[wilythek]

For about 3-4 years now I've been observing something to me to be very interesting. I live in Ohio which except for a few larger cities has no motor vehicle inspection. What I've observed over time is the number of vehicle headlight and/or front parking lights that are not working. I'm talking about one headlight or parking light that is out. With no inspections these could be out for quite a long time but that's not my point. It's the manufacture of the vehicle that I'm talking about...

In my unofficial survey General Motors is the by far the major contributor to the problem. And the absolute number one offender by far is the Chevy/GMC pickup truck. Absolutely amazing the number of GM pickup's with burned out lights. Also, GM Suv's & cars, etc have a higher rate of outages but can't compare to the pickup's. Now your mileage may vary, but I rarely see Fords or Asian vehicles of any type with a light out. The GM thing is so bad (to me) that when I see a vehicle with a light out coming toward me it is 99 out of 100 a GM vehicle and usually a pickup. So keep an eye out for the light out. Hehehe..
Bill...

PS I have a Chevy S10 and I had a burned out bulb a while back...

 

[Duster]

For years, GM has had a terrible record for lights in their electrical systems.
Even back in the 60's, vehicles had taillight problems.
Driving with lights on...step on the brake...one side goes bright,
the other side goes dim.
On the newer pickups, with running lights on the front, they use
a pulsing circuit to increase the perceived brightness of the light,
to the detriment to the life of the bulb.
Some of those 60's GM luxury cars had cornering lights, & a side light
that flashed with the turn signals...except, to reduce the electrical
load on the circuit, the side flasher worked with a 537 alternating
flasher, to reduce the electrical load in the turn signal circuit.
The front light would blink, then the side light would blink, & so forth.
GM soon quit using this system. It all came back to the shortcuts they
took in grounding their electrical systems. Even some of their audio systems
used chassis ground for the minus side of the speakers. Only a plus lead
went to a speaker...the minus side went to common chassis ground.
Hello electrical noise.

 

[osbornk]

Virginia have annual safety inspections but about half of the GM trucks and SUVs have at least one running light out when I pass them. The 99-06 models seem to be the worst. It is not as bad on the later models.

 

[MarilynsPrince]

I too have noticed that. ALMOST without exception a vehicle coming towards me with only 1 running light working is a GMC/Chevy pickup. It's been that way for years. It used to be the passenger side, but on the newer models it's the driver's side. On another note...my Burgman lights all seem to be working well!

 

[v8eyedoc]

blame the chinese bulbs

 

[Scootereno]

Stiffer suspension (more vibration) and the weak electrical design contribute to the GM truck vs. car scenario.
VW bugs and their Mini Buss fall in that category as well!

 

[Buffalo]

I too have noticed that. ALMOST without exception a vehicle coming towards me with only 1 running light working is a GMC/Chevy pickup. It's been that way for years. It used to be the passenger side, but on the newer models it's the driver's side. On another note...my Burgman lights all seem to be working well!

On the other hand, I don't remember seeing a Ford or Dodge pickup with separate daytime running lights like the Chevy/GMC trucks have. On Ford and Dodge trucks they use the headlights as DLRs with a resistor in the circuit to reduce voltage and thus intensity. Since in the USA there is no legal requirement to use DRLs then there is not much incentative for folks to fix separate ones if they go out. But if one of your headlights goes out you are likely to fix that.

 

[osbornk]

blame the chinese bulbs

The Chinese bulbs seem to last in their cars.

 

[v8eyedoc]

The Chinese bulbs seem to last in their cars.

SOOOOOOOOOOO...!!!!! I guess you have been to China recently..??????

 

[osbornk]

SOOOOOOOOOOO...!!!!! I guess you have been to China recently..??????

Them as in GM. I see a lot of those here in the States.

 

[ashby102]

I ran my own auto electric repair garage for 25+ years here in New Jersey and I never noticed GM being any different in bulb failure than any other brands.I think there are many more GM cars on the road. I'm a dyed in the wool blue man (Ford). I use to insist on only using bulbs made in the USA ( when possible). All the Korean , Indian & So American bulbs are inferior .The same holds true for auto fuses .