Quickly burning-out headlights

Ahhhh, I hope your not touching the glass of the bulb when installing them... this will cause them to fail very quickly.

IF not, possibly the headlight is leaking and water may be getting on them and leaving a deposit on them, they must remain 100% free of any deposits, including human skin oil to last any reasonable amount of time.

If the headlights are, in fact, burned out then the alternator's voltage or charging regulator is allowing the alternator to over charge the battery and supply too much voltage to the car's electrical needs. This overcharging fried the headlights.

| If the headlights are, in fact, burned out then the alternator's voltage | or charging regulator is allowing the alternator to over charge the | battery and supply too much voltage to the car's electrical needs. This | overcharging fried the headlights.

Could be that but could also be a lose connection/poor mount of the lamps themselves as the mount does act as a heat sink.

If this car is in the USA, (likely due to the RoadRunner e mail address), this car will most likely have standard US sealed beams that don't suffer from the handling or sealing issues found with H4 Halogen bulbs. I suspect that the problem might be a faulty voltage regulator.

Michael Trei

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I sure as hell hope the headlights aren't leaking - they're sealed-beam style, and so I can't possibly be touching the actual bulbs.

I think the alternator's voltage regulator has failed, and so I'm going to try replacing that before getting new headlights. In the meantime, I just won't drive it at night.

sealed beams, wow, haven't seen those things for 20 years, why did USA insist on their usage ?

Possibly because;

Let's face it... Most 'Mericans can't find any country other than Texas on a world map. What makes you think they can replace headlights? Now that there are clever catches on them, the majority of idiots just take it in to replace the headlights, so it is not an issue.

Lee (from Texas. ((not a part of 'Merica)) )

So vhat do Hanz und Franz say about der dead lights? If you chust take der kar to Hanz und Franz at der stealership, dey vill fix der lights und der vill be no sadness, chust der high bills. Und dat is good fer Ole Jerkin Shrimp who needs der increased income after the big lawsuit by Kaptin Kirkorian.

mcbrue brightly under the bridge in the trailer down by the river

Oh come on, that's not fair. At least Americans (who can't tell the difference between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans) still pump their own gas, right?

But seriously, I've changed the headlights before without issue. I'm going to change the voltage regulator and then the headlights and try again.

Its the alternator regulator. Old fault, happened a lot on Ford Cortinas (there's a name from the past) in the UK. I think they had (later ones) the ubiquitous Bosch K1 alternator too. The regulator is screwed (2 screws) into the back of the alternator. You get a new regulator and brushes (all one unit). Fits in a few minutes without removal of the alternator, but make sure you disconnect the battery whilst you perform the task.

Merry Xmas... Rob.

snipped-for-privacy@columbus.rr.com (Sunilito) wrote:

Make sure you test the grounding for the alternator and battery.

I had a similar problem with a BMW 320i. First the battery died out a few times, i figured it was a poor alternator as the idiot light was on very dim.

After replacing the battery that lasted a few weeks until that battery died. I since the alternator wasn't chrging by that point I took it in to be rebuilt. A few weekks went by and that alternator started acting up, I blamed the Bosch Alternator's regulator.

After replacing the regulator twice I took the whole alternator in to a rebulider, a day later the battery was dead again and the alternator had stopped charging. then discovered the bad grounding of the battery was causing the overcharging. Infact regulator was blowing beacause it was acting as primary fuse!

It turned out that the battery ground cable to the engine block had broke off and the the battery grounded to the metal battery tray support was not working properly because the bolt hole had become a large rust hole. It worked good enough to ground the car while running in the daytime, but not when the running at night with the lights and the accessories on the alternator idiot light was on very very dimly.

This meant that the car might run several weeks before the problem appeared again in the form mentioned above.

BIG CLUE: If the battery terminals are tuning black- you are still overcharging.

BTW: I thank the rebuilder that was kind enough to take the time to test my car's charging system. I never had an electrical problem for the next five years.