Blowing headlight Bulbs

Hi Guys!
My 5th Gen keeps on blowing lowbeam headlight bulbs on the left hand side. Has anyone had any toruble with this before?
Any help will be great.
Scotti

 

HIDs run over a harness will solve your issues. About 100 bucks, and both your bulbs will work for both high and low. Much, much, much brighter than stock, and less wattage than OEM, those stupid Silverstars or whatever it and the other brands are called. I had Silverstars on my bike, and one blew out in 2 months. What a waste. PM me for details and install instructions if interested. I don't sell them, but very highly recommend them. The folks I buy from do ship to anywhere in the world. There's a member on here who bought several sets, shipped to Nigeria.

Take a peek at my avatar.

Juliani

 

Are the stock Honda bulbs or some cheap replacements? Usually premature bulb failure would be too high of voltage or possible bad ground wire.

 

Post up the details here for us as I am interested if they will work for the 4th gen too.

 

I don't see why they shouldn't, Brian.

It's an extremely simple process to install. You guys should be using H4 bulbs (please correct me if I'm wrong). The kit comes with the two Bi-Xenon bulbs and a wire harness. The harness bypasses your stock wiring to power the bulbs. It uses a relay to get a remote (+) from the factory plug, and then powers the bulbs directly from the battery through 14-16 gauge wires. Whoever came up with the bright idea (pardon the pun) of running bulbs 55 watts and higher through stock 24ga wires should be raped in prison and then shot.

On the harness relay are a ground wire and two power wires (on for Lo, and the other for Hi). You will simply need to run a wire from the power wire or prong on the bike's normal Hi-beam side (right side?) over to the high beam power wire at the relay. On low beams they both turn on. When you flick the high switch, they are actuated a short distance forward for high. The actuation substitutes for bulbs that have dual filaments such as in vehicles that share one bulb for both Hi and Lo.

Buying process:
Website is VVME.COM LLC Your Best HID KIT Supplier. DO NOT purchase off the website. Some friends and I have found this process to be less efficient and more tedious.

Send an email to HID@VVME.COM. Tell them you wish to purchase a Bi-Xenon kit shipped to (your country here). Ask for a cost and payment instructions. You will receive a response usually in less than an hour with a total, and a payment link to pay on Paypal. You can use a CC without a PP account if you wish. When making payment, in the "instructions to seller" box, you will need to write the kit you want, the color (I will explain shortly), your name, address, and country. This is very important. Within 24 hours, you will receive a tracking number. The company has recently switched from EMS to DHL, and this has shaved 1-2 days off their shipping time. I have ordered on Sunday night and received my order at 9am Wednesday morning.

When it comes to color selection, for the love of god, DO NOT select any color higher than 6000K. Anything higher than this will hinder its effectiveness at night. Your eyes will be unable to discern where the beam ends, and you'll find yourself getting fatigued quicker than you will think. I'm writing this from personal experience. If safety, visibility are effectiveness are your #1 priority, 4300K are the brightest and most effective. Riding at night will be surprisingly enjoyable. 6000K are a "cooler," more exotic color, but they work fine. Most folks buy the blue/purple colors because they want to match the expensive OEM BMW/Audi looks. What many fail to realize is that that "blue color" is from the light bouncing over the shield in PROJECTOR HEADLAMPS, not reflector housings. The light that hits the asphalt is the exact same color as what comes out of the 4300K kits.

Sorry for going off on a tangent. I see a lot of vehicles on the road that have ghastly purple and violet that are more effective at blinding people than lighting up the road. I have done thousands of miles traveling at night with both the good stuff, and the lousy sh1t colors. I promise you all: too much color, and you will defeat the purpose of getting HIDs.

I have installation instructions and pics on my picasa site at Picasa Web Albums - Mike. They are for 6g obviously, but the process is the same (easier, actually, due to fewer ballasts) for 4g and 5g. PM me if you have any trouble, questions, or need any help.

On a final note, the kits are manufactured and shipped out of China. Before anyone gets going on criticiizing cheap Chinese products, I have been using their products for 5 years on my bike, in my cages, and in the cages of several friends and relatives. I have only had to replace two ballasts. One ballast went bad from me running the pair off the OEM wires instead of using a harness. The second bad ballast was mounted in front of the left radiator on my VFR, and you folks can figure out the rest. I tooled around in heavy traffic a lot at temps up to 225. I didn't know radiators could melt metal ballasts till they actually lost their structural integrity and fried the relay.

Take your time and make sure you have your installation right the first time. Make sure your power wire is secure. Ground securely to the frame. Connect all wiring, test them, and route them route them to make sure they don't get in your way before you zip-tie them. I don't mean to preach as I'm sure most of you are excellent handy-folks. I've had to troubleshoot some installation errors in extremely cold weather.

The kits have worked very well for me, and I am happy with them. I hope you folks enjoy. I will appreciate feedback from the folks who do install them.

Juliani

 

Thanks ! I sent off an email and will take your advise on what to choose. Ill post up the outcome.

Question, how much did the ballast cost and do they have any kind of warranty for defective balast. Ill go check out the website too. Thanks again.

