Hey folks! I'm having a hard time finding yellow lightbulbs now a days, which are not crap.
15-20 years ago i ordered a bunch of Yellow P45T lamps from a local shop. They didn't stock yellow lamps but was happy to order if I ordered a whole box of them, which I did. Great quality, they lasted for years each bulb. But I have many cars, and it's been many years, so they are all gone now.
I ordered new ones from Burton two years ago. Those are "Narva", apparently from Germany and "geprufte qualitat". Now, I realize that it's the company itself that have written "geprufte qualitat", and that I might not really understand what the expression means. I would think it means good quality? But maybe it just means they are tested. They dont have to write that they are tested and found to be crap
Anyway, they are CRAP. Utterly, utterly crap.
These Narva lights are white glass, painted in yellow. The first that happens, is that the paint falls off. Or somewhat just evaporate over the area where the filaments for the dipped light are. So, after, lets say 1000 km, the yellow light for the dipped beams had gone. After that, the filament would just fall off leaving the headlight dark. Maybe 2000 km? The filament wasnt even burned off, it just falls off in one piece from where it's attached inside the light bulb.
This was a problem on my trip this year. I was away 9 weeks, drove 10.000 km and visited 10 countries. I had taken with me 3 extra pairs of lamps. All of them used even before I got to Odessa at the black sea. I started driving with just the park lights(Yellow led park lights
) on, until I got to the world meeting. There I bought 3 more. Bought from someone else than Burton, but unfortunately it was the Narva-brand too. The yellow color/paint did not last even to Italy, so again, park lights was the way to go as I was afraid to be without light bulbs in case of night driving.
No other bulbs on the car was changed on the whole trip. My voltage regulator are a modern, electronic one, and the voltage is correct. No problems with anything else electrical.
So now I have searched the web for quality P45T yellow bulbs. No luck.
I have written to a few ebay sellers asking if the glass is painted or actually yellow. They say they are painted.
I remember my old bulbs from that big box I ordered was branded "Toplamp". I have found a seller online who claims the bulbs are Toplamp, but that they are painted. I might recall wrongly, but I do think my old lamps was made of yellow glass, not white glass painted yellow.
I love the look of the old Cibie glasses, and because of that I don't want to change to H4. However, changing to H4 and using the H4 lamps with the yellow glass dome over it might be the only option. That is, if the good old yellow "Duplo" P45T are history, and only the crap remains. I've spent 30 euros + on 6 Narva-bulbs on one trip! With my old Toplamp bulbs I changed maybe one on a trip like this.
I'd like some views on this, please. And yes, my cars must have yellow lights, and the look of the glass of the headlight does matter
