[s-cars] HIR headlight bulb warning

[Vincent Frégeac]

Hi Wayne,

Sorry to hear that the 9011 has shot your headlights. I've been using four 
9011 in my relayed DOT headlights without seeing this kind of melting. The 
lows simply burned after 6 month, like the several type of 9005 I've tried 
does also. I suspect my high consumption of 9005/9011 bulbs in the lows is 
simply due to the relaying of the headlight directly from the battery post, 
which noticeably increase the voltage compared to the stock wiring.




Vincent.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Wayne Dohnal" <wd42 at hevanet.com>
To: "S-car list" <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 25, 2006 12:25 AM
Subject: [s-cars] HIR headlight bulb warning

> Do not use a 65 watt high beam HIR bulb in your low beam lights.
>
> I've been running the #9005 65 watt high beam bulbs in the low beams for
> years with no adverse affects.  About a year ago I bought a pair of 65 
> watt
> HIR 9011 bulbs to try out.  Wanting to make comparisons I put them both in
> the same headlight assembly. Since I'd had no problems with 9005s in the 
> low
> beams, I didn't have a second thought about putting in one of the 9011s. 
> A
> few months leater I started noticing the glass lens fogging up on the
> inside.  It's been getting progressively worse and I finally pulled it out
> for cleaning today.  What I found is that the 9011 has been melting the
> plastic low beam reflector housing, and I assume this was the cause of the
> fogging.  Since the 9011 should have the same heat output as the 9005 I 
> can
> only guess that its spherical shape is placing the heat closer to the
> plastic.  About 20% to 25% of my low beam reflector is now shot.  There's
> also a small amount of reflector deterioration by the shank of the high 
> beam
> bulb.  My other headlight, which has never had an HIR bulb in it, also has
> some deterioration in both of the same places, but it's not nearly as
> serious.
>
> Not having tried a 55 watt low beam HIR bulb I don't know if it would 
> cause
> any problems.  But if you're using HIRs and you see a lens start to fog, 
> I'd
> recommend you take them out.
>
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