headlight corrosion

**Finty** · 20th March 2006, 11:44

Has anyone else had problems with headlight corrosion? Just been told mine is corroded and thats the reason its blowing bulbs every week. Not a cheap itlem to replace. Its turning into a money pit....could be time for it to go

**dannysport18** · 20th March 2006, 11:50

you could give them a clean an but some grease on the steel parts of the lights
or the vauxhall ones are cheap call lmf ask steve he had a few sets of vectra c ones mate

**leeds vectra** · 21st March 2006, 10:36

I've noticed by bulb holder clamps starting to corrode on the headlight. Looks like limescale, so i lubed them to try and slow it down.

Paul.

**VauxVeteran** · 21st March 2006, 11:49

Hi, I may be able to help you here, the bulb failure probably isn't down to the corrosion, in both my Vectra B and Omega C I had trouble with bulbs, the cars only seemed to like genuine GM bulbs, if i fitted anything else it would last 2 weeks tops, even blew one in an hour one time in the Vectra, something not quite meaty enough in aftermarket bulbs, and i wasn't the only victim of this, a few friends of mine had the same trouble, only after using GM bulbs did it go away, used to get 11 mths out of a gen bulb after that....hope this helps you out.

**VauxVeteran** · 21st March 2006, 11:50

And that included Phillips and Osram bulbs as well, nothing other than the GM bulb would get past 14 days.

**leeds vectra** · 21st March 2006, 14:20

My Vectra B bulbs were osram from the factory. Think my C was philips before i upgraded to hids.

**Finty** · 21st March 2006, 14:53

Thanks for the replies. You might be on to something with the GM bulbs. Had the passenger side bulb replaced by Opel about a year ago and no trouble since. However all the replacements of the other side were all generic typesand wouldn't last much over a week. Will mention it to the mechanic who said the headlight was corroded. He's quite a good mechanic

Oh to have a 3 year warranty!!

**VauxVeteran** · 21st March 2006, 14:54

Try the genuine ones from a Vx dealer, if that dont work then it looks like bite the bullet and new lamps will be the order of the day, only other thing is you got a gremlin car, have you done any leccy mods? I had a prob on my Omega, the alt light would glow if I used the H seats, Vx couldn't fix it, funny thing, when I took the meter out before changing the car, the prob went away.

**Finty** · 21st March 2006, 15:02

No elec mods done however I just got word that Opel will foot the bill for a new headlamp. It pays to have a mate who's one of their salesmen! Definetly think you're on to something with using GM bulbs though. Will buy a couple when I'm getting the headlight changed

**VauxVeteran** · 21st March 2006, 15:05

Yeah, get the new lights anyway, but the bulbs are an issue, I scratched my head 1st time it happened to me, only when I asked a few of the others who owned Vectra B's if they had the same trouble did i decide to use what can only be the best bulb and sure enough it cured it.