Blown Brake/Taillight Bulbs

[old man emu]

I'm having a problem with the brake/taillight bulb blowing in one light assembly on my car - a Hyundai Tiburon.

 

I have ruled out hard bumps fracturing the filament as I only drive on sealed roads. I'm thinking that the problem is electrical - maybe a short circuit causing the filament to act like a fuse. I'm sure that I have fitted a bulb of the same spec as the manufacturer calls up.

 

Can anyone offer suggestions as to the cause? I like to start with the simplest cause and work up to the horrendously expensive ones.

 

Thanks.

Old Man Emu

[Jerry_Atrick]

Are the replacement bulbs made in China? 😉

[Yenn]

Check the ground circuit. I am not saying it is the cause, but it could be. Corrosion build up can cause problems.

[spacesailor]

Time to covert to LED globes, & at the same checking the circuit !.

spacesailor

[old man emu]

5 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Are the replacement bulbs made in China? 😉

Who knows, nowadays. I'll definitively check place of manufacture when I get a new bulb this week.

 

4 hours ago, Yenn said:

Corrosion build up can cause problems.

It's usually the case. A common cause, but easy to fix if you can find the point where the circuit is grounded. Need a wiring diagram for that, but I do have the workshop manual to find it in.

[Marty_d]

That's one area of my Hyundai Santa Fe I wasn't impressed with.  One of the headlight low beams went, got it replaced at the next service, two weeks later the other one went.  

Quite common according to the mechanic.

Not sure if brake lights are similar.

[onetrack]

I'd say, change your globe supplier to a "known" quality brand. There's a lot of rubbish out there in the globe market, the Chinese and other Asian manufacturers knock them out in the factories by the thousands per hour, and they probably reckon 1% that fail within a few hours of use is an acceptable attrition rate. Then the servos and auto parts retailers are happy to buy the cheapest globe with the biggest margin attached to it. They get globes for a few cents each.

 

You can try removing the globe from the other taillight (check the brand) and put it in the one giving trouble. If that globe blows, you have a problem with that particular light.

Look for loose attaching points on the globe holder assembly (or even the taillight) that might cause excessive vibration. Vibration is the killer of incandescent globes.

[old man emu]

I'll read the info on the packaging when I buy some. Looks like NARVA is the brand to buy, but that is only based on the design parameters. There's nothing about where they are made.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I reckon the only thing that could make a globe blow prematurely is excessive voltage. Can you put a connected voltmeter ( any point where the voltage is the same as the globe got would do) and run the engine? You may have faulty voltage regulation.

[old man emu]

It's only one bulb and it's the brake light filament. I hate chasing wiring faults, especially when the loom is hidden away. I'm getting pretty quick at changing bulbs now. 

[nomadpete]

Buy a motorcycle brake lamp bulb. Mine have dual filaments so they last twice as long.

[Yenn]

Unless dual filament bulbs have dual connections, they will work as a single filament. If one filament blows twice the amps flows through the second filament until it blows.

[old man emu]

That's a point. I haven't had one of these lights fail on my bike, and it has a rigid frame. Although, as I think of it, I use the same bulbs as I have put in the car. 

 

They have dual connections in the car and bike.

[spacesailor]

Japanese have two filaments,  but one is 5 watt the other is 25 watt, illegal here and a wire Cut off, but it can be returned to a much brighter light.

Better to be seen when moving,  as 5 watt is normally only for Parked vehicles.

spacesailor

[ClintonB]

Narva have Premium bulbs that are meant to be better quality, Wurth dabble in bulbs, but I couldn’t convince customers to buy them at the high price. Now the caravans are LED, but even then there are good and really bad ones.