Headlight

[zephram22]

OK. I've decided that it might be easier to describe my problems by including pictures in some of my posts. I've been having problems with my headlights blowing out. The thing is, only the low beam (projectors) have blown. The high's have never gone. The low beams have gone about 5 times in the past two months. Just got the car. Supposed to be "GM Certified". The dealer won't admit any wrongdoing on their part. They told me that the headlight assemblies might be leaking and I might need new ones. They want $500 dollars for the set. Ridiculous seeing as how I got the car a very short time ago. Didn't get the extended warranty, but I'm still gonna make sure they fix it for free.

Take a look at the top of my headlight. (Click the image for a better view)


Does the seal look right? It almost looks melted to me. I don't know, it might be normal. Anyone have an opinion?

[Autobanaurora]

Any fog? Have you noticed any humity on the inside? Geez Zep, this 02 is racking up the posts. I've got 112K and lucky for me, knock on wood, haven't even replaced a side marker.

[zephram22]

Originally Posted by Autobanaurora

Any fog? Have you noticed any humity on the inside? Geez Zep, this 02 is racking up the posts. I've got 112K and lucky for me, knock on wood, haven't even replaced a side marker.

Yeah, this car is cursed or something I dunno. Dealership lied to me and said that the car was GM Certified. Went back later after these problems started and they told me that I had been misled. This is why I don't like doing business with dealership. As for the posts...pretty much all of my problems were from a thermostat that went bad. Although the thermostat that I had installed on tuesday has failed less than 48 hours later.

I can understand why it's so hard to get decent service done for this car. I think there were only about 8,000 02 3.5s made. As a result, at least around here anyway, one knows anything about my car.

As for everything breaking down less than two months after buying it, I guess I have to admit that I'm partially responsible for the demise of certain components. Because the summer was so hot, I left the air condinioning running every day. Guess that allowed the clutch assembly on the compressor to go bad. And, I probably drove the car a little rough when I first got it. But that was because I was trying to get a feel for what the car could do. The 3.5 is adequate...but not all that impressive.

Headlights....No fog or condestation. I recently removed and inspected both headlight assemblies to make sure they were in good condition. Other than that funky "melted looking" seal, they are fine. What I don't understand is how my low beams blew 5 times, but the highs never have. I'm wondering it is has something to do with the fact that the headlights are using projector technolgy. For the time being at least, they aren't acting up anymore. Haven't had a blown bulb in 2 or 3 weeks.

OK, that's enough, I'll let you know how it all works out when I go the dealership (not the one I bought the car from...but rather, a much more trustworthy place that won't gouge you) for the 3rd time....

[tjm]

be sure not to touch the bulbs when installing - the oil on you fingers make a hot spot on the bulb causing premature failure

[zephram22]

Originally Posted by tjm

be sure not to touch the bulbs when installing - the oil on you fingers make a hot spot on the bulb causing premature failure

Oh I know. In fact, I usually wear latex (unpowdered variety) when installing my headlamps. It's possible that the first few times that I put them in, I wasn't doing it right.