A lesson on replacing bulbs (Read: Chinese lamp quality review!)

[Mirez]

I retrofitted front fog lights to the Golf last November - more for the styling/look then for actual foggy conditions but the Golf also uses the front fog lights for cornering and coming/leaving home lights so they do get some use.

Anyway, I bought a "retrofit kit" from ebay comprising the grills & lamp units which included the bulbs. I duly fitted them (not bothering to take the lamps out of the unit as they were pre-fitted) and that was that.

I've always thought the light output from them was a bit poor but again, it was more of a styling thing so I wasn't that bothered wowever on Wednesday I got a "Right Front Fog Light Failed" message appear on the dash so I bought some replacement's online. I try to always use name brands when replacing things on cars so I went with some Bosch units at Ã,£10.21 each compared to ebay where I could get some chinese ones for Ã,£2.20 each.

This is the visual of why I have that moto, re-confirmed by removing the original chinese crud that was fitted.:

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The coil inside the bulb glass has fallen (presumably under its own heat), contacted the glass and ballooned it to the point where a hole has appeared. The absolute maximum these have been on continuously would be around 5 minutes - scary because it's quite conceivable that with a long stint they could have caught fire!

[insanitybeard]

  Yikes..........

Yep, it's the old phrase 'you get what you pay for'. Like you I'd rather pay extra for something decent,  can be a great place to find stuff but there's also a load of substandard imported (and quite likely not 'CE' approved) tat on there that presumably cannot meet the necessary safety standards, I'm thinking of the cheap mobile phone chargers that have been responsible for several house fires........

It may be unfair to single out Chinese made stuff but that does seem to be where the bulk of product gets produced thesedays, on the one hand it's fair to say a lot of decent stuff gets made there but on the other hand, also a lot of crap as well (it all comes down to who's producing it for who that determines the amount of QC that happens), we as consumers are partly to blame as the first thing the majority of people look at is price without wondering which corners have been cut in order to achieve that price!

[gregers]

very lucky you caught it in time m8,
any chance of recourse?

[Mirez]

Possibly if I really REALLY wanted to but tbh, they are only likely to send me another set of the same useless crap!