Headlamp bulbs (on my car, not my bus)

For some reason both my headlight (dip beam) bulbs have gone, even though one of them is only 10 months old. Am I alone in thinking modern bulbs are crap, whether auto or household?
Anyway as I need a pair is it worth upgrading to those super Bright jobbies? My car normally has standard bulbs, which I can get for a couple of quid because im not stupid and avoid halfords. So is it really worth paying 15 to 20 quid upwards for the brighter ones? Will it really make that much difference?

 

Depends on how bright your bulbs are now. As they've both blown it will make a fecking MAHOOSIVE difference

 

Remember to wear rubber gloves when fitting. Make sure the gloves you wear don't have any sodium in them...

 

Returning to the subject...I bought some Osram(?) extra-bright H4s for my bus, and they make difference. Have you got H4s or H7s?

As Joker said, hold the bulb by the metal end. Finger grease on the glass can cause them to fail prematurely, as halogens can't get rid of the heat.

 

Think I'm going to get some of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130500452088?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

Do I detect a facetious remark there you cheeky scamp?! I've never been out driving at night and thought - oh darn I do wish my lights were brighter. I have thought - good lord above what's with all these oncoming cars blinding me with their super bright headlights!

Mine are h7, does that make a difference, or is it just the fitting or something?

 

My A3 goes through about 5 or 6 headlight bulbs every year , same for side lights don't matter if they are cheap or decent make .........

 

That makes me feel better, I'm not suffering alone! How's yer household bulb situation there?

 

H7s are the smaller, single-filament ones. Shouldn't make a difference, I wouldn't think.

 

cant remember the last time I fitted a bulb to my own car, years and years ago, you lot must be using um up to fast

 

That's because you just buy a new car when a Bulb goes!

 

Dont talk to me about house hold bulbs G U 10's seem to have a life span of about 3 weeks !

 

First bulb to fail on my bus was one of the tail lights............after 17 years!!
Tony

 

I've put half a dozen in my 11 plate car but NEVER in the Bus or the Bug?!?!?!
Maybe it's a usage thing? Or modern car electrics?

 

Those that have a lot of bulb failures
Do you turn your lights on before starting your engine or after youve started your engine?

 

I thought you always started the engine then put on lights etc. so that the starter gets the max power available from the battery.
Tony

 

We had GU10's that did that - think each time it was £5 a pop!

Get some LED's and I'll be surprised if your problem doesn't go away.

 

One of my super brights died after a couple of months on my Peugeot so I drive round with one white and one sort of blue headlamp.

Halogens rely on the quartz bulb getting exactly hot enough to cause the metal deposited on the quartz evaporated from the filament to react with the halogen gas in the bulb to make a metal halide vapour. The metal halide then breaks down on the filament, quicker on hot spots, keeping it from blowing while being run hotter than traditional bulbs.
If there are finger prints on the quartz these create black marks that change the temperature of the quartz around the marks, either cracking it or reducing the efficiency of making the halide..
If you run halogens too high in voltage they burn out because the metal doesnt deposit on the filament from the halide.
If you run halogens too low in voltage the quartz never gets too hot to make the halide.

so they are a lot more touchy about voltage and being touched....

And the trouble with LEDs bulbs as replacements for filament bulbs is that the heat they give off is not in the form of short wavelength infrared (thousands degrees C) which goes out along with the light and reflects off the reflector but instead as long wavelength (100 degrees C) into the metal parts around the LED which heats up until the LED stops working. So light fittings for LEDs need different cooling - some cars actually have fans on the headlamps which last less time than the halogen bulbs they replaced.

I notice some of the Chinese LED bulbs on eBay do not seem to have any way of getting rid of the heat, while others which are not as high power have big cooling fins on them..

 

I think that's domestic bulbs generally. Even "decent" ones don't seem to last that long - I got sick of replacing them. I bit the bullet and got the house LED-ed up...has worked well so far.

 

Yup my LED's have last two years +

I got some hyper bright ones back in the day that cost around £22 each... I needed 10 just for the kitchen/dinner