The god of headlamps hates me

I have replaced one or both of the headlamps in my car several times (4 or more) in the past 365 days… Yesterday I replaced my passenger side low beam. This morning while the car was warming up, the drivers side low beam blinked out. What the fuck is going on?

Please, don’t talk about getting hand oil or residue on the bulb, I’m fully aware of that and quite careful.

8 thoughts on “The god of headlamps hates me

  1. I heard this same scenario discussed on Car Talk once. They said factory headlamps often burn out around the same time. In this particular case, the guy replaced one lamp, only to have them both burn out at the same time; the new and the old. The car talk guys postulated that the new lamp was a crappy one that simply died before its time, and with the other one, it was just time to blow out, just like the first.

    1. Only problem is that I have moved beyond coincidence… Like I said, I’ve change one or both lamps at least 4 times in the past year.

  2. Outside of cheap bulbs or regular wear and tear, I would guess that the bulbs are being over-volted, if just slightly. It’s the kind of thing that would kill bulbs in a short amount of time, but with enough variation that they wouldn’t die at the same time. I suppose you could easily verify this with a voltmeter and the bulb’s specs.

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