Just how many??

 

I've had my 13 plate Fabia II Greenline Estate since new! and in the last 7 years it's gone through 11x H7 bulbs!!!

 

Is there a wiring fault (that my local dealership can't find) is is this an inerrant problem wit H7 bulbs?? Really they should last longer than 6-8 months!!!

 

On a side note, what sort of pigmy's do they have working at Skoda?? My hands aren't that large, but it took 30 minutes to try and get the bulb back in place (I believe it's the Fuel Pump in the way on the drivers side... Battery on the other) I had to call my wife, who bundled our boys into her car (Basic Fabia still rocking it's original H4 bulbs from 2009) drive 20 minutes to see if her tiny hands could fit!

 

Took her another 15 minutes to get it positioned and turned!

 

Not a great design!!! 

Edited 11 May, 20215 yr by Simoneale1973

Does the car get a lot of use at night, or does it get driven with headlights on during daylight? Or both?

What bulbs do you fit? There's a strong correlation between brightness and short-livedness, for simple physics reasons.

May also be worth monitoring what the highest charging voltages are from the alternator when driving, in case there's something amiss there.

Edited 11 May, 20215 yr by Wino

You need these, Osram Ultralife H7 - 4 yr guarantee, £5.59 from Eurocarparts, just as bright as normal H7 bulbs. (Eurocarparts Product Code: 48177022L)

 

It's usually quicker to undo the headlamps so as to increase the available space than to struggle and lose knuckle skin.

Usual causes for bulbs blowing are rubbish cheap makes high wattage bulbs and the biggest cause of all people handling the glass before fitting or  during fitting and not cleaning  the glass on the bulb before fitting, I've also seen so many bulbs not fitted correctly in the holder and then badly fitted or no cover caps

2 hours ago, Wino said:

Does the car get a lot of use at night, or does it get driven with headlights on during daylight? Or both?

What bulbs do you fit? There's a strong correlation between brightness and short-livedness, for simple physics reasons.

May also be worth monitoring what the highest charging voltages are from the alternator when driving, in case there's something amiss there.

I use bog standard Lucas OEM bulbs, nothing special.

 

I got a 10 pack in 2015, after the first 2 bulbs popped! And the RAC man charged me £16 a pop!!

1 minute ago, Murdockman said:

Usual causes for bulbs blowing are rubbish cheap makes high wattage bulbs and the biggest cause of all people handling the glass before fitting or  during fitting and not cleaning  the glass on the bulb before fitting, I've also seen so many bulbs not fitted correctly in the holder and then badly fitted or no cover caps

Always wear gloves, and clean the bulb as best I can. I know the oils from skin can boil quickly and pop a bulb

47 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

It's usually quicker to undo the headlamps so as to increase the available space than to struggle and lose knuckle skin.

Not easy when sat in a layby in the dark!

Vibration often causes premature bulb failure, too. Often used to happen on older motorcycles. The shake, rattle, n roll nature gave them a hard life.

On 11/05/2021 at 19:28, Simoneale1973 said:

Just how many??

 

I've had my 13 plate Fabia II Greenline Estate since new! and in the last 7 years it's gone through 11x H7 bulbs!!!

 

Is there a wiring fault (that my local dealership can't find) is is this an inerrant problem wit H7 bulbs?? Really they should last longer than 6-8 months!!!

 

 

Check the alternator output. Our Fabia was blowing headlight bulbs on a regular basis about a year ago, turned out the alternator voltage was too high.

2 hours ago, mrgf said:

Vibration often causes premature bulb failure, too. Often used to happen on older motorcycles. The shake, rattle, n roll nature gave them a hard life.

The bulbs failed on my mk1 from the shock of crashing it.

Ive fitted Osram nightbreakers back in Nov 2016, and one went three weeks ago and replaced this and the working one for night breaker next gen. And expect at another 4year+ at least.

 

Buy quality for longevity

 

Available on amazon £19.45 pair

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07FXRDJV7?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

Edited 13 May, 20215 yr by Kenrw8

I once had a Ford Cougar that had a habit of blowing headlight bulbs every 4 - 6 weeks. The bulbs that blew were always those closest to the battery/front of the car.

 

This rapidly got to be quite a boring habit. The Ford Garage claimed there was nothing wrong with the car, but when I got them to  fit an additional wire from the alternator to the battery, the problem went away, and the car blew only one bulb in the next eight years.

 

The other related problem that was cured was that, at idle only, if you played music with a fair amount of bass, you could see the radio display going up and down in intensity in time with the music (without this being a fault with the car, obviously!).

 

So, not only can the static voltage be too high, if the AC component is too high, that can cause problems, too.