OE headlight lamp -- life span

[Constant Mesh]

What's the expected life span of the OE headlight lamps? My '04 FJR still has the OE lamps. I've got 36K miles on the bike so the lamps have operated for a lot of hours.

I have a $10 off coupon for anything at the local dealer. I've got plenty of Yamaha oil filters from previous $10 off deals.

Any recommendations for what to buy?

The dealer sells the OE Yamaha lamps for $14.50.

 

[Ignacio]

This is a hard-to-Google subject because so many HID conversion sites littered about. IIRC, a typical halogen H4 has a mean time to failure (MTF) of like 2000 hours. Why not carry a spare with you anyway? One fails and you still can either get home...or change with basic tools you probably want to pack anyway.

There's a lot of subjective opinion on which aftermarket bulb is better for the price and discussed many, many, many times on the forum. Several terms to search for include Philips Vision Plus, GE Megalight, etc. They all tend to "claim" a percentage brighter than stock....and none have independently verifiable numbers behind them...although most who use them believe they produce more usable light including me.

 

[Warchild]

Any recommendations for what to buy?

None better than these, if you're staying with halogen:

Osram Night Breaker H4s

 

[Powerman]

+1 on the Osram Night Breaker H4

I think they were @ $16 each.

They say + 90.

90% brighter, no, but noticeably better.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Anything's better than the originals for output.

You're on borrowed time at 36K. For tempting the fates, the lives of your bulbs are about up.

I can't tell you the life of the first to go, but the life of the other won't be much longer. Replace both when one goes and start thinking about the other bulbs if you have the time to do them for a few bucks more.

 

[Wicked Webby]

+1 on the Osram Night Breaker H4I think they were @ $16 each.

They say + 90.

90% brighter, no, but noticeably better.

Powerman,

Where did you get yours?? The link Warchild posted isn't too bad.. About $46 USD(for two). With free shipping/no tax from the UK. BUT, considerably higher than $16 EACH.

Do you remember or have a link?

WW

 

[Jagermeister]

What's the differance between the nightbreaker and Silverstars? I got these:Murph's Osram Silverstars

 

[Constant Mesh]

I guess when one lamp dies (i.e., open circuits) the voltage at the remaining lamp goes up with a corresponding increase in wattage. The increased wattage causes the lamp to get hotter and it prematurely dies.

The more one sits motionless with the headlights on the quicker the lamps will die -- no onrush of cooling air to keep the lamps from overheating.

 

[Ignacio]

I guess when one lamp dies (i.e., open circuits) the voltage at the remaining lamp goes up with a corresponding increase in wattage. The increased wattage causes the lamp to get hotter and it prematurely dies.
The more one sits motionless with the headlights on the quicker the lamps will die -- no onrush of cooling air to keep the lamps from overheating.

No. Voltage doesn't change appreciably. The manufacturing tolerances on bulbs these days are so that two bulbs in the same environment just burn out near the same time.

Halogen bulbs burn out because tungsten is vaporized, most is returned in a chemical reactive cycle, but some makes it through the heavy gas and slowly deposits on the glass bulb interior....over the course of several thousand hours. Eventually like a tooth cavity it breaks through.

Take a look at a use, but not burned out halogen bulb under magnification and you'll see pits and abrasions in the metal.

Nor do I think cooling air has that much of an effect. We're talking a halogen at like 200C or more...and the delta in ambient temperature...especially sealed spaces isn't going to have much of an effect.

 

[Bluebullet]

I want to say thanks to WC for mentioning the Night Breaker in this thread and then a few of you following up with the ole +1. I was able to get a set off of ebay from aftermarketbulbshop for 33.00 and they are quite an improvement over stock. I took a pic with only one installed and you can see the difference over the stock.

 

[squeezer]

I think you're due for a change. There's about 39K on my '03 and one bulb burned out last week. I was getting ready to swap 'em out anyway.

I picked up these Philips Vision +80 bulbs from Murph. Definitely an improvement. Prolly not as good as the Nightbreakers, but they're DOT approved (like there's a cop in the country that would check your bulbs for DOT approval ).

I'd use the $10 off for nice assortment of OEM fasteners, crush washers, etc. It's always to have that stuff on the shelf.

 

[weekend rider]

Wow you guys pay way to much for bulbs and what is in a name.

I deal with a lot of bulbs and I find Phillips to give longer service than Osram. The las h4 I bought was $4.00 problaly gine up to maybe 6-7 for me.

Whats in a name?? An H4 that is rated 55w will only put out 55w even when the other bulb burns out and it will never draw more volts than the bulb is listed for. The only diffeerence is some of the newer designs do have the ability to put out more lumens and over time the H4 loose some of there brightness just a sign of life comming to an end.