I have a 2002 protege 5. I replaced both headlights back in Aug. I just had my passenger headlight burn out again. I have owned the car for 5 years and this is the first time i have had this issue. any thoughts as to why the new headlight burnt out so fast?

thanks,
Jeromie

 

there is a theroy that when you replace the light you should not touch the light with your fingers you should use a cloth or gloves because the oil on your skin does something to the light to shorten its life, i honestly don't know how this is possible but to only have a life of 5 months doesn't sound right if you have a meter with the olm buzzer try metering it out to see if the light didn't break the circut if it did maybe it was just a crappy light, if it didn't and you do hear the sound from the meter then you have a wiring problem

 

oil on the glass bulb will cause a hot spot, since the lens is no longer 100% clear, it absorbs more energy. And with one piece of glass expanding more than other spots, you get fractures and that dirties up the 'clean' atmosphere in the lamp.
I think there would have to be a quite oily lamp to die in 5 mos, but I haven't tested oil on a lamp to see how bad it really is.

If you replaced the lamp with a higher powered version, that could be the issue, as it would be running hotter than normal, causing more thermal stress.