Headlights burnt out AGAIN! WTF?

On the flip side, the voltage on my ('93) Ford drops off at idle, something that my Chevy and Porsche do not do. Win some, lose some.

nate

On the flip side, the voltage on my ('93) Ford drops off at idle, something that my Chevy and Porsche do not do. Win some, lose some.

nate

***** No challenge on that, Nate.

And if they don't, on a lot of Chrysler's you get to replace the ecu.

I guess both Ford and Chrysler has the regulator as part of the ECU, and GM in the alternator. I have owned one Chrysler in the past ten years, no Fords, and a lot of GMs. The one Chrysler has never given me a problem (318 cid engine, good tranny, etc). Every GM I ever owned had alternator problems, going back to the mid or early

80's.

Do you see the comment from Nate that the Ford voltage rolls off as the engine idles as being a general problem with Fords??

Chrysler Corporation was the first American auto manufacturer to offer alternators, I think so. cuhulin

My last GM alternator only lasted 190,000 miles and 20 years. Pure crap.

The alternators on my vehicles usually need brushes at around 150k

Good for you. Some were better than others, of course.

The ECS100 series were the worst, AFAIK. I got my first one of these in 89, and that car would use 2-5 alternators per year. (Yes, OEM brand new ones)

No problem for me. I don't have a monster sound system that I use to annoy other motorists at stop lights though.

There's nothing to say you have to use the original replacement. Some of the

1-wire GM units will last forever and are easy to rebuild yourself, too, and they can be retrofitted onto just about anything, including foreign cars...

--scott

I think it is only fair to say that the quality of these alternators was not bad. The applications were bad. These were the small bodied hi amperage units that were developed to fit in small spaces. The heat and vibration ate them up.

I converted one of them to a single wire system for my tractor, and replaced a small Bosch unit with it. It is not nestled into the engine curves, gets plenty of air circulation, and has been working perfectly for several years. Of course, John Deere doesnt draw many amps after it starts up either.

Size was a problem on this one, Scott. There was only a very small space to nestle that alternator into. This alternator was designed to put out over

100 amps in that small package. You could buy an "Iceberg" kit for it which might make it last longer, but if the fins on the kit took up too much room, then it wouldnt go.

I had similar problems with a Fiero, and I believe both issues were too much heat and vibration. Starter motors also suffered on this little car, because they were right next to the exhaust manifold.

So in this case, it wasnt the quality of the parts, I guess, just the wrong application under the circumstances.

OK this time I replaced the headlamp bulbs with standard HB2 9003 bulbs

BINGO!! It worked!

It seems that BOTH bulbs did burn out same time! Not sure why unless the Xtravision bulbs were just too high wattage like was said earlier

they shouldn't be higher wattage, but they *do* produce more light by driving a smaller filament harder - that is, they put the same wattage through a smaller filament, making it hotter.

nate

Ahhh..... I see Nate.... thanks!

136

One thing that often gets overlooked is the ground circuit. Make sure that there is a good connection on the ground side. My experience has shown that cleaning the ground connection on the rad support or where ever it is makes more improvement that any higher intensity light.

Chris

Now if you convert to H4s, you can get some bulbs of *ahem* questionable legality... on the shelf I have two pair of 90/100W H4s... never felt the need to use 'em though (55/60s are bright enough in good Cibie reflectors, and with a relay harness are WAAAAAAAY brighter than the original non-halogen sealed beams that were in my car)

nate

In the case of my pickemup truck, I did clean all the grounds I could find and reassembled them with silicone grease, and did the same with the battery terminals and the connections on the other end of the battery cables. I also removed the alternator and cleaned its connector, and had it bench tested at my FLAPS, "no fault found."

It still starts every time, so I stopped worrying about it. It's annoying to watch the headlights dim at idle though.

nate

I'm using those "off road only" bulbs quite a bit. They work pretty good in the spot/flood lights we have on the engines. You have to make a reflector for the housing to accept the bulbs but they seem to work Ok and they are MUCH MUCH cheaper than the factory sealed beams. (the normal sealed beam units cost 90 bucks per bulb! and each head takes three....)