Replacement bulbs

[John K]

My daughters' 93 Toyota Camry wagon has a dash indicator for burnt out bulbs. It was coming on a lot, and I began checking some. The rear lights were intermittant, and when I checked them they were made in Mexico and really looked terrible. They had globs of stuff attaching the filament to the posts, some of the posts were different lengths, on the double filament type the filaments were not even parallel! I had a bunch of bulbs in my garage that I've had for years, and I ended up replacing most of hers. Seems like bulbs don't burn out as often as they used to, I think I bought a lot of those about 10 years ago. (Except for Chevys, seems when I am behind some of them there is always one or two out! Isn't it weird when you notice something like that on a brand of car?)
I have seen some bulbs made in Mexico that looked ok, but those on my daughters car were just garbage.

 

[TheTanSedan]

Replacement every 3-5 years is good extra insurance. Lamps do wear down (dim) prior to failure. I also clean off contacts. Cheap work, and gives one an excuse to examine areas normally hidden for problems.

 

[Quest]

Go get some good replacement ones from Sylvania-Osram and most likely you'll be ended up with some Hungarian-made Osrams (Osrams are well-respected in the light bulb industry FWIW). Other good ones such as genuine US made GEs, Japanese Koito or Toshiba, philips are alright too.

Stay away from crappy ones from Taiwan or China.