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Hobie

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About Hobie

  • Birthday 11/14/1969

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  • Location
    Austin, TX
  • Car
    05 OB 2.5i 4EAT
  • Interests
    ham radio, hiking, shooting
  • Occupation
    Transporter

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  1. Figure if you drive 2 hours per day, 7 days a week, then in a year your bulbs are lit for 728 hours. What is the life expectancy of the bulb? Silverstars are in the 200 hour range. Long Life halogens are around 900 hours while standard halogens are rated at around 500 hours. HID's, on the other hand, will last quite a bit longer. If you want to do the conversion and spend the money up front then it's well worth it. I've had my car now for 1 year and about 25,000 miles. Still has the same headlight bulbs when I got the car but am looking to replace with HID's in the near future.
  2. My last vehicle was a 2000 GMC Sierra with auto DRL's and auto headlamps. I was so used to that! A couple of months ago I drove to work in the dark with only my DRL's on. Yes, it was my fault. After starting the car I put the garbage can out on the curb then came back to the car and was thinking the headlights were already on. It's 22 miles to work. Just glad I didn't get in a wreck or ticketed. Also glad (being sarcastic now) that nobody tried to get my attention, either. Yeah, this car is 5 years newer than my last vehicle and the older one had auto headlamps. I liked the old way better. Now have disabled DRL's and seatbelt chime. Will use headlights when necessary. BTW, Texas (and I've driven all over the state) construction zones do not have signs posted that headlights should be on. I do slow down and watch out for falling objects...
  3. I guess my car is an anomaly. I've had it over 8 months now and no burned out headlamps. Not sure what's in there. I do have DRL enabled but never have my headlight switch to the ON position when starting or stopping the engine. I know some here have said they leave their headlight switch on all the time. Each lamp has an expected lifetime, if you're running your headlamps at full power all the time the car is running then they will last the least amount. DRL will run at partial power which probably allows them to last somewhat longer than on full. DRL disabled will create the greatest lamp lifespan. From what I've seen the "heavy duty" H7's will last around 900 hours. If you drive 10 hours per week that's 90 weeks, just under 2 years. Life expentancy for lamps seems to shorten the more they're turned on and off (from what I understand). An off topic, sort of: I have a ham radio in my car. I can remember years ago an instruction manual for one of the radio's I had said to not keep the radio on while starting the engine because a voltage spike may occur. For that reason I always have the radio off when starting the engine and have had no problems so far. Likewise, I keep the headlight switch in the OFF position when starting my car and if the parking brake is not engaged the DRL circuit will light the lamps after the engine starts, thus theoretically avoiding any spike that may occur. I'm not saying it happens with every car but several folks have said they do not leave their headlight switch ON until after starting their car and thus have had long headlamp life. It would be nice if that was the solution to all of our problems. Yes, another solution seems to be installing HID's and that would be nice (for $200 or so it isn't all that bad). From what I've read over time and many threads this seems to be the summary. I'm not a rocket scientist or brain surgeon so don't take this as gospel. I could be totally wrong as to why the lamps don't last long. Silverstars seem to last the shortest, for whatever reason, but are pretty good in most other vehicles. I can't explain that. Anyway, I hope this helps. Dave
  4. Schneider, any news? Hope all it is were the bulbs. Other than that I hope your road trip is going well. I had a road trip cut short years ago because my lights were acting up. Turned out is was a wiring connection (factory Y connector) was going bad so was an easy fix. It's hard to drive at night without lights. This morning I unplugged the DRL connector, took all of a minute. I know the previous owner had replaced the bulbs in my car but in 5 months I haven't had a problem yet. Enjoy your trip.
  5. It's common to have a low beam burn out with our projector headlights, but both at the same time? I guess it could happen. Go to an auto parts store, see if they'll replace the bulbs to see if that's the fix. The O'Reilly's in my town is very helpful. I bought new wiper blades once and without asking the guy grabbed 'em, walked out to my truck and put them on for me. Tell the store of your problem and see if they can pop in a new bulb or test the wiring connector to see if it's working. Also a repair mechanic would do it, might do it for cheap. Good luck. http://www.legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=162&pictureid=854
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