My car is eating light globes :-(

[janeababe]

I have a 2009 i30.
It is black, so i always drive with lights on.... BUT.... in the 5 yrs i have owned this car (bought new) I reckon I have replaced at least 25 light globes!  And they are not cheap!

I have mentioned this to mechanics and auto electricians, but they cant find anything wrong with the lights or wiring.

I drove out of my driveway at 6am this morning to head for work, and all i had was high beam!  I had to turn around and come back home.... wasnt going to drive 40kms with no lights. I certainly couldnt high beam everyone else on the road....
Down side, is im working arvo shift today now, finish at 11pm, then turn around for a 6.45am start again tomorrow (sob sob) 

I have decided to start keeping the blown globes (had to replace 2 of them today, which cost me $27.90 ), and the receipts so that i could prove that there is something faulty going on with them.....

I had my previous car for 10yrs, also bought from new... think i only ever blew about 4 globes in 10yrs!

Anyone else have lightglobe issues like mine with the i30?

[lal-au0]

trade it in for another car.

[janeababe]

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@lal-au0 wrote:

trade it in for another car.

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Nope... only just finished paying off in December....

[lal-au0]

why didn't you gp back to the dealer who sold it to you and demanded he does something about it?

[janeababe]

I DID go back to the dealer (they service the car) and complained about the lights.
THEY SAID they couldnt find anything wrong...... since then i have had auto electricians look at the lights, and they say the same thing!

[kopenhagen5]

If they can't find anything electrically, it's possible you have an intermittent shorting or surge.

The only remedy would be to replace or run new wiring for the headlamps including replacing switces but would be costly

Otherwise, perhaps the headlamp mounts are no good causing the headlight assembly to vibrate more than normally under driving conditions.

Do the headlamps ever have moisture visible on the inside glass/plastic?

[janeababe]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

If they can't find anything electrically, it's possible you have an intermittent shorting or surge.

The only remedy would be to replace or run new wiring for the headlamps including replacing switces but would be costly

Otherwise, perhaps the headlamp mounts are no good causing the headlight assembly to vibrate more than normally under driving conditions.

Do the headlamps ever have moisture visible on the inside glass/plastic?

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I have never seen any moisture inside the glassed area, so i dont think its that. The mounts seem tight enough. I did check the wiring plug sockets today while the lighting panel was out... (you have to remove the entire lighting panel to change globes in the i30's.) ... but they seems ok too.
 So i dont know.....   Im at a loss. I did consider replacing the whole panel and maybe getting a lighting panel from the wreckers and trialling that.

[serendipityricho]

Try buying globes made in Germany--not China.

Use 60/55watt globes--the 100/90 and 130/90 are slightly brighter but have a shorter life span.

(thats if the high/low are in the same globe)

If the globes are separate--im not sure of the wattages--but get German ones if you can...............Richo.

[janeababe]

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@The onserendipityricho wrote:

Try buying globes made in Germany--not China.

Use 60/55watt globes--the 100/90 and 130/90 are slightly brighter but have a shorter life span.

(thats if the high/low are in the same globe)

If the globes are separate--im not sure of the wattages--but get German ones if you can...............Richo.

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I do already. I get my globes from Auto One .... 

The ones i put in today are:
OSRAM H7 12v 55w  (same as what was taken out)   Made In Germany.  🙂

[kopenhagen5]

Jane, a good idea if you can get a spare light assembly cheap.

Trial it, and it could give you an answer either way.

But then again, I don't see how that would cause the problem.

We need viewmont.

Try googling to see if there are any threads on it being a common prob if you haven't.