Headlight issues

planefreak

Member
:
Mazda, Protege5
So my P5 has started having some issues with the passenger headlight. I bought new headlights in December, then one went out. I put in one of my old ones and that worked fine for a week until it died. This morning I went a picked up a new bulb, and literally 2 hours after installing it, it was toast. The first set were Silverstar's, then a cheap one, and today was a Sylvania Xtravision. All on the passenger side.

I can't decide if they are just bad lights, or something wrong with my car. I checked the voltages:

Engine off 11.9 ~ 12.0 v
Engine on (idle) 13.75 ~ 13.9 v
Engine on (3k rpm) 13.8 ~ 13.9 v

I'm no expert, but all these voltage sound pretty normal to me. Any ideas?
 
is the adapter that goes between the bulb and the headlight harness corroded? One of mine was and I cleaned it up and have no issues now.
 
Don't touch the glass of the light bulb with your fingers the oil in your fingers will make the bulb burn out. only touch the plastic base and if you accidentally touch the glass of the bulbs clean it with rubbing alcohol and a napkin
 
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2 hours is pretty fast.
Was the filament broken? If not, maybe the plug into the bulb's base was loose.
Did you touch the glass of the bulb? Oils from your fingers (not olive oil) can cause issues with bulb longevity because of the heat generated by the bulb.
 
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