Second headlight bulb in three months. Put in the Heliolite 3900K H4 Xenon Platinum White Auto Light Bulbs. Bought a package of two and just installed the 2nd one. The bulb that came with the bike (bought used - 96 V45 with 25K miles) looked the same, but I didn't check it very well.
I don't ride at night, so my headlight stays on low beam. Funny thing, when I look at the bad bulb, the filament is not broken, there is no black deposit anywhere, but it does appear to have shifted and looks at though the filament mounted directly in front of the reflector cup is shorting out to the reflector cup, which is one of the leads. I would have thought this would take out the fuse, but it hasn't, as the new bulb works fine.
Perhaps a shock when the bulb is hot (like whenever you ride!) causes the filament to shift? The "dead" bulb measures low resistance between all three terminals, so nothing appears open.
Maybe I have a contact/wire opening up intermittently?
I am not tossing the "dead" bulb just yet, to see what happens next.
What bulbs do you guys use? Am I the only one experiencing this problem? :idea: :?
This may not have anything to do with the problem of the bulbs burning out, but I've had trouble with the socket connections and that will shorten the life of a bulb. The female end of the plug is hard to get at to clean, but an acetylene torch, Tip cleaner.(from your local welding supply,Tractor supply or Harbor freight) has an assortment of small round files that do a good job of cleaning those connectors.At least it works for me. Just thought I'd pass this along.. PS works on just about any wire connectors..
That's a great suggestion, Charles. I never thought about using a tip cleaner for electrical connectors!
Curtis