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.

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

Poor ground on the headlight circuit?

Old_Timer

 

Reducing the voltage will certainly reduce the voltage but also changes the
"colour temperature" of the lamp. It will change in this case to a yellower
colour. I.d agree with others comments, the voltage is too high, get the
regulator checked.
John

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

Most alternators are designed to put out 13.5 to 14.5. My Buick is 14.8 for
the past 7 years.
http://autorepair.about.com/cs/electrical/a/aa122700a.htm

 

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 message from (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

 

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

 

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

--

 

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.