Vehicle continually burns out headlamps
Q. My daughter has a 2011 Subaru Legacy with 140,000 miles. It goes through headlight bulbs at the rate of about one a month, left or right. She has gone to various shops to get them replaced, including the dealer, but no one seems to have any ideas why this is happening. Any help would be appreciated.
A. I found quite a few complaints online about 2010-2012 Subaru headlamps failing prematurely. Some of the best resolutions that I found for the problem were to stop using the vehicle's Auto Headlight setting and to switch to a H7LL light bulb, as opposed to a standard H7 bulb. The LL stands for long life.
Give those couple things a try and see if it helps — and be sure to let us know if it does!
Follow-up: Here is some information one of our readers had to share about the Ford Freestyle cruise-control issue, in which using the steering-wheel button to “accelerate” would rev the engine but not speed the car. This is not an exact fit for our Freestyle reader, but it might be of some value to other motorists with one of the affected vehicles:
“I read the question about the 2006 Ford Freestyle and experienced the same problem with both a '08 and '10 Fusion. It is a major problem with a broad line of Ford models but no recall has been made. It is the failure of the throttle-body interface, which is integral and requires complete replacement. I had it fail on a two-lane country road going uphill at 60 mph and cars behind me. It also failed merging onto an interstate highway.”
Though not a formal recall, Ford has announced a free voluntary program to replace 1.6 million ETBs, or electronic throttle bodies, after drivers of several models began reporting problems with cars that stalled or lost power.
• Douglas Automotive is at 417 W. Main St., Barrington, (847) 381-0454, and 123 Virginia Road, Crystal Lake, (815) 356-0440. For information, visit douglasautomotive.com. Send questions to underthehood@dailyherald.com.