Dipped Beam

[alan589]

Went out to the Yaris tonight and had no headlights!

Sidelights working, full beam working, dipped beam goosed. bulbs were replaced about 2 months ago. Is it possible that the bulbs are gone already, at the same time?

I will stick one of the old bulbs in tomorrow morning to check.

Has anyone else experienced this or anything similar?

Ta

Alan

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

My Yaris only has one bulb for dipped and full beam. Has other models got two then? It could be a number of things. Put your old ones in and if they work then you'll know that the new ones just went. Possibly because they were contaminated by touch perhaps. However, if it still doesn't work then you've got a niggly problem...

[alan589]

My Yaris only has one bulb for dipped and full beam. Has other models got two then? It could be a number of things. Put your old ones in and if they work then you'll know that the new ones just went. Possibly because they were contaminated by touch perhaps. However, if it still doesn't work then you've got a niggly problem...

Hi there and thanks for replying.

Same here, one bulb , two filaments. bulbs on driver and passenger side were replaced hence the plural! I couldn't wait until tomorrow so went out and changed the easily accessed drivers bulb with the old one and it worked.

It appears that the dipped beam filaments in both bulbs have blown at the same time! They were the super bright ones from Halfords which were indeed nice and bright, while they lasted.

I think that I will avoid Halfords bulbs in future!

I will do the other side tomorrow in the daylight because it is a bugger to get at.

[stantheman1]

As unlikely as it sounds it is still possible!

Possible causes for premature failure:

Contamination of the bulbs during installation with your fingers, oil, grease etc. then chances are they would both blow within a short space of time of each other.

Cheap brand of bulbs.

Excessive heat, vibration and/or voltage.

Or it could be that there is a poor connection either at the lampholder or switch.

Hope you get it sorted.

[alan589]

As unlikely as it sounds it is still possible!

Possible causes for premature failure:

Contamination of the bulbs during installation with your fingers, oil, grease etc. then chances are they would both blow within a short space of time of each other.

Cheap brand of bulbs.

Excessive heat, vibration and/or voltage.

Or it could be that there is a poor connection either at the lampholder or switch.

Hope you get it sorted.

I have been having an intermittent issue when starting the car, like the power flickering on and off like an old b movie!

I suspect that i need to tighten the Battery terminals. I loosened them to move the Battery a smidge when I was replacing the bulbs and possibly didnt tighten them properly. I will nip them up and see how it goes.

Thanks

Alan

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

Clean the Battery terminals, use a bit of vaseline, tighten and that should help with the problem. Oh and also invest in some Philips X-treme Power bulbs. A lot of members on the Yaris forums (including myself) have them and we all swear by them. You can buy them on eBay quite cheap too.

[alan589]

Clean the battery terminals, use a bit of vaseline, tighten and that should help with the problem. Oh and also invest in some Philips X-treme Power bulbs. A lot of members on the Yaris forums (including myself) have them and we all swear by them. You can buy them on Ebay quite cheap too.

Are you calling me a Halfrauds cheapskate!!!

[DONFRAMAC]

If your uprated bulbs were a LARGE boost in power, you can expect poor lifetime, as is explained in a Philips bulb-comparison on a website. I have used the Halfords 50% upgraded bulbs (check that they are the GEC ones, not ALITE), and had sterling service. They are called Super Brilliance, and are in gold boxes. Don't go higher in upgrade. I have bought PIAA xenon enhanced halogen 60/55 bulbs, at ~£50 the pair, from "MOTAMAN", and the guarantee is only 3 months.

Your headlamp shells are so large, you don't really need more of a boost. (P.S., the dip beams fail before the main, as they are used more.) (Those GEC- built bulbs are named MEGALITE on the top face of base-plates, and GEC themselves sell a 60% uprated version, if you can find them at Autosave, or similar store.)

[alan589]

If your uprated bulbs were a LARGE boost in power, you can expect poor lifetime, as is explained in a Philips bulb-comparison on a website. I have used the Halfords 50% upgraded bulbs (check that they are the GEC ones, not ALITE), and had sterling service. They are called Super Brilliance, and are in gold boxes. Don't go higher in upgrade. I have bought PIAA xenon enhanced halogen 60/55 bulbs, at ~£50 the pair, from "MOTAMAN", and the guarantee is only 3 months.

Your headlamp shells are so large, you don't really need more of a boost. (P.S., the dip beams fail before the main, as they are used more.) (Those GEC- built bulbs are named MEGALITE on the top face of base-plates, and GEC themselves sell a 60% uprated version, if you can find them at Autosave, or similar store.)

Thanks Donframac.

I noticed that they are ALITE bulbs, are they poorer quality?

I will try the Super Brilliance as I was impressed by the improved illumination, especially on dipped beam.

Regards

Alan

[alfiejts]

As Cherry Red says, go for the Phillips X-Treme vision. They have even better reviews than any of the Halfords range and cost much the same....

I've got a set of working Halfords super brilliance "GEC +60s" sat in a cupboard because the Phillips are noticeably brighter....

The GEC are OK, but the problem with any Halfords branded goods is that you don't know who the real mnufacturer is to check the quality and from the messages above, you can see that they used different bulbs from different suppliers all branded the same and the only way to tell is to look at the actual bulbs themselves...

I bought the Halfords bulbs because the GECs got good write ups and the Halfords branded ones were the only ones I could find locally (I had to check the boxes on the shelves to make sure I got two GEC...)- but even they've been replaced in my car by the Phillips X-treme.

As above, just make sure you don't touch the glass of the bulb or let it touch any grease on the headlight surround as you fit them as that will cause premature failure.

(Use meths and a microfibre cloth to clean in case of accidental contact...)

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

I'd altogether avoid Halfrauds if I were you. I used to buy my bits and pieces from Motorists Discount Centres who weren't too bad and now buy them from a autoparts trader. Much cheaper and much better service!

[DONFRAMAC]

I have read that Meths. is not good enough for cleaning these bulbs, and I can appreciate some of the arguement. It contains ~30% water, + the blue colourant /foul taste/smell agent. It may well get rid of grease due to the methyl alcohol content, but some chemical residue may be left behind.

Get some Solvol Autosol, which cleans off surplus paint touchup blobs, if still soft.

Your pharmacy may sell you some BP grade surgical spirit, but the stuff on our shelves has some water content.