Touching 501h halogen sidelight bulb with fingers

Andy From Sligo

I purchased a couple of Lucas 5w wedge 501H of the internet to replace a couple of blackened 501 sidelight bulbs in the wife's car. Figured I would go with the halogen replacement instead of the normal tungsten 501 ... seeing as the dip beam and main beam and fog lights in the front light cluster are all of the halogen variety , why not keep them all matching i thought.

Anyway , I never thought to check with the supplier or with lucas whether these small bulbs can or cannot be touched with fingers like with other halogen bulbs , i am presuming they shouldnt be, even though there is no mention whatsoever on the box of the bulbs (theres no icon and no text) - gonna fit them today and as its a saturday I shouldnt think the suppliers nor lucas themselves would be working today on a saturday ... for good measure i might just wrap something round them as i am installing them anyways

AuldDaysul

Do they not sell gloves in sligo or what?

Pkiernan

I always wear rubber gloves and wipedown any bulbs (except leds) with alcohol.

Mint Sauce

Just thinking off the top of my head, I dont recall ever seeing 'do not touch bulb' or similar, on any halagon product. But have always somehow, managed not to touch the bulb anyway, whilst changing, without the need for gloves.

dingding

I would imagine the heat from a 5W bulb would not be an issue.

Most halogens would be 55W or more.

ION08

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

I purchased a couple of Lucas 5w wedge 501H of the internet to replace a couple of blackened 501 sidelight bulbs in the wife's car. Figured I would go with the halogen replacement instead of the normal tungsten 501 ... seeing as the dip beam and main beam and fog lights in the front light cluster are all of the halogen variety , why not keep them all matching i thought.

Anyway , I never thought to check with the supplier or with lucas whether these small bulbs can or cannot be touched with fingers like with other halogen bulbs , i am presuming they shouldnt be, even though there is no mention whatsoever on the box of the bulbs (theres no icon and no text) - gonna fit them today and as its a saturday I shouldnt think the suppliers nor lucas themselves would be working today on a saturday ... for good measure i might just wrap something round them as i am installing them anyways

Tungsten

You already had halogens, there was no “upgrade” .. they were halogens before and you bought halogens again.

If you wanted to upgrade you should have considered LED which are brighter and run cooler.

As for touching them, it’s not advised, but in reality I’d almost guarantee they’ll be fine... unless you manhandled the bulbs directly after devouring a greasy bag of chips.

Cee-Jay-Cee

You won’t do 501 5w bulbs any harm touching them. It’s the 55w and higher headlight bulbs that you need to avoid as the oils from your skin can cause a hot spot and cause the glass to shatter. Personally I’ve never seen it happen and have been fairly careless putting bulbs into some cars over the years.

Andy From Sligo

ION08 wrote: »

Tungsten

You already had halogens, there was no “upgrade” .. they were halogens before and you bought halogens again.

If you wanted to upgrade you should have considered LED which are brighter and run cooler.

As for touching them, it’s not advised, but in reality I’d almost guarantee they’ll be fine... unless you manhandled the bulbs directly after devouring a greasy bag of chips.

normal 501 sidelight bulbs are not halogen .. they just normal gas inside and tungsten filament arent they?

Andy From Sligo

well I have replaced the 501's with 501h's - buggered if I can see difference .. I thought halogen were supposed to give off a brighter crisp sharp light?

Gumbo

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

well I have replaced the 501's with 501h's - buggered if I can see difference .. I thought halogen were supposed to give off a brighter crisp sharp light?

Are you sure you are not mixing up LED?

Andy From Sligo

kceire wrote: »

Are you sure you are not mixing up LED?

no, I tried a pair of LED 501's out of halfords for 6eur and they were too white /bluey-white and looked odd when the Halogen dipped headlights and high beam was on, so instead of just getting bog standard 501 sidelight bulbs I decided to get a pair of these 501h (halogen supposedly) .. but i cannot see the difference between normal 501 and 501h ... maybe they will last longer and not go black like the standard 501 ones do in time . Isnt the feature of halogen bulbs that they last longer than normal gas incandescent bulbs? - i thought i read that somewhere