oldmano2z

i found out you can replace the 3457# bulb with a 3057# bulb at half the wattage of the original ,dimmer but yet it won't melt the socket that 98 to 02 is famous for and bulb should have a longer life also.

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

My 98 still has the stock bulbs, no melted sockets.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Is this for the daytime running lights? If you cut the wattage of those in half, you are also cutting the wattage of your turn signals in half (they use the same bright filament within the parking lamp bulb).

I always disable the DRLs on every F-body I buy as soon as I get it home. I hate that junk.

sepsis

iTrader: (7)

I disabled my also. I'm so glad you can actually do it without cutting anything else out.

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

I like the DRL's on f bodies, but I hate them on cars that use half wattage high beams.

oldmano2z

rpmws6, you are correct, i'm going to try this out when i get my car back on the road next week. the 99 camaro i bought for parts had melted sockets, and my car 02 camaro has melted sockets also. the parts car had 3157 in it with melted sockets and were replaced with the3157 and they seemed to work. the parts car had a mizzou engineering window sticker on it so i thought that a fertile young mind might be on to something so i'd thought i 'd give it a shot. the old 1157 bulbs work fine still, it all still depends on the other guy seeing you.

bad_408_vert

iTrader: (6)

Just disabled auto headlights & DRLs yesterday.
My car is bright enough itself to be seen in the day time, if by definition that is what those bulbs do.
I have ebay DRL housing and the bulbs always blew, because they were on every time i went through a car wash.
Hopefully that won't be an issue anymore , So that is another plus.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I've seen the melted sockets as well on seemingly every one I've ever looked at, but in my experience it's really just more of a cosmetic damage than an actual problem (meaning, the bulb still fits the socket, and the socket still seals properly to the housing and doesn't leak). It looks like it would be a problem, or could be a problem, but none of mine ever have been.

Having said that, I agree that heat from the constant operation of the high wattage bright filament for the purpose of DRLs is what causes this melting effect (a good way to verify this would be to see if the early 4th gens without DRLs ever get melted sockets or not). But rather than use a dimmer bulb, you can just disable the DRLs using this method:

http://xse.com/leres/ss/drl.html

Then, you'll still have a bulb with a bright filament for blinker operation, but won't have the constant heat of the high wattage with the DRLs. Of course, this assumes that you don't mind disabling the DRLs, personally I've always hated them so this was a non-issue for me...but I know some people actually do like them.

Anyway, I don't think the limited period of time that the blinker would ever be on will resulted in a melted socket, but that's just speculation on my part. Again, the only real way to know if the issue is the DRLs would be to look at the sockets on an older, pre-DRL 4th gen.