 

I strongly prefer the 4300K. I chose this color based on the seller's recommendation, but I had never seen a side-by-side I pulled up at a light beside an R6 with the 6000K three months ago. Mine definitely lit the road better.

I recommend the 4300K.

A replacement ballast costs 25 bucks, still shipped overnight by DHL. If you send them back the old one, they will ship you a new one for free. I threw away the first ballast not thinking, but I intend to send back the second ballast. Never hurts to have a spare. I did pay $25 for each replacement. Didn't feel like paying a substantial amount for express shipping, and didn't feel like waiting 3 weeks for regular post to get to them while riding with one bulb in each instance.

I had to drive 200 miles one night last winter in a -43 degree blizzard with one badly aimed low-beam in my cage. I was in no mood to line up at the post office and then wait patiently afterwards.

I only remembered to take pics halfway through my slider and HID installation, so I don't have any before and after comparo pics. Besides, one of those "fancy" Silverstars had blown on me. They came with the bike, so I there was no money out of my pocket wasted. I'm just pissed off at the :bs: marketing of such bulbs. Please keep us posted and take some before/after pics if you feel up to it. I have a link to my Picasa Web pics in my previous post.

Glad I could be of help. All the best, B.

 

4300K is OEM color temp, i HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recomend it myself as well.

I get crap from the local ricers with my lights looking "Boring like every other HID" but, honestly, i can see WAY better with my setups than their "WAY COOLER LOOKING 8000K kits"

But, to each his own, but the most lumens and useable light comes from the 4300K kits

 

Extreme thread resurrection here but I had this blowing headlight problem today and my experience might help someone else.

After putting a new battery on my 5th Gen. I noticed on my first trip that one of the headlight bulbs wasn't working and naturally figured it was a blown bulb. Took the nose cone off today (I find it easier than fiddling in tight spaces) and replaced it. After reconnecting I had no bulbs working at all! Fitted another new H4 bulb and still no light except when on full beam (high) and passing (flashing) which worked fine.

Totally stumped so drank another coffee and figured it MUST be the battery - and it was. It's a brand new Varta Powersports AGM YTX12-4 / YTX12-BS (I think I now know what the BS denotes). Put the old Yuasa one back in and no more blown bulbs.

Measured the Varta which is rated 10Ah 150A and found that the CCA rating although it should be 150 is actually reading 276! Sounds like a bonus but clearly it isn't . The Yuasa is rated 180CCA but now being 3 or 4 years old it was down to around 140 when I last measured it.

I'm not going to install a HID setup because people already complain about the brightness of the headlights on my bike, I don't want to make them even brighter.

I don't really know what to do now except to buy another battery and hope it's worse than the Varta.

 

I like having really bright lights. At least they then know I'm there..

 

How do you measure CCA, cold crank amps

I find it odd it just blows bulbs,


VF1000F2F, in bits

 

If your bulbs seem a touch too bright and don't last a couple of years, chances are the output voltage is too high... instead of looking at the battery, I'd be checking the charging system..... the old battery may be bringing down the voltage a bit. Have you measured the output voltage at the headlamp bulb connectors?

 

I did. I measured 11.98V at the headlamp connector.

I should also have mentioned that I have a VFRness and rectifier from Ricks. It's been on for a few years so I don't suspect it as the problem here.

The odd thing for me is that it only blows the dipped headlight filament but not the high beam. Regardless, putting an old battery back in has solved it.

I also like being seen and can be seen - which is why I don't need any upgrade.

What do you think of a battery measuring 276.9A but rated for 150A?

 

The old battery is probably soaking up more power than the new one


VF1000F2F, in bits

 

CCA is measured under load


VF1000F2F, in bits

 

Bad contact can make more heat, so overheat spiral in bulb. Measure voltage at different ride styles. On battery.

 

Bad ground or bad plug since you've addressed potential charging system issues. Relaying headlights is never a bad idea and easy to do. If your going hid do research. You NEED shuttered H4's or you'll be lighting up the sky. I've been thru halogen, hid (shuttered & non- shuttered) and settled on Novsight led h4 and added crossover wiring so that the work high and low beam. Put a switch on the h7 Novsight high bulbs to use them as aux high beam.

 

Not great video

 

Spoke to my bro, he worked for Exide Batteries for years,

The CCA on one of those checkers is pointless

The battery needs to be in subzero temps for at least 48 hours then tested with the proper tools

It also depends if it’s a ISO value or EN value for the tester

He is of the opinion that your old battery is soaking up the excess and you need to fully test the charging system


VF1000F2F, in bits

 

Really appreciate that pal. I didn't expect anything and am pretty much resigned to buying another new battery.

I've tested a few batteries with the tool I have and the CCA rating is more or less as expected, I just thought the rating of that Varta was so much higher than its rating that it was faulty in some way. Never had a problem in 22 years of ownership, except for melting rectifiers and since having the Ricks one installed, that's no longer a problem.

It does makes sense that the old battery is soaking up additional power so I'll try and get it tested when the weather allows. Thanks again for the help.