Blown headlight bulbs,

I've got a 99 Hyundai Accent,replaced the headlight bulbs twice in a week.The last bulbs lasted like 2 hours.

Reply to
P J
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I was working on my XG350 yesterday (H7 bulbs) thinking I'd put a resistor in and see if the bulbs would last longer if they only got around 12 to 12.5 volts instead of the 13.5v or so that they get now. Well, there really is no room for this, but one thing I did notice was that the bulbs were quite easy to unplug from their electrical connectors. Probably all the bulbs I've replaced has loosened the contacts. Anyway, I put some conductive grease on the spade lugs of the bulbs and on the connectors and we will see if that makes any difference. Did you notice if yours were loose? If these bulbs fail quickly I'll go back to the resistor idea and find a way to make it fit. I think the best solution might be to buy some 80/100 watt "illegal" bulbs and run them at a lower voltage so they are only dissipating a legal 55 watts. Should be the same light output, but a 80w bulb running at 55 watts ought to last forever.

Dan

Reply to
Dan K

Check the voltage from the alternator. It may be too high.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

there's something wrong with the voltage regulator, the bulbs should last for years. resistor in line with bulbs? very bad idea. all this will do is create a very hot resistor. It seems that the accent should be under factory warrantee, or is it still under 70K miles? There is one thing more that comes to mind, brake and tail lights sometimes the internal filament shorts causing weird problems. but there is no logical reason other than too much voltage.

Reply to
mykey

Poor ground on the headlight circuit?

Old_Timer

Reply to
Old_Timer

Reply to
John

"P J" ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@storefull-3135.bay.webtv.net...

Have you avoided to touch directly with bare hands the bulbs?

Reply to
Zotto

That isn't a bad idea for the normal high burnout rate of bulbs in Hyundai's Dan, but this guy is eating them up immediately. He's got other problems.

2 hours is pointing to some severe current issues. He's got some fundamental electrical troubleshooting to do.
Reply to
Mike Marlow

In every car except Hyundai's with an H7. These consistently seem to be good for about 18 months.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

I WISH I could get 18 months out of H7 bulbs in my Elantra. They burn out about every 6 months, which seems to be typcial.

Reply to
Brian Nystrom

If you are really getting 13.5V it's going to cook everything, not just the bulbs. It may be a factory defect. I would modify it but not with resistors.

Reply to
mykey

Most alternators are designed to put out 13.5 to 14.5. My Buick is 14.8 for the past 7 years.

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Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I guess we're doing good with the Sonata then. We're getting around 12-18 months (I think...) out of a bulb.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

Reply to message from snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (P J) (Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:

09:19) about "Blown headlight bulbs,":

W> I've got a 99 Hyundai Accent,replaced the headlight bulbs twice in a W> week. The last bulbs lasted like 2 hours.

The above is a statament. There is no question and there is not enough information to make a useful educated guess about your problem. You need to expand a bit more on the problem.

Best Regards Wayne Moses Sat, 19 Jan 2008 11:18:13 -0600

=== Posted with Qusnetsoft NewsReader 3.3

Reply to
Wayne Moses

My 14 year old Acura still has all the original bulbs in it. My 02 Sonata has all the original bulbs in it. I think there is a problem if these cars are burning out bulbs. The only time I have had this problem is in Fords and I fixed it by replacing the voltage regulator. It is conceivable that a loose wire could cause this problem. But I would think it is a poor design or poor manufacturing on the part of Hyundai. But I also bet they will not do anything about it.

Reply to
southluke

The OP obviously has a bad alternator. Probably one or more of the diodes have shorted.

Reply to
Michael Golden

Shorted - or open - diodes reduce the output capacity (and the apparent average voltage) of an alternator. This would make the bulbs last longer. High output voltage is caused by regulator failure. Depending on the vehicle, this may be an integral regulator, and external regulator, or field voltage supplied from the vehicle's PCM under software control.

That said, the voltage would need to be really high - much higher than

14.something volts - to kill bulbs in two hours. So high that the battery would likely be literally boiling due to overcharge.

Remember, the OP threw us some info - probably to see what would happen - and hasn't been back. He's posted exactly twice, and pulled a similar stunt on alt.autos.dodge.trucks ....... "Fuel gauge is erratic,when the gauge is on E,I'll fill up and only take

7,maybe 8 gallons of fuel.thanks"

He also set a "No Archive" on the original message in both cases.

Reply to
Bob

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