Author Topic: Headlight problem (Read 5252 times)

92mx83 · « **on:** May 29, 2007, 07:45:23 PM »

Hi, all.

For the past month or so I had been running with only the low beam functioning in my headlight, as the high beam filament had cut. I just received a pair of really nice (and fairly expensive) H4 Osram Silverstars (the non-blue-tinted Euro market ones), and swapped it into the reflector housing. While I did this, I noticed that a connector had come loose (the wires are in the headlight bowl), and so I reconnected it.

I fired up the bike and operated both high and low beams with the bike stationary in my garage, then turned the bike off.

When I drove the B4 that night, the low-beam filament cut out almost immediately, leaving me only with the high beam working this time.

What could be causing this? Is there possibly a short somewhere? Do I need to open the fusebox, and if so, where is it? The Osrams seem to produce an amazing amount of light considering the stock wattage, and I'd really like to rectify this before risking the second bulb.

Thanks in advance!

interfuse · « **Reply #1 on:** May 29, 2007, 11:14:37 PM »

Same thing happened when I tried those bulbs. The bulbs didn't last even one ride. I don't think they can handle the vibrations. After $40 on those silverstars I bought the cheapest bulb available... and I've no problems with it.

El Dopa · « **Reply #2 on:** May 29, 2007, 11:37:27 PM »

Did you touch the bulb with bare fingers before you installed it?

I have heard/read somewhere that the oils on your fingers can do bad things to new high-intensity type bulbs (e.g. halogen bulbs) when they are first turned on, if the glass is touched pre-install. This is presumably why they usually come with poly sleeves.

I bought a couple of Osram bulbs recently, which are sitting in a box, waiting for me to get my arse in gear for a fairing conversion I am doing. As I am a curious monkey, they now have my fingerprints all over them, and will need a wipe before I install them - I think turps or white spirit or meths can be used to clean them if you have touched them, but don't quote me on that.

I also have no idea if this is actually the cause of the problem - just a thought, really.

92mx83 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 30, 2007, 01:48:23 AM »

Dopa, you can actually clean them just fine with rubbing alcohol you get at your local drugstore. I was very careful to avoid touching the bulb with my fingertips, though. What happens is the fingerprints will create hot-spots on the glass and cause the bulb to pop.

My problem is that the low-beam filament cut due to improper voltage going thru the filament.

Interfuse, fyi, these are not the Sylvania Silverstars you find at your local Autozone. The Osram Silverstars are a completely different animal. Everyone I've read who tries the Sylvania Silverstars universally hates them, whereas the Osrams are always highly-regarded. They also don't have that ricey blue tint that the Sylvania ones do. I am impressed by their light output, but until I find whatever's shorting out my system, I'll have to ride with high-beam only. Incidentally, the stock bulb had a fried high-beam filament as I indicated in my first post.

So, since i don't know electrical stuff, I may need to take another trip down to my local Suzuki service department...

turbofb · « **Reply #4 on:** May 30, 2007, 01:57:46 AM »

+1 for any Osram bulbs.
They are very high quality,I use Osram H9 bulbs in the Hella projectors in my car.They beat the hell out of any comparable bulb,regardless of wattage.

While its possible for any company to have a few bum bulbs make it out,its rare, and the fingerprint thing is always an issue with hot running,halogen bulbs.Before you put any other expensive bulbs in there,Id do a voltage check on the bike.High or unstable voltage can cause the filament to go ballistic and melt,without any glass damage(that might have been the reason for the extremely high light output before it failed.)

If the glass broke or turned funny colors,then its likely you had some foreign matter on the bulb.

interfuse · « **Reply #5 on:** May 30, 2007, 01:38:49 PM »

I was under the impression Osram Sylvania where the same company.

Sounds like time to check the voltage regulator...

Red01 · « **Reply #6 on:** May 30, 2007, 03:59:09 PM »

They are the same company, but the Euro-spec Osrams are much better than the Sylvanias you get in the US. While both use the Silverstar name, they are NOT the same bulbs.

