3rd Gen Protege/MazdaSpeed/P5/MP3 General/Maintenance Discussion for 1999-2003.5 Models Only (BJ Chassis)

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Old June-26th-2002 | 10:19 AM
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bulbs

OK, I'm goign to say it again, i tried last night, & for the love of god! the H7 bulbs i have don't fit in the headlight main beams. i'm talking about the light that is located on the outer most side. it has a spring clip, a rubber boot, & a white (female) pulg. the H7s i bought have male progs are spaced more narrowly together, than the originals!!! so what is wrong here? are the bulbs i bought wrong, is there more than one sixe of h7's?
I'm sorry to keep askign but i'm totally confused!!!
I know that the high beams are 9005's and that the fogs are H3's, but i'm going nuts trying to make these stupid H7's fit, the prongs on the nack of the bulb simply won't fit into the white plug!

cheers again

Bloke
Old June-26th-2002 | 10:27 AM
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Sorry man, I guarantee they are H7's. I installed my silverstars in about two seconds, and they fit perfectly. Are you sure you didn't give ripped of on some cheap bulbs or something. As long as it has two prongs (the H4's look similiar but have 3) You probably have an H7. And someone ripped you off.
Old June-26th-2002 | 10:29 AM
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Your last post was closed with the message RTFM.

Which stands for Read The ******* Manual.

It came with your car for a reason.
Old June-26th-2002 | 10:43 AM
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thank you i actually didn't know what RTFM meant!
i must have been ripped off, i bought them off an e-bay auction. they were some what cheap, $24.99. i'll try buying some more reputable bulbs

sorry to of inconvienced you, on this a board for Mazda, owners & enthusiasts. an information vehicle for which to retrieve and accertain information from fellow owners of the same vehicle!!!
Old June-26th-2002 | 10:49 AM
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why don't you just take the bulb out from the car, go to your local car parts store, and compare it to the lightbulbs there to find out exactly what you have???

I think you bought wrong bulb types from eBay....
Old June-26th-2002 | 10:50 AM
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But the manual isn't going to tell him what to do if the damn bulb is pooched. He knew what the bulbs should have been and it wasn't working for him. He then questioned us to see if we could be of assistance. My advice, buy some respected bulbs or some off of the P5 store online. Then you can be confident they work. Or try and put yours on again.
Old June-26th-2002 | 10:53 AM
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exactly my point, thank you. yes i bought what i thought were in fact H7 bulbs, it even says it on the box they came in, but when i offer them up against the stock h7's they look totally differnt! the size & length are slightly smaller!

i'll see what it was i did buy & get some reputable bulbs!


thanks again, for all your assistance
Old June-26th-2002 | 12:38 PM
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Look @ the new bulbs you bought, on the side that connects it should be engraved with all the info you need to know about that bulb

And it still sounds like you haven't removed the black adapter from the factory bulb.
Old June-26th-2002 | 12:42 PM
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And for your reference H7 bulb's measure about 7/16" from the center of the posts to each other.With the 2 tabs measuring a hair under 1/4" wide!
Old June-26th-2002 | 01:02 PM
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Try this I've added a picture of a Rare H7 bulb like you would have bought, next to it is my Piaa Bulb with the black adapter attached to it. This is the only way a H7 bulb will plug into the white connector.

Enter the photo album for the bulb picture
Old June-26th-2002 | 01:05 PM
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You know, I bet that might be the problem. Make sure you pull off the black bulb adapters that your present bulbs are in. a quick summary of how I changed my h7's....

1. open hood
2. look for bulbs.
3. try and squeeze fingers into stupidly tight space
4. pull off white power connectors (they have the wires attached.
5. pull off the the black rubber round seal thingy using one of the tabs on it.
6. swear for a while trying to pull bulb out.
7. realize there are metal springy clips securing bulb into housing.
8. push springy in and around, out it pops.
9. I am a dumbass.
10. pull out bulb and adapter with a little twist, NO touchy touchy bulb.
11. wonder why my bulb is different than replacements.
12. figure out that you can pull h7 apart from black base, it takes a bit of effort when you are trying to not touch bulb.
13. replacement should just be glass bulb with a flat metal base and two prongs.
14. insert prongs back into adapter.
15. put adapter et al back into housing, twisting until it kinda pops into place.
16. fiddle with stupid springy things b/c hands are two big for space. Ready to slap mazda engineers.
17. finally get it in, put rubber seal on, and connect white supply line.
18. absolutely love the brightness of my Silverstar's. Compared to some crappy HID look-a-likes my roomate got for his spec v. Laugh my *** off at his **** poor visibility and reliability. (two bulbs in two months)
Old June-26th-2002 | 01:14 PM
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arl240 you got the silverstars? how does it look? bright? white? anything stands out???

I'm thinking of getting either silverstar of visionplus bulbs, which one you think is a better choice?
Old June-26th-2002 | 01:31 PM
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Seen both of them (silvers and vision) and they are both fantastic. I just was able to get a reasonable deal on the silverstars. In terms of color, be aware that these look almost exactly the same (a tad whiter, most due to the fact when you look at them they are so much brighter, ie placebo effect.) But they are definitely NOT HID look-a-likes like PIAA's, Falcons, 10 trillion other ones. These lights are all about business and light projection, not color. Next on my list is some strong amber fogs (french style), b/c i don't want to go blind when driving in the snow or fog.

In summary, beautiful lights, significant light output to all the right places, regular halogen color, expensive, worth it. Visionplus comparable, with less cool name, though I am biased towards OSRAM.
Old June-26th-2002 | 07:53 PM
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Heh hey Bloke its cool man. I got your back, check this thread out.....

http://www.protegeclub.com/forum/sho...&threadid=8160
Old June-27th-2002 | 08:49 AM
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guys i totally appreciate everything you are doing.
again, last night i looked at the bulb again. & if you refer to the picture posted by vivid

http://groups.msn.com/vividprotegefive/pictures

my bulb looks exactly like the bulb on the left, there is NO black adaptor on it stock. also the new replacement bulb i bough also has no bacl adaptor with it! this is my confusion. you guys are talkign about removing a black adaptor that doesn't exist on either my stock bulb or the new replacement one!

and, thanks for getting my back. i really didn't want to start anything, but didn't understand why i was told to RTFM on a matter that is not even covered in the FM! i was just a little pissed & surprized at the mod's reaction to my seamily innocent question.

cheers
Bloke

Last edited by Bloke; June-27th-2002 at 08:52 AM.



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