Burnt low beam fixes

[pejeeper]

On my third burnt low beam socket since August. I have no desire to go HID. My options are
1. Keep replacing the socket
2. Heavier socket
3. New socket and run new ground wires to fender bolts
4. ?

I use regular plain ole Sylvania bulbs...nothing fancy.

Want to put Silverstars in like all the rest of my vehicles but I'm afraid the wiring cant handle it.

 

[fishguy1123]

My pass side burned shortly after I bought it. Replaced it with a std dorman one. Lasted 2 wks. Replaced it with the high temp one, been 4 mos. now and still good.

 

[pejeeper]

I am thinking of replacing with a heavier socket and connecting another ground to the splice and running it to the fender bolt ground. I'll get materials for both sides. Sucks that so much has to come off the front just to access the headlamps adequately.

 

[pejeeper]

Ok, after researching...HIDs may not be a bad idea. The wife's Nissan has them and they're nice. What do I need and how much can I expect to spend?

 

[n0kfb]

If I burned up 2 or three sockets, I'd be really tempted to solder the wiring directly to the bulb.

-- Dan Meyer

 

[freddyboy61]

Couple of things that I've done is 1) use ceramic sockets, and 2) give the terminals on the bulbs a slight twist, this should give the contact area a bit more tension and increase connectivity. Additionally, the use of dielectric grease should help with maintaining good contact as well.

 

[pejeeper]

Yup, I'll buy a heavier duty and/or ceramic socket pigtail and use dielectric grease.....to tide me over until I gather the funds & parts for an HID swap.

 

[TollKeeper]

If I may suggest, you have an alternative.. You mentioned above that you dont want to go with HID. However you can go with the relay kit...

[EBAY]120612563859[/EBAY]

And take fused power directly from the battery, and directly from the negative plug on the body, to power your standard bulbs. This should solve your problem fairly affordably. The plugs on the end of the sockets are still the standard headlight socket. So it would be plug and play.

And if you want to go with HID later on, your already half way there..

The only downside to this is that you would have to either get a DRL Killer, or the DRL Diode.

 

[pejeeper]

Swapped the socket, It looked a *tiny* bit warped, but the wires weren't charred like last time. Bulb didn't look so good. May have just been the bulb itself...not sure. Couldn't check it on the passenger side socket as my Air pump relay was tripped open and killed my battery....so I'm waiting for the jumper pack to recharge (miraculously dead too). But both headlights lit up with the residual charge from the hooking up the jumper pack, so atleast that's solved for now.

Swapped in Sylvania Silverstars on both sides. The plain Sylvania bulb that I replaced back in August on the driver's side is the suspect bulb, the Wagner that was in the passenger side since I bought the truck goes in the glove box as the spare (along with a spare socket, elec tape, 4 butt splices, and wire crimpers for emergency repair). Passenger side socket looked good, that's original.

 

[pejeeper]

Silverstars throw nice light. I raised the beam height a bit, drove at night tonight and no one "high-beamed" me, so I must be ok. Now the high beams look crappy yellow compared to the nice white light from the Silverstars.

Does the TB have a side to side adjustment or just up & down? Also, the light seems scattered like the reflectors are mis-aligned. There are dark spots in my range of light when shining down the road.