New to the forum

 

Woke up this morning to get in my car (2014 Skoda citigo Mont-carlo) and dipped beam on both sides has completely stopped working. Fog lights, side lights and DLR's and main beam still work but no dipped beam?

 

Could it be a fuse?

 

I have Phillips x-treme in it at the moment as the standard bulbs don't work any wonders, but have done since Feb 2017 so shouldn't be a problem with them.

 

Is there anything anyone can suggest?

 

It's still under warranty until December 2017. 

1 hour ago, Roper98 said:

Woke up this morning to get in my car (2014 Skoda citigo Mont-carlo) and dipped beam on both sides has completely stopped working. Fog lights, side lights and DLR's and main beam still work but no dipped beam?

 

Could it be a fuse?

I suppose it could be a fuse. Did you get round to checking your manual for the relevant ones and if so how were they?

Edited 23 October, 20178 yr by LightRain
Had a quick look at the manual, it seems each bulb has its own fuse, so unless there is some bigger problem I'd not think it is a fuse.

No it was this morning when I set off to work.

Going to have a look tonight. Other than that ill take it down to Skoda tommrow.

It's just possible that both bulbs have gone at the same time. I've had close tolerance bulbs fail within minutes of each other before.

As Chris says, could be you didn’t notice the first bulb blowing, easy done, swmbo had me checking the electrics on her car until I realised both bulbs had blown.

Check all fuses, in my 62 plate manual fuses such as "light switch" control the headlights 

The Phillips Xtreme bulbs which I'd had on my 2007 Audi A6 for 80,000 miles decided to blow within half an hour of each other at the weekend on a 300-mile trip from Cornwall to mid Wales, reinforcing Chris GB's comment.

So @Roper98, what is happening here? Did you find the problem or have it fixed. Is everything working fine now?

Roper98 - I have exactly the same issue.  Haven't looked as to why yet.  Was it both bulbs, a fuse or something else?  Ta.

The headlights have separate fuses, so normally it is just the bulbs.

 

Thanks AG Falco

The amount of cars I pass on my commute at this time of year with a blown dipped headlight bulb. I pass them week after week.

 

Given that headlight bulbs are fitted at the same time, and are exposed to the same conditions and use, it stands to reason that there is a good chance they're going to fail at roughly the same time.

 

When the second bulb inevitably also fails, what does the driver do to get home? A lot of the bigger Skoda models have an on-dash warning signalling a failed bulb. I'm guessing the Citygo doesn't? How many of us carry spare bulbs in the car?

 

At least the OP was already at home.

 

Sounds a bit old-school, but as a responsible driver it pays to have a quick walk around the car every week or so checking the basics.

 

Edited 30 December, 20187 yr by silver1011

How hard is it to say "I've blown a headlight bulb" and stop at a filling station to get a new one?

Apparently extremely hard Ken.

To be fair, on one of my previous cars (1999 Peugeot 306), a headlight bulb blew, I honestly didn't notice.

 

Their light output was so poor, the fact is was reduced by a further 50% didn't make much difference.

 

It was only after noticing my reflection against the car in front did I realise.

 

 

 

On 22/09/2018 at 11:15, zippy said:

Roper98 - I have exactly the same issue.  Haven't looked as to why yet.  Was it both bulbs, a fuse or something else?  Ta.

 

I forgot to update - it was actually both bulbs blown at the same time!  I can't see that being a coincidence - may one blowing triggered the other?  Either way, both replaced - issue sorted.

On 07/01/2019 at 22:02, zippy said:

I can't see that being a coincidence

 

It is not a coincidence.

If they were the same bulbs, fitted at the same time, they both have a similar finite life.

Both are used at the same time and will both blow after about the same length of time of use.

 

Thanks AG Falco

Specifically, bulbs made to very close tolerances will be very similar, so are likely to blow close together in their service life. Had it several times in various cars.

On 30/12/2018 at 22:35, silver1011 said:

Given that headlight bulbs are fitted at the same time, and are exposed to the same conditions and use, it stands to reason that there is a good chance they're going to fail at roughly the same time.

 

In case anyone is googling this as a solution - the replacement "high performance" bulbs (night breakers) both went at the same time !

 

My initial thought was a switch problem, but main beam was fine...

 

The thing is, very bright filament bulbs have a short lifetime compared with standard bulbs, and they are far more prone to failure from thermal or mechanical shock. This means when one bulb fails you can get a bit of a voltage spike and that is more likely to take out a second bulb especially if it's the super-bright type.  Sometimes, the spike can take out a fuse as well!  

 

If you need better lighting, and don't want to use LEDs (which have their own problems if not OEM on the car), I'd seriously look at getting a pair of twin-headlight units from a breaker or eBay etc.   These as a pair, run 4x H7 bulbs, instead of the usual 2x H4 twin-filament bulbs.  The pattern is better, and on full-beam, you have twice the light on the road. I have checked my SE-L against a loaner 'cooking' Citigo of the same year, and the twin headlamps are definitely better around the dark lanes of west Cornwall!