ticker Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 My wife has a 2003 Mazda Protege5. Its been a great car for us except for one thing. The headlights only last between 3-6months. Its an halogen H7 size bulb, lowbeam only. I don't get it. I'm really careful not to touch the bulbs when I change them even though you need to have hands the size of a five year old and be double jointed to get them installed. Anybody have any ideas? I think I changed one headlight in my WD21 in the 5 years I've owned it. In the 2.5 years we have had the Mazda I've replaced 5 bulbs. I've tried expensive silverstars, I've tried the cheaper ones. Any ideas would be appreciated as I need to replace another one and would love it if I could get this one to last. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edicer2 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 car might have a short or something causing the bulb to break. my z would pop bulbs like crazy i replaced the fuses and it worked fine after so idk what the deal was Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverlion Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Does the housing have and cracks? I had a Taurus that had a small crack underneath. I went down the same ave. A dealer told me about cracks. I would have never thought a small crack would cause such an issue. Good Luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94extreme Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Does the housing have and cracks? I had a Taurus that had a small crack underneath. I went down the same ave. A dealer told me about cracks. I would have never thought a small crack would cause such an issue. Good Luck. yeah moisture. when i drilled holes in mine (another vehicle) the problem went away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyb33 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 yep. also, for some reason the sylvania H7 bulbs have been notorious for blowing lately. I work part time at advance auto parts and i dont know how many H7s i have changed in peoples vehicles(same people/vehicle many times). we occasionally replace them for free because we realize this is an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPath88 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Are you touching the bulb when you install them? Oils from your skin can cause them to fail early as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 The headlights only last between 3-6months. Its an halogen H7 size bulb, lowbeam only. I don't get it. I'm really careful not to touch the bulbs when I change them even though you need to have hands the size of a five year old and be double jointed to get them installed. I can't help you as I've only driven Nissan for the last 15 years and have never had to replace a headlight. (one held water 40% deep in the winter, worked fine)... As for the "hands the size of a five year old and be double jointed", I replaced the GF's timing belt on a Honda last weekend and wish I could buy a set of those!!! B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94extreme Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 half full of water i didn't have an issue with but when the humidity in there was high, i kept blowing bulbs too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MY1PATH Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 As for the "hands the size of a five year old and be double jointed", I replaced the GF's timing belt on a Honda last weekend and wish I could buy a set of those!!! did that thing work out ok after you got a new tensioner? anyway have you checked your voltage @ the bulb? plug the bub (to get accurate voltage drop) and back probe the connector with a multi meter. automotive "12v" bulbs are rated @ 13.5v above 14 volts will shorten its life 14.5+ you may have and alternator problem. 11.5 or lower will shorten its life too and you may want to consider installing a direct battery realy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ticker Posted January 27, 2009 Author Share Posted January 27, 2009 Are you touching the bulb when you install them? Oils from your skin can cause them to fail early as well I'm really careful not to touch. Thanks for the ideas, it gives me a few avenues to pursue. Anyone ever used MTEC bulbs? they supposedly last longer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexrex20 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 I'm really careful not to touch. Thanks for the ideas, it gives me a few avenues to pursue. Anyone ever used MTEC bulbs? they supposedly last longer the brighter the bulb, the shorter its lifespan. that's a general rule of thumb with any halogen or incandescent bulb. does your wife's mazda have daytime running lights? if so, the DRLs may be the low-beam bulb. that could explain the seemingly quick bulb 'failure.' if the bulb is on, it's very slowly eating away at their life expectancy rating. as you can imagine, driving around with the bulbs on 24/7 will very quickly burn them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ticker Posted January 27, 2009 Author Share Posted January 27, 2009 no drl's but my wife is a big believer in lights on for safety, however I convinced her to stop turning them on a while back. She agreed to give it a try to see if that was causing it, but it really hasn't made too big of a difference. I have to believe it is the bulb or the set up in this vehicle, since I've never experienced this level of bulb failure in any of our other vehicles no matter how often we drive with the lights on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I have a hole near the bottom of my headlight glass. One humid rainy night, the bulb popped, when I removed it, I found that it had actually exploded. There was bits of glass all over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ticker Posted January 28, 2009 Author Share Posted January 28, 2009 well, we had a storm coming in last night so I had to use another sylvania bulb, since thats al they sell at the autozone, $15.99, ripoff!!!! I saw the same bulb for 9.99 on line, but couldn't wait for it. Anyway I was extra careful to not touch it, since when I pulled the old one out i had a spot that had melted into a bubble on the side of the light. Contrary to my earlier statements, I guess I must of touched it, but I'm going to go ahead and blame the fact that I can barely get my hand in the little a$$ spot that they leave to do this in. Also noticed that the bulbs don't sit well in the seat that is there in the casing, although the painful torture device, I mean retention spring seems to hold it in ok. I'm going to more research on these bulbs and alternatives for next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 On the point of not touching the bulb, do it the easy way. Buy a box of disposable latex or nitrile gloves, put one on to install the bulb and throw the box into the garage for later, you'll have plenty of uses for them, trust me!! B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5523Pathfinder Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Mazda may have a similar problem as Nissan did with the Altima. They did not have a decent ground and would burn the bulbs out rather quickly. There was a recall to install a new ground plate. In some cases, the bulbs got hot enough to burn through the housing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msavides Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 (edited) Vibration! There have been a lot of vehicles that have poorly designed headlight assemblies. The vibration is fine for a new bulb however once the filament is used for a while it gets brittle and the vibration will cause it to break. You can verify this if you look at the bad bulb and the bulb looks good except for the break in the filament. you really see this in light assemblies that are mounted in bumpers. Most bumpers vibrate like crazy at higher speeds. I have a hyundai and the fog lights mounted in the bumper rarely lasted more than a couple of months, I replaced them with a HID conversion kit and they have been running great for about 3 years now. ohh and the reason why the HID lights are not effected by vibration is cause there is not filament. it shoots a spark between two electrodes. Edited February 4, 2009 by msavides Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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