WS Fiesta - Expected life of lights

[Ms_Jam]

One of my parking lights has gone. Easily fixed of course.

My question, however, is this. How long can I expect the headlights now to last? The car is now a few months short of five years old and has almost done 75,000 km.

The point is that if the headlights are reaching the end of their life, I am wondering whether I might as well have them changed too. Because I often work until very late at night, it is important for me to be confident about the headlights. (I use high beam rarely, so I am thinking only about the standard headlights.)

What do you think is the sensible thing to do?

[In Focus]

I'm assuming they are the standard halogen globes. A bit off topic, but I had a Falcon for 12 years and 100,000km and never had to change them. Some of the after-market models advertised as "50% brighter" tend to have a much shorter life, sometimes less than a year. If you're worried, you could keep a spare in the car.

[Ms_Jam]

Thanks, In Focus.

Appreciate your point about brighter aftermarket lights.

Someone has said to me that military, so-called tactical, flashlights can serve as a headlight in an emergency. However, I cannot see how to mount the thing in such a situation.

[Yellow_Festiva]

I think you should just leave them till they blow.

Worst case scenario, one goes... the light from the other will be enough to get you home.

Keeping a spare is great, but will you be the one to be changing it on the side of the road at night? The Focus headlights were a 45 min job the first time as it involved a lot of trial and error (mostly error) and when the other side went I could do a change in 15 minutes. Would not do it till I was home and in day light.

Also, not sure if keeping a globe in the car (glove box) would be advised as you may have a lot of loose junk sliging around in there and the constant jarring and sliding may effect its shelf life.

Buy a set of spares, pop the bonnet one morning and teach yourself to access the globe, remove it, put it back taking note of what order you clip / unclip stuff and then you will be a pro when you need to do it for certain. The head light in the Focus needs to be totally removed, not sure in the Fiesta.

[xr8territory]

My headlight bulbs both blew, 2 weeks apart! 5 years, 100,000ks.

[Franco Cozzo]

If one blows replace both of them with the Phillips Xtremevision range or Osram Night Breaker Unlimited:

I always use these in any cars with halogen lights, just a tad brighter than your regular globe which is always nice.

http://www.powerbulbs.com/au/product...on-130-h7-twin

The +130s just came out, but I've used +80s and +100s before across multiple cars, good lights.

Or these which I have in my WS Fiesta at the moment:

http://www.powerbulbs.com/au/product...r-unlimited-h7

They're still 55W globes so there is no worries about melting wiring or reflectors unlike people who put in higher wattage globes such as 100/130W ones.

Fiesta is a bit of a pain in the *** to do globes on though, even with the head light assembly out of the car, not much room for people with fat fingers like me.

[Pursya]

Just buy a set, and put them in your glovebox. Along with some tissues.
When the time comes it is an easy thing to do to replace them.
Make sure you do not touch the globe, that's why you have a pack of travel tissues.
Might be a good idea to pack a torch as well.