Any ideas why my new license plate light bulb died in less than a day or 2?
99 ford f350 sd uhaul
The housing was broke off from frame, but i cant weld, so i had it duct taped it to the frame.
The red wire was disconnected so i did a grade f- electrical soder job reconnecting the red wire and wrapped it in duct tape.
The ground, i was in a hurry so i cut a piece of elec. Soder wrapped it around the light ground, and duct taped ut to the frame.
Worked fine.
2 days later when i realized the light was out, i checked everything and found 2 things wrong, the light was burnt out or broke
And the red wire connection i made didnt work at all, nothing on the heavily sodered side was useable wire at the tip.
How secure is the duct tape? If it allows the bulb to share too much it could cause the filament to fail. A current surge could also cause it to fail, like from an intermittent connection, but that seems less likely unless your voltage regulator is also failing.
The intermittent connection and road vibration may be blowing the bulb filament. Switch to an led bulb. May still be intermittent but no filament to blow out.
Tom Suddard
Director of Marketing & Digital Assets
7/17/19 7:49 a.m.
I chased that problem for 2 hours on a Geo once. Turns out I was pulling new bulbs out of the “6v bulbs” box.
Curtis
UltimaDork
7/17/19 7:58 a.m.
Sounds like either a shaking bulb issue or a bad ground.
Bad grounds make all sorts of weird things happen, including intermittent over-amping and wildly variable voltages seen at the filament. Makes for short bulb life.
Ok, thanks a lot. I couldnt have imagined the ground causing extra pull. But ill keep it in mind.
The truck probably has terrible shocks, but i dont have time to test that this week.
I couldnt really tell, but it looked like there was a 1/4mm gap in the filament
Ill switch to led. The housing was still secure to truck, but there are too many negative aspects in play. Ill upgrade the cover as well.
Possible just a bad bub. Had that happen to me with my outside light. Two from the same package
Crappy connections will lead to overamps/undervolts that could kill it. VIbration could kill it. Some vehicles just have a propensity for eating bulbs. My old F250 used to kill 3rd brake light bulbs dead in a matter of weeks, just switched to LED eventually.
