Halogen to Led Bulb Upgrades

[Archangel11224]

Looking for some advice on what bulb brands (that are relatively cheap) people recommend as I went the cheap-cheap route when I first got my car and it appears to have blown mutiple bulbs out Advice on that issue would be great too.

I was driving at night after work late one evening and noticed turning my fogs on didnt actually do anything. While the difference is minor when they are on, I normally see the closest edge to the car illuminate a bit more, and the edges as well that my hb and lb dont. I dont want blown bulbs, even if they are relatively useless unless in inclement weather, and I honestly just like the look.

When i get home that night im diagnosing with a friend over the phone Fuses are good. No smoke. Bulbs "look" fine. We also notice that a high beam has gone out, as well. I'm not sure how long this was like this as I had just started night shifts again at that time. It could have been for nearly a week.

Switching the high beam bulbs proves that one bulb is bad, but I havent had the chance or tools to figure out why my fogs arent engaging. The dash light will come on whenever they're turned on, but no amount of tinkering around will get even a spark from them. Is it possible one bulb blew, and took out the other two with it?

My friend in question says its possibly since my 17 civic, unmodded, (gonna rectify that one day) has the fog lights turn off if the high beams are turned on. Its be strange and really weird for it ro happen, but not impossible, especially given these bulbs were all those jdm crap on amazon. Learned my lesson there.

Or is a matter of I used the fogs too much? Other own forums have said fogs cant handle a constant workload and I often had them on at night whenever I was driving. The bulbs we got were cheap ones as well and were about 20-25usd a set.

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[augustus]

I went off of this posting

 

[bugboy32337]

Fogs turn off, typically, when high beams are turned on (push blinker stalk forward).

I'm not sure if the fogs turn off when you "flash" (pull the stalk toward you).
They do, I just went out and checked.

 

[Archangel11224]

Fogs turn off, typically, when high beams are turned on (push blinker stalk forward).

I'm not sure if the fogs turn off when you "flash" (pull the stalk toward you).
They do, I just went out and checked.

This is correct. My issue that is while the indactior on the dash will come on for them (when high beams are not on) they do not turn on as they should.

 

[bugboy32337]

This is correct. My issue that is while the indactior on the dash will come on for them (when high beams are not on) they do not turn on as they should.

Ah ... Ok, now I understand.

I wonder if, when installing the bulbs, there might have been a bad gasket seal, or not quite installed perfectly ... thus allowing some water to foul the bulbs?
I know that when I swapped mine out ... laying on the garage floor with my arm contorted, that it wasn't the easiest thing I've done before.
(I also learned that I need to call my 11 y.o. step son out to the garage to help. He's great at handing me tools. But even better, his arms are thinner than mine, and his flexibility is unmatched! He'd have had them swapped in 1/10th the time it took me!)

Good Luck, and I'll be interested to see if you are able to determine the issue.

 

[Archangel11224]

Ah ... Ok, now I understand.

I wonder if, when installing the bulbs, there might have been a bad gasket seal, or not quite installed perfectly ... thus allowing some water to foul the bulbs?
I know that when I swapped mine out ... laying on the garage floor with my arm contorted, that it wasn't the easiest thing I've done before.
(I also learned that I need to call my 11 y.o. step son out to the garage to help. He's great at handing me tools. But even better, his arms are thinner than mine, and his flexibility is unmatched! He'd have had them swapped in 1/10th the time it took me!)

Good Luck, and I'll be interested to see if you are able to determine the issue.

Thanks for your input. I'm hoping it's something simple like that, and not the bulbs having melted a wire or something somewhere. May be a necro down the road, as I gotta track someone down to assist me (young, first time car owner here, at least in the sense of a car worth doing things for, so I'm inexperienced and dont have much of anything tool wise.)

I'll let you know!

 

[bugboy32337]

I can tell you that MOST of the LED headlight/fog light bulbs that I have seen have a built in fan, to keep them cool.
If the fan failed, that could certainly have caused them to burn out ... or if they got wet.
One last thing to check is the fuse panel. Perhaps they did get wet, and it popped the fuse.

Again ... good luck.

