I have had 5 bulbs burnout in 2 months. I'm not touching the bulb and I am using grease. I've tried the higher end sylvania bulbs and they still don't last. Any ideas as to what might be causing this?
That seems unusual for 5 bulbs to burn. There can't possibly be 5 different defectives bulbs of different brands....I'm curious why do you use grease?
My friends use a "Hella" brand bulb from Amazon. It's about $8.00 each. Made in Poland but seems to hold up quite well. I would try that and not use the grease. HELLA H83160211 HB2 9003 Series 12V 60/55W Bulb OOPs. That's a GenII bulb. I'm still suspecting there maybe another issue as you've burned 5 bulbs already. I can't believe quality control is that poor.
The Bulb grease is die electric grease, you apply it to the connection tab of the bulb to prevent heat from the electrical. It's common to prevent corrosion on the terminal as well. As for the bulb burning up, I would check the bulb connection if the current is within spec or not. A short somewhere in the line can cause high current to run through the wires and cause a short on the filament and can cause premature wear on the bulb. I hope that helps?
SilverStars are garbage and burn out quickly. You are also in the 3rd gen sub forum and do you have a 2nd gen or 3rd gen. If you have a 3rd gen do the H11 to H9 mod.
OP, do you leave your headlight switch in the ON position all the time? Doing so exposes the bulbs to voltage and current fluctuations at startup and will drastically shorten bulb life. Waiting even a few seconds after startup before turning them on will help. SCH-I535
grease prevents corrosion from developing at the contact point where the bulb plugs into the wiring harness. High resistance electrical connection can draw a small arc when powers applied to the bulb and over time could pop the bulb like an crusty old wall switch in your house can.
I started turning the light switch off everytime I turned off the car as I used to leave it on and have gone through 7 of the Sylvania ultra h11-su2 bulbs in 10 months. Didn't make a difference. I was hoping it would as I understand a voltage spike as the system voltage increases to normal operating voltage everytime you start the car could be a problem. Not in my car's case.
What year is your car? There was a TSB for the gen3 2010/2011 MY Prius that had a headlight harness replaced. We have had no problems with our 2011, but I am using H9 65w halogen bulbs instead of H11 bulbs for my lowbeams (link in my signature below).
