Why do P5's eat headlight bulbs? Any long-lasting alternatives?

6

616Nickel

:
2002 Mazda Protege5
I just had the car in for a wheel alignment, and the mechanic phoned to let me know it was done--oh, and the left headlight bulb is out. Again. Pretty sure I replaced that one last year.

I've had the car since 2012, and I seem to be replacing headlight bulbs at the rate of maybe 1 per year, which seems excessive. And this seems to be a common problem with P5s: there are still a lot of them on the road around here (rust isn't much of an issue on the West Coast), and I routinely see them with dead headlights.

What causes this? Are they pushing too high a voltage through the lamps? Are there any types or brands of headlight bulb that last longer?
 
If you're replacing bulbs once a year, you're fixing the symptom of some other issue. I put a set of silverstars in mt P5...s***, 5 years before I sold the car. The stock ones lasted over 8 years, I just changed them because I wanted brighter.
\Might wanna check that wiring.
 
Don't all Canadian cars have DRLs? If so, that's a big factor in your shortened bulb life, since they're on all the time.
 
Not trying to hijack but can you adjust them? I've noticed one is significantly higher than the other which sometimes make me turn on my fog lights to have a more even light source on those dark roads
 
H7 bulbs have notoriously short life... try buying "long life" versions from Philips or Osram online... it helps a bit
I for one, appreciate the sedan's H4 headlights much more
 
I literally had BOTH of mine die last night within a couple of hours. Couldn't high beam because of the thick fog everywhere so I just took the back roads and used my fog lights :/
 
Funny, I never had both of my bulbs dead within the same time period. It seemed like I could drive indefinitely with one bulb, but if I replaced the dead bulb within days the other was guaranteed to blow.

It is not a matter of how you handle the bulb or whether or not you use dielectric grease. That's BS. Search it, it's a common problem. It's just another one of the bad problems with these cars. You know how your lights randomly brighten/dim while driving? Don't know what it is, but probably has something to do with that.

I've never blown through so many bulbs as I have on this car. It's ridiculous.
 
Dimming would be your stereo turned up and AC compressor coming on and off. Weak ass alternators loaded to limit.............and before you say it, the heater and/or defrost also runs the AC compressor too, just doesn't light up the dash light for AC like when using vents with AC unless you have cut the trace for that on the climate control circuit board.
 
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i12drivemyMP5 said:
Dimming would be your stereo turned up and AC compressor coming on and off. Weak ass alternators loaded to limit.............and before you say it, the heater and/or defrost also runs the AC compressor too, just doesn't light up the dash light for AC like when using vents with AC unless you have cut the trace for that on the climate control circuit board.
Click to expand...

Nope. None of those things.

It does it randomly even if nothing else is on. Search it and read the threads.
 
sometimes it's the bulb holder/adapter piece that gets burned out... it's a commonly replaced part and usually stocked at dealers... you can also get them from Advance Auto
 
Dielectric grease slowed down bulb burnout in my P5. I put it on both the bulbs and the adapters, male and female bits. I will look for long-life versions of the H7 bulbs next time per TheMAN.

Went to dealer for oil change yesterday. One of their mechanics has a P5 just like mine. My service manager just bought one too.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
TheMAN said:
sometimes it's the bulb holder/adapter piece that gets burned out... it's a commonly replaced part and usually stocked at dealers... you can also get them from Advance Auto
Click to expand...

That might have been part of my problem. The driver side adapter was burned on one side, and the female copper socket on that side was discolored and deformed, likely from heat. I replaced both adapters and bulbs, I think they were Philips X-Treme Vision I got on special at Lordco, so not the long-life variety. These are actually really nice bulbs with a very definite cut-off, so now I can see just how badly I need to adjust the headlights!
 
I run the Philips Xtremevision in all my headlights that are halogen. Have experienced better lighting and superior longevity compared to silverstars. P5 has H7 HIDs currently but have a set of retrofit projectors needing some work and a morimoto 35w D2S setup to go in them. Just need time and project priority to kick in............
 
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For the record, here's the driver-side bulb socket. Any idea what causes this?

158f35ceab.jpg
 
I'm thinkin the bulbs tabs didn't lineup during installation and bent the receiver socket.

(or someone stuck a screwdriver in it and bent the shyte outta it)
 
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