Never had any trouble with bulbs in this car, yesterday I asked my dad to move his car up so I could park behind him and noticed one of his rear tail lights was out. My dad the next day went and got a replacement and fitted it himself after showing him what to do the day before. He was very proud of his acheivement until I pointed out the other tail light had gone!
Anyway next day as my dad pulled up I had noticed a brake light had failed, off to petrol station new bulb in. It has been ok since (over 100 miles now) and I have checked the alternator which is reading 14.06v and peaks to around 14.15v when reved so electrical system seems fine? I am thinking its that the bulbs have all been replaced at the same time thus go at the same time?
Has anybody experienced this before? I know on the Lada's replacing bulbs was a weekly maintance routine but on the Fords on average a bulb seem to blow every 10k.
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Maybe it is a Ford thing, I remember other threads on here. Something to do with the smart ECU-controlled charging and Silver battery?
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Well it is a 1997 car so its ancient but the ECU system is quite modern. The battery was changed a month back so it probably is related.
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You are braking too hard and forcing too many volts down the cable.
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I rarely drive the car and if anything my dad is a good braker, put it this way on all the cars my dad has ever had we have never need to change the discs, only the pads and even then they seem to last years.
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Some years ago I seem to remember that posted that I had lost within a couple of days the 2 dip bulbs of a Mk 4 Golf we were using. I concluded that the manufacturing of car bulbs is so consistent that we shouldn't be surprised if original fitment bulbs blow within hours of one another.
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check for condensation getting into the bulb clusters.
I had a similar situation happen on the same light cluster after the original bulb had gone.
Four head light bulbs later I eventually found out that the back of the light cluster only fits perfectly one way.
Fitting the bulb fitting the other way stopped condensation entering the light cluster.
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If you think about all the millions of cars there are, the chances are that at least one car will have three bulbs blow in 48 hours. And you and your dad aren't exactly known for being lucky with your cars!
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I've had household bulbs that were replaced at the same time blow within 24 hours - and it's very predictable with replacing sets of halogen lamps.
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Conversely, the Ka my wife has had from new and which is now 5 years old has never blown a bulb yet. Nor indeed has anything else ever gone wrong with it. My current Mondeo 111 which is 7 years old and which has 160k on it has had one dipped beam bulb in the 130k miles I have driven it. It has also never had a single mechanical fault. Not one. Its predessor, another mk 111 never gave any trouble and never needed so much as a bulb. The three Mk 11 Mondeos prior to that punctuated by a Galaxy all did what they were supposed to over great distances and never faltered. The Espace which I stupidly chose in the middle of that period was a quite different story.......
Just been lucky with the Fords I guess or so it would seem.
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 09/05/2009 at 09:03
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Just been lucky with the Fords I guess or so it would seem.
You've not been lucky with your Fords, you chose wisely. My Focus is 6 years old and hasn't had a bulb blown.
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Maybe I knew that L'escargot ;-)
It's just that if you were to believe some of the claptrap you read it would be possible to be led to believe that Fords were the work of Satan.
Of course they are not. Fine cars in the main and certainly in my experience. However, the prejudice of some serves to keep their prices sensible so that suits me.
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bulbs blow
thats why you can buy them
its element ary
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>>the Ka my wife has had from new and which is now 5 years old has never
>>blown a bulb yet..
You're lucky. I've lost count of the bulbs which have been replaced on my daughter's KA....
Probably 3* pairs of headlamp bulbs, and 4 or 5 sets of stop/tail in 50K miles.
But, she does use it in the dark _a lot_.
*The originals, plus 2 Bosch sets, not counting the ALDI ones which lasted about a month.
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The life of light bulbs depends to an extent on how often you switch them on and off. The more often you switch them, the shorter is likely to be their life. I think it's all down to thermal shock or somesuch. So stop flashing your headlights at other drivers just because you think they're doing wrong.
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Tell my dad that not me, I don't drive the thing thank goodness !
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 09/05/2009 at 16:37
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So stop flashing your headlights at other drivers just because you think they're doing wrong.
I never flash to berate other motorists but I admit I probably overuse my flashing headlights to indicate favourably to another vehicle. I know it's not strictly advised but virtually every car I've flashed has understood perfectly my intentions, and that's always to let them out of a junction or in to one.
This should indeed shorten the life of any bulb but the ones on my 10 year old focus are all original. The original battery lasted 9 years.
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>>>So stop flashing your headlights at other drivers just because you think they're doing wrong.
If flashing your headlights causes them to fail, how long do police car's lights last?
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I wonder if you are buying the bulbs from your local parts shop or petrol station. When my Volvo blew a bulb after 18 months I bought a handful from the local spare parts shop to avoid having to go into town. I blew quite a number over the space of a fortnight until I bit the bullet and went into town and bought bulbs from the Volvo main dealer. Result, treble the price but no more problems. If you buy cheap that's what you get, and the quality is questionable.
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I do wonder (particularly in the case of headlight bulbs) whether the culprit is owners handling them with bare hands and getting greasy fingerprints on the glass, which is likely to send it to a very early death.
I notice in Rattle's case it's different bulbs all blowing one after the other... just a coincidence, I think, but might be worth putting the Exorcist theme music on the CD player just in case.
Edited by David Horn on 10/05/2009 at 22:04
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Quality of light bulbs has gone downhill these last few years.
The bulbs i used to buy from my factor used to say boxed for bosch,they were bad to the fact one didnt even work out of the box.
I buy on price now seeing as im only fulfilling an mot requirement for the next custodian.
I once had to buy a headlight bulb for the wifes car one sunday afternoon and first went to halfords where they wanted £10,i then went to an A1 car type shop and bartered him to a £5
I purchased one from my factor delivered next day for a £1,i hate to think what a petrol garage would charge.
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We bought the rear tail lights froms a motor factor for 50p each. The brake light was from a petrol station at £2 for two made by Ring.
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I must say that in 12 years of driving I've only ever had one sidelight bulb and one H1 dipped bulb fail on me.
And that's despite, on both occasions replacing the bulbs with cheap rubbish I bought online for these occasions, and then running those for two years or more afterwards.
Now if only I had the same luck with household bulbs. Energy savers I have no issue with (I have a few Panasonics which I bought from the Electricity Board in the mid-90s that are still working!) but the one full-fat bulb we have (used with a dimmer switch) fails every 10 weeks or so. Very poor form, you just can't seem to get decent lightbulbs any more.
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<< "just a coincidence, I think, but might be worth putting the Exorcist theme music on the CD player just in case." >>
'twas 'Tubular Bells' by Mike Oldfield.
John R
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