electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

[timdog]

well in the year or so i have owned my mk4 gti (and put about 7000 kms on it) i probably changed about 6 or 7 bulbs. does that seem odd to anyone? I am positive I am using the right bulbs. both headlight bulbs have burnt out (the passenger side twice) and some signal lights, brake lights, etc. i owned another mk4 gti before this one and it didnt seem to have these problems. in the year i owned that one i think maybe 2 bulbs burnt and i drove it ALOT more. this one is a 2000 and the one before was a 2002. any ideas?


Tim

[stefan]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

yeah, thats a little weird. In 4 years/140,000km, I have done 2 or three of the various tail light bulbs, and a bumper marker. The ones I find go fast are the headlights, but only since i switched to silverstars. they usually last under a year.

[Kor]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

90% of the time, if you replace a headlight bulb and it burns out again, its because you touched the bulb, which is a no-no.

You are driving a 9 year old car so I think you have to expect that the bulbs burn out. "Before" You were probably driving a 4 year old car or something like that, thus the difference.

[Jester B]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

I used to carry spare bulbs for tail and signal lights for my Golf. They would burn out all the time. Headlights were not as bad.

[VWSM]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

VW'S love to eat bulbs..
all you electrical gurus take a look how the bulbs sit in the housings.
the filament is horizontal it should be vertical,hit a good bump and your filament breaks in half.
the domestics and jap cars never had this problem.
i could be wrong but just a theory.

[Stonewall]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

You are probably right Paul as when the filament is hot it becomes very brittle. It also have unsupported mass in the middle to gravity does it job causing stress in the filament thus braking rather quickly.

[timdog]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

i am positive i am not touching the bulbs as i am very careful with that. i usually buy the cheaper bulbs at canadian tire - is there a brand anyone can recommend that might last longer?

[a_n9ne]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

i am positive i am not touching the bulbs as i am very careful with that. i usually buy the cheaper bulbs at canadian tire - is there a brand anyone can recommend that might last longer?

i pretty much rub the bulbs with my palms and they're from canadian tire haha, still dont burn out that often

[Gumby]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

When i worked as a tech for VW we always had 1999-2000 golfs and gtis burning out bulbs, after changing bulbs numerous times i phoned the Tech hotline (for vw techs only) and was told to check my main battery ground if it is clean tight etc then to try different brands of bulbs. So we used a non vw supplied brand and it seemed to work in most of them.

[jrockmk2]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

thats crazy ive had my mk4 gti for a year now and have not had a single light burn out, maybe im just getting lucky

[Red90]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

I've never experienced any unusually bulb failures. 5 years on the first headlight bulbs. Other than that, I've only replaced the brake lights once. 2002 Jetta purchased new.

[Compton]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

i had the same thing happen on my old 2000 golf so i realized that most of my driving is done in the day and there is no point for the DRL's to run during that time. So i disabled the DRL's and they have worked for a long time now.

[95rado]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

So i disabled the DRL's and they have worked for a long time now.

Drls are the biggest waste I can think of. How many cars do you see driving around at night with barely lit headlights and no tails. Because these idiots think their lights are on because of the drls.

[stefan]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

same idiots probably wouldn't turn the lights on anyways. be just like the cops with disabled DRLs... always know its a cop coming after sunset or in bad weather cause they are the only ones on the road that have no headlights.

[VeeDubArt]

Re: electrical issues - my car or just all vee-dubs?

i've gone through alot of taillight bulbs on my 03 golf