Just wondering. I’ve got a 2012 Nissan Versa that I bought 9 years ago. Not a lot of miles on it, about 75k. I’ve yet to have to replace any bulbs on this car, from headlights right down to rear license plate lights, brake, turn signals, you name it. I’m not complaining, just curious if this is normal or out of the ordinary.
Automotive bulbs
- Thread starter Aredeeem
- Start date
Kestas
Staff member
Lately I've found that bulbs - any bulbs - rarely need replacing. 45 years ago I was replacing many bulbs every year on cars.
I think this is fairly normal. I have not had to replace a single bulb on my 2003 Ram 1500 or 2012 Fiesta. I have a few packs of bulbs from the 70's and 80's and they are labeled 12.6v nom and the new package of the same bulb # is 13.8v so maybe they realized the alternator output was shortening the bulb life and beefed up the filaments.
I don't know if other auto makers do what I will discuss. I once owned a 2013 VW GTI and had a Ross-tech VCDS cable and software to access all the VW ECU vehicle settings. There are settings on VW's to adjust voltage which affects bulb life.
That is normal, but of course it also depends on how much night driving you do. Eventually if your light housing seals degrade to the point that rain or road slush gets in, then connector corrosion will help to shorten bulb life, but you can also add some dielectric grease to slow down if not arrest that.
Yes. My night driving is pretty nil. I’m ok with that though. Commuting in New Jersey was a burden.
A couple months ago I sold my 2008 Mazda 3 and it still had all of its original light bulbs at 61k miles. I have no real evidence but I think it's due to tighter voltage regulation in newer vehicles.
The gmt800 trucks are notorious for their drl’s burning out early. I gave up on mine and stopped replacing my drl bulbs, both of mine have been burned out for years. It seems every other 99 through 06 gmt I meet on the road has at least one drl burned out. I can’t remember ever replacing any other bulb in the truck in the 6 years I have owned it.
My prius has a lot of 194/168s that have gone out and been replaced with LED.
"They" designed them as marker bulbs but my car uses them as tail lights too. I don't think they have the rated hours of larger bulbs. Or maybe it's just chaos theory-- there's such a large number of them it seems I'm always buying ten-packs.
"They" designed them as marker bulbs but my car uses them as tail lights too. I don't think they have the rated hours of larger bulbs. Or maybe it's just chaos theory-- there's such a large number of them it seems I'm always buying ten-packs.
Unless you mean the 921 bulbs that use the same base as 194/168 bulbs.
People often don't replace the factory "long life bulbs" with aftermarket "long life bulbs"
My old 1999 Deville still had the original headlights, turn signal and brake light bulbs after 17 years. The system voltage averaged around 13.1V so I guess that helped prolong the bulb life
I only changed out the headlights because I was able to buy a pair for $6.
I only changed out the headlights because I was able to buy a pair for $6.
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