FWIW - years ago I spent big bucks to get a Euro-spec H4 headlight for my GS750. (Back then, they were a lot harder to find in the US as H4's weren't DOT legal.) My GS would burn the low beam out anytime the bike neared redline. Landing from wheelies would also kill any filament that was on at the time. I ended up replacing the H4 assy with a sealed beam dual element headlight that was made for farm equipment. That light was as bright as the H4 and never burned out while I had the bike.

92mx83 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 30, 2007, 05:32:02 PM »

Thanks for the responses everyone.

Hey, interfuse, I just re-read my response, and I apologize if it reads a little harsh. Such is the problem with the typewritten word, as I certainly didn't intend such.

Osram-Sylvania is indeed a single company, but the Osram name is not marketed here in the U.S., although Sylvania is. So we get these blue-tinted Sylvania Silverstars that seem to be universally reviled in most forums I frequent because of their short life and dimmer light output.

Since I have zero time these days, I'm going to have to have the Suzuki shop take a look at the voltage regulator, as well as do other work on the bike.

One day, I'll look into getting one of those dual-headlight setups I see on eBay, and maybe this will cure my lighting issues.

Thanks again, everyone!

stormi · « **Reply #8 on:** May 30, 2007, 07:25:40 PM »

It should take you about 2 mins to check the voltage regulator... use the test in my sig, or if their site is down, try this link:

http://members.stormi.ca/electrosport_fault_finding.pdf

All you need is a multimeter, and a couple of minutes. It will save you a bundle, not having to pay shop rates or have them mis-diagnose the problem.

andrewsw · « **Reply #9 on:** May 31, 2007, 07:22:53 PM »

Stormi, that link (and the one from your sig) point to a password protected .pdf. If you're lucky enough to run linux (or other *nix type OS), then xpdf will ignore the password and just show you the file.

A

kako · « **Reply #10 on:** June 01, 2007, 01:30:11 AM »

errr my firefox and ex6 running on xp show both links fine... i donno if stormi fix them but they are working

stormi · « **Reply #11 on:** June 01, 2007, 01:39:52 AM »

didn't touch them. They open fine on my xp laptop ( with acrobat 6.0 pro as well as with Reader 7.0.5), and also when said laptop is booted into linux and using either xpdf or acrobat reader....

What OS and pdf reader are you using?

How refreshing to hear from someone familiar with Linux and its foibles though. :)

andrewsw · « **Reply #12 on:** June 01, 2007, 05:27:36 PM »

heh. Don't know what the deal is, but the links work fine, its the opening of the file itself that was giving me problems.

I'm running debian (on *all* my boxes!). The problem was on my wife's box (etch/stable) which is using gnome and thus probably evince to read the file. It was prompting for a password. As I said, xpdf works just fine. The rest of my desktop boxes run debian sid/unstable with xfce on the desktop. My server runs a xen virtualized system with etch/stable on Dom0 and all three DomU's (firewall, mail server and web server, though I'm thinking of goofing off with some *BSD a bit for the publicly accessible DomU servers). I'm also running GNU/Hurd on one partition just for playing around, but its mostly ignored.

A

stormi · « **Reply #13 on:** June 01, 2007, 05:51:50 PM »

I'm kind of curious as to where it would get that password from. I copied the file from Electrosport's site, and like I said, I've never had it prompt for a pass. might be interesting to "crack" it, and see what it thinks is was. What pdf viewer is the wife using?

andrewsw · « **Reply #14 on:** June 01, 2007, 07:30:50 PM »

its evince 0.4.0 (using poppler-utils 0.4.5) and it definitely wants a password to view the pdf whether downloaded from you or from electrosport. wierd huh?

i'm running pdfcrack on it right now. I'll report back. could be a bug in evince I suppose, but pdfcrack reports it as encrypted...

we'll see

A