Headlight Bulbs Constantly Blowing – Looking for Advice
 

Hi everyone, I’m a bit confused by an issue and hoping someone can shed some light.

My main headlight bulbs keep needing to be replaced unusually often. I’ve had at least three failures in the last six months, mostly on the driver’s side, but now the passenger side as well.

I bought decent bulbs last year and they lasted around six months. After that I replaced them with cheaper ones. The last time they failed, both bulbs had a small bubble inside them. They were very cheap bulbs and gave off hardly any light.

An auto electrician did a quick check of the wiring from the bulb casing and said everything appeared fine. With winter now here in the UK and it getting dark early, I really can’t risk this happening again.

Does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this?

On another note, can anyone suggest which bulbs are best to buy for my car I’m looking for good quality bulbs that provide maximum light without breaking the bank once this issue has been resolved.I’m not sure if this is related, but when I used to arm and disarm the vehicle using the fob, the angel eyes and eyebrows would come on. They no longer do this, even though the settings in the menu show that the feature should be active. These lights do still work when the ignition is on and the headlights come on normally. This feature used to work, but for some reason it has stopped.

There are several headlight types and options that were available. You need to tell us what type you have. Are they halogen or Xenon? It might be related to the degrading insulation of the wires inside the headlight. This insulation was tried to be made more environmentally friendly and the result is that the insulation just cracks, flakes off, shorts out to adjacent wires, etc. I don't know if all the headlight options were built with this type of insulation, I do know the Xenons were.

They are Halogens

It's most likely what he ^^ said.

what would be the best course of action ?

Open up the headlight assemblies and visually inspect the wiring.

There are some round access panels on the back of the headlight. Take one off and use your phone camera or an inspection mirror and have a look inside the headlight. Do you see are degraded insulation? Like pieces flaked off, exposed copper wire, cracks in the insulation? if so, this is probably your issue. These are not meant to be taken apart and refurbished, but some have done so. The good news is also that new halogens headlights are still available and, while they are not inexpensive, they aren't crazy expensive either.

If you need parts for the car, put your VIN number into Realoem.com and it will come up with the parts that were available to your make, model, year. Click ion the Lighting section and look for the part numbers for the halogen headlights.

Simply peeking inside that access hole wasn't enough for me, and also removing the backside of the entire assy was not either. I had to additionally remove the yawing motor and found a ton of exposed wires due to insulation degradation.

I sure wasn't willing to spend a small fortune on new xenon assemblies and so I covered all of the exposed wires using 1/16" spiral wrap.

Try inspecting via the access hole first though.

With halogen bulbs, it's imperative that you NOT touch the glass bulb while installing them. The oil from your fingers can settle on the bulbs and cause premature failure also.
Hopefully it's this simple and not having to fuss with the wiring which is no fun at all.