Headlight bulb problems..can anyone advise?

My Golf has these fancy bulbs in which are like a bright white which is nice, but I came to my car this morning and one of the lights doesn't work. I then took out the bulb, inspected it and it ll
ooked fine, nothing was broken or snapped inside and it looked fine. its new ish and the gass is like blue on the inside, some sort or upmarket malarky.
Anyway when the one light broke, the sidelight (the indicator) light was on, and if I put the sidelights on then the opposite side sidelight would be on, but nothing else would be.
So I swapped the bulbs around rther carefully, to see if one was faulty, and now neither work… but the sidelights work fine… any help?

Thanks

Dom

When you say the side lights are you talking about the 5 Watt bulbs that work with the ignition off or the lights that are part of your H4 bulb. I assume your talking about the small 5 Watt bulb, is this correct?

Are you sure you didn't touch the H4 bulb when you fitted them? Doing so can cause a hot spot drasticly reduce the lifespan.

Are they rated at 55 Watts? If higher I'm not sure a standard loom will be able to cope. I know these bulbs can be bought with a 100 Watt rating, okay in a modern car but not so in a Mk1.

Have you checked the wiring? Halogens get very hot and could have simply melted the block connector.

Lastly do give the fuses a good check, I myself have a very temperamental fuse box that loves to play tricks on me.


Tian

Yeah I mean the ones that are on when the ignition is on, the 5w ones.

They were installed by the previous owner so I don't know if they have been touched.
When I removed them I made sure I didn't touch them..

Will have a check tomorrow about the fuses…

The bulbs work on high beam though, I forgot to mention…?!

Could be the switch on the steering column, broken wire from switch to fusebox or from fusebox to headlamp, connectors could be rusty... Get a multimeter out and check for voltage at the connectors. Will rule out bulbs or not...

Yep the connectors and wires are very prone to corrode to the headlights. Even my '91 sportline had a cable corrode to the connector on the drivers side light. I managed to break apart the connector and solder the pin back onto the wire to make it as good as it was originally.

cheers guys, help appreicated.

I changed the bulbs and the new ones are  good and working now. The old ones were  80/100w and I saw no signs of an uprated loom…

So bought some around the 60w mark….

thanks

Dom