hi guys,

does anyone have a problem with headlight bulbs burning out prematurely, specifically the low beam and the foglights?

i have to replace at least one, usually two, every 2K miles or so. my car is a '04 6s SW with 53K miles. it sees about 8K miles of use/year and the lights are on 50% of the time during the day - the fogs are always on when the low beams are.

i talked to my SA about this and the only explanation he could offer was that the sorry state of Seattle roads (potholes/cracks,etc.) were causing the filaments to be damaged. does this sound plausible? i'm not saying it isn't possible because the roads here are in terrible shape, but i've not had this happen with my previous car ('00 MilleniaS) while traveling on the same roads. my other current car hasn't had a bulb replacement in 4 yrs.

he seems convinced that this is strictly a bulb issue (he has contacted Mazda NA about this and they concur) and that nothing strange is going on with the car. i am not convinced, hence this thread. does anyone have any thoughts or insight about this?

i have had this problem with the stock bulbs and with Phillips Crystalvision and Narva with stock wattages i'm using now.

 

I don't know what it could be, maybe the car is putting out a different voltage than it should. It's most likely not the roads, unless you actually hit most of these potholes instead of avoiding them, and even then I doubt it.

 

i don't know what it could be, either - it's irritating.

if wrong voltage, i'm told the little bulbs (license plate/city) will blow immediately, and i don't have that problem.

as a side note, the Phillips CVs produce considerably better light output. certainly not HID-like but the light is whiter and brighter with the beam travelling a bit further. i recommend these as the stock output is not so good.

 

Can someone please tell me if there is a recall on this? I have spent so much money on theses dang light bulbs I can't deal. Theses light bulbs are not easy to replace either.