Help with car headlight bulb NAF

My highbeam went out in my vehicle. 2011 Chev Silverado. After taking half of my truck apart, I finally got to the bulb. I expected the filament to be burnt out but it looks like this:

Is it possible that it’s burnt out anyway? Or am I looking at an electrical issue.

Do you have either a multi-meter or continuity tester? If you get infinite resistance across the contacts in the base of the bulb, then the bulb is toast even if you can’t see a break in the filament. Without a meter then the next best thing is buy a new bulb and try it. When I find myself in a similar situation, I usually buy at least 2 bulbs, one to replace the possibly burnt out one, and another to replace the other bulb that’s not burnt out yet but probably will be soon.

I don’t know what the availability of Chevy older model bulbs is, so if the bulb is burnt out, then maybe you should buy 4, depending on how long you plan to keep the vehicle.

Those are kinda high draw bulbs. Rather than testing with a meter or continuity tester, just get a bit of wire and connect the bulb to the car’s battery very briefly. If it lights up for a few seconds it’s good. If it doesn’t, it isn’t.

If it does light up, interrupt the power quickly or it’ll get too hot to handle and may well overheat. That base is partly a heat sink where the bulb jettisons heat into the socket and reflector assembly.

That area in the middle of the filament looks wonky to me. It looks partly melted. Take it with you to the store and compare to a new one. I’ll bet the new one looks uniform top to bottom.

Replace it.

Of course, you could also take the other half of the truck apart to remove the good lamp, put it in the socket of the failed lamp, and see if it turns on. If so, then the lamp is bad. And since you have the truck completely disassembled, replace both of them, and toss the good lamp in the glove box for a handy spare. It will come in handy twenty years from now. (That’s exactly how my truck is running right now, with an old spare lamp that was rolling around behind the seat for years, now put back into service.) Luckily, Ford made it easy to replace the lamps. At any rate, I hope it is just a bad lamp, rather than a wiring issue.

If you’re going to test anything with a meter test the socket for 12v. Otherwise, it’s cheaper to buy a bulb than to buy a meter or pay a shop to do the testing. A known good bulb is a very efficient piece of test equipment.

TLDR: Just buy a bulb and stick it in.

Or just pull out the other, known working, bulb and swap them. The problem will stay with either the socket or the bulb.

It’s not one of those type of bulbs where your finger oils make it explode?

Yes, I believe it is.

To the rest, thanks, I think I will just buy two new bulbs and hope for best.

A couple of asides - when I was researching this on YouTube, several people made it clear not to touch the bulb - why does that matter?

And two (venting), fuck me that’s a huge hassle just to get to the bulb. There has got to be a better solution. In addition to several covers, housings, etc, I had to remove the whole grill just to get to it.

The heat will concentrate on the oil your fingers leave behind and cause the bulb to burn out sooner (right away?). You can clean it with rubbing alcohol if you touch it.

That’s not uncommon. First, if you didn’t, check the manual, it’s possible there’s an easier way that you missed. Beyond that, yeah, it can suck, though sometimes you can find shortcuts that aren’t in the manual. Like if you flex one part, something else can slip past it and you can rotate the whole assembly out.

Just chiming in that filaments can absolutely fail in a way where they still look continuous because it has happened to me.

Won’t overheat - it’s 12V, and a bit higher when the car is running, but yes it will get very hot.

Twenty-ish years ago, there was a type of pole lamp with those types of bulbs (Halogen[?] – they may still be available, IDK). Many injuries from exploding bulbs, many house fires from improperly handled/situated lamps (too close to the wall/curtains).

There is a YouTube video for my wife’s car where the guy takes most of the front of the car off to change the headlight bulb.

But –

There’s another YT vid where the guy goes in from the wheel well, takes off a plastic screw and pulls a plastic panel aside; easy peasy change out.

This was a major caveat in theater lighting before the advent of LEDs. Contaminants — not just skin oil — on the glass envelope will weaken it as it gets hot, leading to a bulge and eventual failure. So I always wore gloves when changing bulbs.

As for accessibility, there’s a plate in the passenger wheel well of my daughter’s Fusion that provides access to the headlamp. In theory. In practice, the leads are too short to allow the socket to be pulled back far enough to remove the bulb. But I suppose making them long enough would have added .000000005¢ per vehicle; can’t have that. I told her that if the headlight ever goes out again, that’s the end of the car.

They always look that way when burned out.
Use a power magnifier and inspect the filament - you will see the break.

I’m a rather handy and resourceful fellow, so I checked the manual, internet YouTube videos, etc before diving into tearing the front end of my truck off. I did try the wheel well flap - and removing the air box. Those people must have considerably smaller hands than I, or are much more dexterous. It’s not enough just to touch it, you have to twist it, pull it back, release the ‘clips’ while pulling it out of its housing. You need two hands to perform some of these operations. Believe me, I spent a couple of hours trying these ‘work arounds’ before resorting to the ‘preferred’ method.

Those black torchiere lamps with the green trim, most of them, anyway. I remember because I wanted one but never got around to getting one of my own, though roommates has some. I think they were 300 watt halogen and the later ones had a screen over the top to help prevent stuffed animals, bedding, beach towels, beer can packaging, etc that got tossed up there from catching fire.

I’m just hoping for help from the OP on what “NAF” in his title meant.

Need Answer Fast would be my guess.