It seems that my headlight bulbs are blowing out all of a sudden on my 2005 LR3. This has begun only recently since the colder winter weather has come in. Fisrt I replaced with Sylvanias lasted 2 weeks. Next, I got a set directly from the Land Rover dealer. The right one blew today. About 2 weeks. I just recently purchased this vehicle last spring. Had no involvement with cold until now. All other bulbs appear to be okay.
Does this vehicle not like winter?
SE LR3 / 6

Any ideas?

Thank you in advance for your ideas.

Terry

 

Cold weather should not be the issue.

Did you put them in or the dealer? You do know you cant touch the bulb with your bare fingers, right? Just want to be sure...

If both are blowing, it is doubtful you have a bad connection on both sides. Sylvania's from a box store will never last as long as OEM, they are made "less robust". I am not sure what the dealer sells, but regardless, 2 weeks is not normal...

 

Catman,
Yes, I'm aware of the bulbs not being touched and I agree that the weather shouldn't be an issue. I'll have to keep an eye on this to see where it goes.

Thank you Catman for your input.

 

I assume it is not the Xenon bulbs that are blowing but conventional halogen?

If so, I would get a volt meter out and see what your battery voltage is when all is off and when the engine is running.

All off voltage should not be much less than 12.2 VDC and when running, about 13.2 volts or higher. 14.5 VDC is not uncommon.

What I am getting at is low volts can mean higher amps are attempting to go thru the halogen bulb and doing bad things. Xenon's are something totally different.

Also if you can measure the volts at the illuminated bulb when engine is off and also running - see if there is a significant difference from the at the battery values.

 

Thanks bbyer. I'll get the meter back out and go through it.

 

I got to looking at the wiring diagram for the headlights. About the only item of interest is that I notice at the ground conductors of all bulbs within each headlight assembly are spliced together first and then go to a ground point. Each headlight goes to a different ground point so if there is a problem with the ground side, fixing it on one side does not solve the other sides problem.

By the same thinking, if you are having problems on both sides, then the odds are it is not a ground problem.

Regardless, look at all the bulbs in each headlight assembly and see if they look bright or whatever they should look, (or too bright perhaps).

Also look at the rear tail lights; are all four taillight filaments illuminated and do the two brake light filaments illuminate?

Have you in the last while replaced any of the other small bulbs? A defective filament within a small bulb can do odd things to the LR lighting system - it is not what I call an old style normal design.

Regarding the small bulbs, I always install LR sourced bulbs in the faint hope that the quality control of LR bulbs is better than far east sourced bulbs. In the rear, all filaments should be standing up and down - vertical, and none horizontal or at an angle. The filaments are stronger vertically and then they break, tend not to fall across the adjacent filament.

The reason I digress so to speak is that your problem is somehow cold weather related. This suggests a problem related to contraction of either conductors or filaments, or a lack of conduction - a gap of some sort somewhere.

I bring this up as probably the voltmeter test will tend to indicate all is good, but do it first as low volts or high volts can create problems so that must be ruled out first.

 

BBYER,
Went through everything. Found nothing that would indicate something faulty. However the temps have been a couple of degrees warmer and no problems. And I do have the LR bulbs installed. I'll keep an eye on everything for a while.

I sure am getting a lot of teachable moments with this vehicle.

 

Now that you mention temperature, is the temperature indicator on the dash display showing about the correct exterior temperature reading?

I ask as the alternator charge voltage is controlled by the vehicle computer and is not related to battery voltage as in older designs.

Charge voltage tends to be increased as air temperature decreases. If for some reason the system thought cold was real cold, charge voltage could I suppose increase and hence filament life decrease.

This is in part why I suggest you record system voltage daily both engine off and on and see if there is any pattern or odd behavior - and I air outside air temperature.

By the sound of things, with your reasonable outside air temperatures, the voltages seem normal and lately the bulbs are not blowing or at least last a week or so.