Restless Native

I de-tango'd my headligths this weekend and think it's much improved the car's looks. Took a while but the guides on this site were excellent.

However as per usual with things I do, they never run smoothly.

After putting the headlights back together, the same way I took them appart (or so I thought) the offside headlight blew its bulb immediately, so I put another in and the same thing happened.

Don't want to put anymore bulbs in, 'cause at £6 a pop it's getting expensive. If anyone has any ideas about what I've done and how I could fix it I'd be grateful.

Brit_in_Japan

I can't offer any special advice about why the bulb is blowing, just double check all the electrical connections. Also make sure you don't handle the glass of the bulb when you put a new one in. They get hot and any dirt or grease on the glass can shorten their life.

One word of advice, apart from the obvious safety implications of a having a headlamp bulb out, you can actually get done by the police for havng defective headlights. If you get stopped by the police and they ask you if you knew you had a headlight out, say no.

You might automatically think think in such a circumstance you would get a slap on the write and asked to get it fixed. However if you admit you knew it was out, you lay yourself open to a charge which will result in 3pts on your licence. With the risk of 3 points at any time from speed cameras, the last thing you need is a stupid 3 points for a blown headlamp bulb!

Restless Native

Yeah, thanks for that I've pled ignorance to the feds before and got away with it, so was planning on doing again if I got stopped !

As for the reassembly I've connected all the wiring the way it was when I took it apart, and it looks fine (the nearside one works perfectly) and I made sure that the bulb wasn't touched at all, so I'm at a loss as to what the cause is, but to be fare i'm no expert.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Did you go near the bulbholder when you had the light aprt? I'd be inclined to look very closely at it, check for short circuits etc.

Do you have access to a multimeter?

If so, check what voltage you have at the lights.

Alcazar

Chelspeed

I can see why a short circuit would blow a fuse but how could it cause a bulb to blow?

Apart for the greasy finger prints already mentioned then I think I'd be looking for something causing an intermittent contact rather than a short circuit. So effectively the bulb is turning on and off continuously. It's thermal cycles that blows bulbs rather than anything else.

Think of bulbs at home, do they ever spontaneously fail when they've been on for an hour, nope just as you turn them on. Can't really think what could cause this though. Not mounted right in the holder, loose connectors, dodgy earth?

Or just coincidence?