Euro Light Gremlins

[Mike Miller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Djdawson2 at aol.com 


Ingo,
I could certainly be wrong, but I have encountered a number of "DOT" lights where this is the case.  As I said, I don't have a 9003 to test, so I'm only making my best guess.  I also find it ironic that his troubles only started after the install of 9003 bulbs.  I guess we'll know for sure when he swaps them out.
Happy New Year!
Dave in CO 

Dave, Ingo, 
I'll give you guys an update here. I ended up unplugging the headlights the night it was happening. The next day, I plugged them back in and the problem has not happened again. The day it happened I had driven from Seattle to Montana ( abut 550 miles) in a lot of slush/wet lane conditions. 

I am looking for a decent source for the H4 55w 100 bulbs ( that is what came out of the lights and they were quite satisfactory) - all I've seen so far in my limited searching is about $90 a pair, which to me seems very high. The last 100w H3 I bought was under $5. I do agree with Dave that it is suspicious that the problem never happened before the 9003's - but they worked fine for close to two weeks after being installed. Also funny that both of the old bulbs would blow within a week of each other.The 5 mile drive back home without headlights was not pleasant - I was in town and couldn't really use the 100w high beams in traffic :-). Before the 2nd bulb blew, the light output of the single H4 was more than my old 200 with DOTs put out. Amazing.

Dave, on the "other" car, I had converted from 9004's to 9007's - that conversion required that two wires be switched - ground was one of them and I forget if it was low or high beam for the other. All the reading I have done indicates that the 9003 and the H4 are indeed the same. I would also be willing to bet that the 9003 is limited by DOT regs to a max output of 55w60, which is what I have in there currently. 

The link that Ingo posted gives a very good write up on H4/HB2/9003 bulbs. Unfortunately, I cannot cut n paste from Adobe Acrobat.
http://www.vrx.net/dsl/H4_bulletin.pdf

When I get back to Seattle next week, I'll check some of the import car stores and look around online and see if I can source the H4's at a reasonable price. I think Napa carries them and were just out when I was looking. They did have some H4 70w75s in stock that I probably should have purchased as they were under $10/bulb.

mike