Do any particular brand of H3 lamps last longer than others? I'm getting tired of replacing these things.

 

I don't know if any particular brand lasts longer than others but one thing to make sure not to do with any of them is to touch the glass with your bare hands/ fingers. The oil from our skin causes the bulb to overheat and cuts the life in half easily. If you do touch the glass wipe it off with isopropryl alcohol (aka rubbing) before reinstalling. The best (light) quality bulbs I know of are the Osram ?? and Sylvania Silverstars, neither bulb is available in the states but there was a site I can't think of now which sold them. Very expensive but supposedly well worth it.

 

If in need for some H3 and H4 bulbs from Europe (standard stuff over here) I think we could swap- I have looong waits for 9004s.

H3s do dislike vibrations. For foglights over here, if the filament burns often, we use some rubber inlay to dampen the whole light. Usually helps a bundle.
I second the fingerprints stuff.
Too high wattage for the light where they are installed will also shorten lifetime.

AlpineRAM

 

I have noticed that when most of them go out, the filament is still intact. The glass is clear and it looks like a good lamp. There is just no continuity. I've never been able to figure this one out.

 

rattle_rattle: In my experience this comes from running the bulbs with too hot sockets- like lights with cooling fins not getting air. This will melt the solder in the socket and kill the bulb.

AlpineRAM

 

rattle_rattle,

Any chance your headlight circuit has been modified so both the low beam and high beam lights are on at the same time?

 

Yes.

 

That sounds like the cause of shortened bulb life, overheating.

 

Problem is with H3 bulbs. Nothing to do with the headlights.

 

My thinking was that they might be overheating because of the low and high beams being on at the same time.

 

The H3s are in separate driving or fog lamps.
The only way they can be going bad from the mods in the lighting system is when they operate under too low voltage. Most of them need at least 14V to get up to their standard life time. Too low voltage and the filament will evaporate and build a film on the inside of the glass.

AlpineRAM