Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 23:10:34 GMT From: hohnopsamlid.invalid (Goran Larsson) Subject: Re: 9-5 Headlight Life
In article <TeWb8.6401$tu6.618525nopsamread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net>, Jim Ming <jmingnopsamhlink.net> wrote: > I am about to replace yet another headlight on my 2000 9-5. Has anyone else > experienced VERY SHORT headlight life on their car? I find that I am > replacing them (on average) every 6 months. That seems much shorter than > any other car I've had, even factoring in the "daytime running lamp" > feature. On the average I drive 15,000 miles / year. A standard H7 headlight lamp has an expected lifetime of 550 to 600 hours at the standard test voltage of 13.2 volts. A 5% higher voltage will reduce the lifetime by 50%. The short lefetime is a tradeoff done by the manufacturers to get more light output within the constraints given by laws etc. 15000 miles at an average of 30 mph is 500 hours, so what you are experiencing is not unrealistic as the voltage in the car is normally about 13.8 volts. Very short lifetimes for headlight lamps may indicate problems with the voltage regulator in the generator. The headlight lamps seems to be the most overvoltage sensitive part of the car... One solution is to use long life H7 lamps, but as there is no free lunch that kind of lamp gives less light. Using the high output (+30% or +50% types) will get about half the expected lifetime of the standard lamps. Another solution is to reduce the lamp voltage by adding a power resistor. I have done this to my 9-5 in such a way that I feed the lamps 11V with selector in left position and full voltage with selector in the right position. -- G–ran Larsson hoh AT approve DOT se
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