Help with headlight burnout

Hi:

I have had headlight burnout problems recently, been burning out about every 4-6 months. Is this normal? I am sure to use gloves when installing and use sylvania normal and super brights. Any advice on what to do? Could it be the wiring or fuse? Thanks!

 

Thats not normal at all. Before I switched to my retros my bulbs lasted years. I can see if they were some cheap Ebay Chinese hyperwhite ones but not sylvania's. And honestly I wouldnt know where to start.

 

A very common cause of premature headlight failure is a poor ground. Poor grounds can cause voltage issues at the bulb due to high resistance where the ground is. This will cause premature bulb failure.

 

How can fix this issue? Sorry, don't know much about electric stuff.

 

Hope upside doing well, Bill. Good to see ya.

 

You would need a volt meter, and then measure voltage drop at the ground connection of the battery. If you are not very electrically knowledgeable about this stuff, then a bit of reading would help out. There are tons of information on what voltage drop is, and how to check it out there. Basically what you are doing is testing to be sure that the ground circuit for the headlight has a good ground.

Hiya!

 

OK, so I checked the voltage on the battery and the alternator, both read at normal. There was no voltage drop no higher than normal voltage reading. I am also certain that I never touch the bulbs when installing.

Any more advice? Headlight seems to burn out every 4- 6 months and I can't figure out why?

 

You need to measure for voltage drop at the light that burns out, not just the battery and alternator. What you need to do is specifically check voltage drop for the ground wire for the low beam to where that circuit grounds to the chassis.

 

You still live in Seattle? When I was there I was pretty happy if I got a full year out of a set of Sylvanias...just had my lights on way more frequently there throughout the year, particularly from Nov-May. 4-6 months sounds a bit early though.