4G short headlight life. no broken filaments

Hello all. I've got a strange issue that has been occurring on my '94 750. The headlights don't seem to be lasting very long. Sometimes the brights go first, other times the dims. A lot of the time, after either both highs or dims go out, one bulb will go out entirely before the other too. The strange thing is, the filament's in the bulb don't break at all. And if the bulb dies in this manner, a new one works just fine. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Are you using cheap bulbs? Are they the correct watts? Is your voltage output normal? Grounds and connectors clean and tight, bulb fit tight? I've had good luck with Sylvania Silverstar Ultras, I have them in 2 bikes and 1 car.

 

You can test these "bad" light bulbs with a 9V battery... It won't be terribly bright, but if the filament is intact (as you say), it will illuminate. This narrows the problem down to the bike.

I have my money on the hi/lo switch contacts being messed up. How does that switch feel? Gummy?

I'm putting Xenon HID's in my 4G this winter, no more filaments to worry about!

 

Check your charging voltage at about 5000 rpm....could be too high.

 

I've been using Sylvania Silverstars, along with another kind of crappy set I got at the local bike store when I found I had no lights and needed to get home. I believe all are 55/60 watt bulbs rather than the 45/45 Honda bulbs that are original to the bike. I haven't tried any of the tricks to get regular H4/9003 bulbs to fit better as I've seen on other sites. such as the following H4 modification to VFR750 headlight assembly which shows two ways of getting them to fit more solidly. Luckily Wal-Mart has pretty much a no questions asked return policy so they haven't been eating a hole into my wallet. My truck also uses the same H4/9003 bulbs, and I can assure you, these bulbs are dead, but both high and low filaments are still in place, which seems quite odd to me. The high/low switch on the bike seems clean to me, and has a firm click into each position. I'll check the grounds and connectors next time I'm out working on the bike, and make sure I see clean contacts.

Squirrel, I was reading through some other posts searching the charging voltage, and saw that you report that checking voltage @ the battery terminals is a good place, if I read that properly, but I'm not sure what I need to be looking for on a voltmeter. I'll try to search around next time I have a chance to search through these forums. Thanks for the input so far, definitely gives me something to look for next time I am out in the garage working on the bike.

 

I seem to go through a set of low beams a year. I was going to put HID's on the low beams but I get flashed all the time even now. I have a set of HID highbeams ready for install when I get home. If you ride in varying weather and varyong altitudes, you will go through lights more than others
.

 

Anything over about 14.5 DCvolts is in the overcharging zone.

 

Filament looks melted...overcharging

glass in bulb is white...leakage and contamination

No visible sign of overheating...vibration, wrong or bad bulb

You can check resistance from the terminal to the base of the bulb to determine if the filament in question is broken. I wonder if your sockets are wearing out and causing a poor contact? I'd guess that could be hard on bulbs too.

 

Well, it happened again. Luckily within a quarter mile from home. This time I noticed during acceleration, probably just past 5k rpms in 1st gear, the lights went extra bright, and then they were gone. When I got home and changed them out, I noticed something I hadn't before. The filaments were in fact broken. I had to look extra close, but just under the coiled part of the filament was no longer attached to the base (sorry, I have no idea how to explain this terminology). This tells me that somewhere over 5k as squirrel had mentioned, I am probably getting overvoltage. Another thing I just remembered while out on the bike today, is that occasionally I will notice the bulbs go slightly dimmer and slightly brighter for periods of time. I haven't noticed any exact pattern to when this happens either, as they will go back and forth throughout the rpm range. (they do stay at dimmer or brighter for at least a few minutes at a time). I am sure this points to an overvoltage issue, but I have no ideas on what I would need to do to fix this. Thanks for all that have already replied, and to any of those that help me solve this issue. I definitely don't want to be going 80 on the highway one night and then have my lights suddenly go out completely. Thanks again for any help I can get.

 

Until you have this ironed out, get into the habit of riding with your thumb on the highbeam switch. If your lows suddenly go, you can quickly flick to highs for emergency lights. Just a thought.

 

check voltage at bat terminals like someone said, I replaced my stator, still have the original rectifier though and have a new back up waiting in the wings. Check power to the light switch, I had a bad relay where my headlights went completely out (you could hear it). Changed that and it cured the problem, think it was a high beam relay there were two of them there buried up under the front blinker. Not fun sticking ur arm up to the elbow on anyones bike but ur own. Anyway, good luck...headlights are kinda important.

 

I checked the voltage at the battery terminals over the weekend, and it seemed to be a steady 14 throughout the RPM range. The bulbs I had installed on the bike were brand new this day. While on my way home, I flipped from the low beams to the high beams a few minutes from home, and immediately noticed the high beams flickering, so i flipped back to the low. Upon getting home, I found that the high had died completely, and all I have left is the low beams again. I am about to go purchase the original Honda 45w/45w bulbs to see if they encounter the same issue to verify whether it's how secure I have the aftermarket bulbs in the socket, or a wiring issue to the bulbs somewhere. Any ideas what voltage the bulbs themselves should be getting throughout the RPM range?

 

I ended up finding a regulator from a seller on ebay for under $30. Put it on, and no more dead headlights yet. Seems to have cleared the issue.

 

For a while I have been thinking the rectifier on my 2007 vtec 800 ABS bike is delivering far too many volts. I have had to replace two headlight bulbs in the last year and several people I ride with, have mentioned my lights are far brighter than most bikes - so I recently fitted a combined Acumen gear selector/voltmeter to keep an eye on the output (and put an end to searching for that pesky 7th gear). At motorway speeds I regularly see 14.8 and 14.9 volts indicated and am now concerned if this is about to fry the wiring, or is killing the battery.

Does anyone have the official Honda voltage range specifications for these rectifiers? Or is it just time to find a replacement?-

Skimad

6th Gen Militia #218

 

That sounds pretty high. Other things can effect the regulated voltage and I'd check them before replacing the R/R. A weak or discharged battery can create excessive excessive current and VDC readings. The regulator function gets a signal from the battery so it 'knows' how much VDC to divert away from the system. So a poor 'signal' to the R/R can create a high VDC situation. Check your battery terminals, R/R connector, engine and chassis grounds.

I would assume the spec is the same as for a gen five...which is less than 15.5 VDC at 5000 RPM with the headlights on high beam...right outta the Honda shop manual. I'd probe the battery terminals with a good VDC rather than use the Acumen. Or at least verify the readings are the same.