 

[Archangel11224]

I can tell you that MOST of the LED headlight/fog light bulbs that I have seen have a built in fan, to keep them cool.
If the fan failed, that could certainly have caused them to burn out ... or if they got wet.
One last thing to check is the fuse panel. Perhaps they did get wet, and it popped the fuse.

Again ... good luck.

I can tell you that MOST of the LED headlight/fog light bulbs that I have seen have a built in fan, to keep them cool.
If the fan failed, that could certainly have caused them to burn out ... or if they got wet.
One last thing to check is the fuse panel. Perhaps they did get wet, and it popped the fuse.

Again ... good luck.

This is most likely the cause, it's just strange I'd have 3 bulbs all fail at once or within an unnoticeable amount of time (both fogs and one highbeam). Thanks again for the info.

 

[Shankmeyster]

I mean if you are getting the cheapest option you can then you are literally getting what you paid for. Pay more for quality and get bulbs that last.

 

[Archangel11224]

I mean if you are getting the cheapest option you can then you are literally getting what you paid for. Pay more for quality and get bulbs that last.

Understandable. These weren't the cheapest of cheapss, but I suppose your right. So long as it's a bulb related thing and not a wiring or electrical issue (this car had had a number of timely, expensive repairs I've had to finace in a very short time I've had it), I'll accept it was the fault of bad bulbs.

I can tell you that MOST of the LED headlight/fog light bulbs that I have seen have a built in fan, to keep them cool.
If the fan failed, that could certainly have caused them to burn out ... or if they got wet.
One last thing to check is the fuse panel. Perhaps they did get wet, and it popped the fuse.

Again ... good luck.

I've just gotten off work and I'm gonna play around under the hood a bit more and see if I can resolve something or at least figure out the true cause since at the moment it could be a number of things and has left mutiple heads scratching. It's also worth noting that my fog lights do not have fans, and neither did the OEM ones.

 

[Archangel11224]

Currently got my old OEM bulbs highbeam wise for the time being while I research more...quality...brands. I figured I'd post this image here of the damage I found to the bad highbeam bulb. Looks like the internal wires were also damaged somehow. Any clues?

 

[Archangel11224]

I can tell you that MOST of the LED headlight/fog light bulbs that I have seen have a built in fan, to keep them cool.
If the fan failed, that could certainly have caused them to burn out ... or if they got wet.
One last thing to check is the fuse panel. Perhaps they did get wet, and it popped the fuse.

Again ... good luck.

I mean if you are getting the cheapest option you can then you are literally getting what you paid for. Pay more for quality and get bulbs that last.

Currently got my old OEM bulbs High Beam wise for the time being while I research more...quality...brands. I figured I'd post this image here of the damage I found to the bad high beam bulb. Looks like the internal wires were also damaged somehow. Any clues?

What do you guys think could cause this sort of damage? I'm honestly a bit stumped on this one. The old OEM bulbs went in without issue (High beam wise), so all the damage appears to be within the bulb and its separate wiring,

 

[shoegazer]

I can't see enough detail to rule out overheating. But if those three conductors going left/right are bare inside the black insulator; I'm thinking it's a heat/melting/shorting out issue.

Otherwise it looks like damage from friction.

Was this particular one in contact with a heat source... like a radiator hose?

 

[I Am Noobmaster69]

Unfortunately, I don’t know what you could do to fix your problem, however I can recommend some bulbs!

I haven’t gotten high beams yet, but replaced my fog lights and low beams with the Lightning Dark LEDs, as I saw someone else recommend them and they don’t break the bank, and I LOVE them so far!

 

[Archangel11224]

I can't see enough detail to rule out overheating. But if those three conductors going left/right are bare inside the black insulator; I'm thinking it's a heat/melting/shorting out issue.

Otherwise it looks like damage from friction.

Was this particular one in contact with a heat source... like a radiator hose?

This very well may have been purely because I did a novice mistake and just let the cords of the headlights/lighting pigtail 'dangle' down into the engine bay of the car. I have an si, which has a turbo very close to that spot that very well could have melted the wire in one go. Given how crazy hot that thing gets, it wouldn't surprise me. I have yet to assess my foglights, so I'm uncertain what the issue is there.

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