights start flashing: "LANE DEPARTURE ALERT MALFUNCTION VISIT YOUR DEALER" and "PRE-COLLISON SYSTEM MALFUNCTION SEE YOUR DEALER" and "HEADLIGHT SYSTEM MALFUNCTION SEE YOUR DEALER".

So apparently all those sensors live on the windshield? Interesting.

 

That is what I am told. Even windshields are "smart" these days. Talk to the glass company today and was told they have done many Highlander replacements and mine is the first time they had an issue with the OEM needing calibrated!

 

what really ticks me off is that the Dealership can not get me calibrated (a 4 hour job) before we leave town on a road trip for Thanksgiving. Bummer not to have sensors like lane departure and pre-collision alert working for a heavily traveled holiday trip!

 

The auto high beams, pre-collision, and lane departure all rely on the camera equipment mounted on the windshield to the side of the rearview mirror. AHB sees the oncoming headlights, PCS supplements the radar sensor with the camera imagery, and LDA looks for the lines on the road.

Given that, I hate to say it, but I agree that the glass company sounds clueless. All of that stuff needs to be recalibrated when the glass is replaced so that the computers know exactly how and where the camera is mounted. Those glass people must count on the computer to think it's "close enough" and let it go without doing anything.

 

Correct me if I am wrong but none of what I am hearing from the glass company is making sense to me. According to them, they have done many Highlanders and mine is the first time they have had this problem where it needs to be calibrated by the Dealership.

Okay, lets think thru this. THERE HAS TO BE A REASON! Either the glass company is blowing smoke up my ass and think I am stupid enough to buy their story of mine being the first OR the windshield was not installed properly OR the windshield is defective. Am I right?

By the way, in addition to the $1,000. already billed to my insurance company, they will now get billed another $420. for the calibration! Dealer service says 4 hour job.

 

The windshield isn't defective just because the sensors need to be calibrated.

If I give the glass people the benefit of the doubt and assume they're not playing stupid just to irritate you, then I think they probably weren't aware of the need to calibrate the camera/sensors, and they've gotten lucky to this point. Remember that the Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) system was optional and only on Limited Platinum until 2017, so they could have done windshields on many other models from 2014-2016 where this wasn't even a part of the job. So maybe yours is the first one with TSS that they've done, or maybe yours could be the first one they did that needs calibration so badly that the computer is complaining about it. I wonder how much margin for error there really is, and if their previous customers are riding around with unknown problems or not.

 

I think you are pretty much on target on all points. I called the Dealership today and talked with someone in the service department and they told me that EVERY WINDSHIELD THAT IS REPLACED IN A 2018 HIGHLANDER HAS TO BE CALIBRATED..... PERIOD. I'm assuming that I must be the first 2018 Highlanders that this glass company has replaced. Like you said, not all previous highlanders had the sensors that now need calibrated. When I text the person I am working with at the glass company and shared with her the information I was given, her response was "thanks for the information, I will share with my team".

 

My #1peeve about thehighlander is the windshield. My 2001 Ford can take a Boulder and shake it off, 2 chips in 6 months now on the 2018 Highlander. It must be thinner glass. Careful driving and then some flatbed truck with pebble come the other direction and tiny pebble... chip.

 

When I bought my Highlander the dealership tried very hard to get me to buy windshield insurance. They claimed after-market windshields would not work properly. Especially with all the driver safety technology that comes with the Limited. I didn't get it but maybe I should have.

 

.... Why can't anything just go as planned??? UGHHH:frown:

Because companies have a urge to keep selling new crap. So they make the new crap look like something you HAVE to have to feel socially accepted, ie people changing out their cars every 2-4 years. This way they charge for it and make new models.
So in return, consumers end up complicating simple things for the sake of convenience. The more "KISS" your electronics are, the longer they and the mechanics will generally last.

 

I have an ‘18 SE and as soon as I get a chip, I get it repaired immediately in fear of all this calibration BS. My buddy with an ‘16 Acura TLX has had nothing but trouble replacing his windshield (twice now in a 3 month span) Each and every time, only the dealer could calibrate the damn thing and the cost was the same ($420). Geico reimbursed him each time after he had to pay out of pocket. I was told by Safelite and a couple other glass repair shops that if a vehicle has lane departure functionality, the dealer needs to calibrate. Hopefully this BS and the repair shops get the required equipment.

 

This morning, I stupidly cracked my windshield with the wiper arm while preparing for a 5 day trip to the Rockies. The 20" Bosch ICON wiper blades don't exactly fit due to the length of the plastic housing and the angle of the wiper arm - you can still install it without the housing. As I was fiddling with it, I let the arm slap down on the windshield causing a crack that, by the time I got it looked at was about 6 inches long going north. Seeing that I was going on an interstate trip in a couple of days in sub-freezing weather things didn't look good for the crack being stable. I'll be doing just about everything you could possibly do to stress the windshield. So, a few hours and $650 later, I have a new OEM Pilkington windshield.

After reviewing this thread, I was resigned that I would need a calibration even though the repair guys said they were conscious of it and that 95% of the cars in this situation don't need a calibration. I was looking forward to a road trip looking at blinking lights without TSS. They even warned me that some dealerships balk at calibrating OEM windshields. Right now, though, I'm not getting any warning lights and LDA and auto-high beams seem to be working. I would think if it's going to give me a calibration warning, it would do so immediately. I haven't tried auto cruise control yet. I'll update this if anything changes.

The technician mentioned that something about the way they handled the electronics made it less likely to need calibration. The manager/?owner who gave me the quote made no promises but said that 95% of the time it did not require recalibration. The receptionist that finalized the transaction said that Toyota recommends recalibration. My guess is that disconnecting the module triggers the recalibration warning and that if they do the installation without disconnecting then it won’t require it. I’m sure there is some liability incurred in replacing a windshield without requiring calibration so I’m not surprised that many places won’t do it. It looks like these guys did me a huge solid.