mod problem: amber DRLs not amber anymore?

so i did the amber drls about a month after i got my av. so about the beginning of September. they looked awesome then, but now they arent amber any more? i have been having some lighting issues with brake lights and reverse lights not working lately. the brake lights turned out to be a bad brake switch. they acted really weird and voltages wold disappear when a bulb was installed. i havent checked voltage on my reverse or drls for fear of it turning out to be a bad neutral safety switch. but my thinking is that if it were neutral safety switch my drls wouldnt be on at all. but they are on just they arent amber colored or as amber colored as were when i installed them. are they supposed to fade? as reference they are only slightly darker than my parking lamps, which got the "white" bulbs that were in the drl spot. did i just get the wrong bulbs? is it heat build up? water collecting in the lens? bad ground? side effects of a PO's over use of stick on led strips(which was half the brake light problem) or other mod? any ideas?

PS sorry if this is the wrong section for problems with mods. i remember seeing a section that said something about it but couldnt find it when i went to post.

Almost every amber bulb I have put in my DRL's have had the amber coating on the bulb burn up and flake off over time.

I have even installed some of those "Long Life" bulbs, but eventually, they have all burned off the amber coating.

The same bulbs when used in the turn/position light position, have lasted much, much longer without losing the amber coloring.

It is my opinion that DRL's tend to burn a lot more than almost any other bulb on the vehicle and since the amber coloring is not in the glass, but a coating applied to the outside of the glass, it is abused more than the amber coating can take.

Perhaps something like an LED type bulb would serve better in this application.

I just went back to clear bulbs and called it a day.

Funny you mention this issue that you had.

I upgraded to 3457 amber bulbs in our 2013 a few years ago. The 3457 have a higher light output than the standard 3157 amber bulbs. These bulbs have the amber coating that was mentioned above. The bulbs also did not last as long as standard 3157's and I went through a set a year, up until this last year when I blew through 2 sets in 7 months with little driving time and the last set went on a trip.

I found that each time, the amber coating was cracked and peeling and almost looked "scorched."

I dug around in my mod bag when the last set blew on the road and found a set of pure amber glass 3157 bulbs made by Wagner and put them in, but I cannot seem to find the like anywhere in stores and online.. I think I picked them up as an extra set somewhere over the years.

That being said, I wish all bulbs were made in the pure amber glass, and not the amber coated clear bulbs..

Maybe you should look at your bulbs. Mine did the same thing & by pulling them out, I was able to very clearly see what the issue was.... the amber coating burning & flaking off the glass.

I converted mine to LED & these have been working for about 6 months now. Still very bright & very amber.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CK1CZY0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

so you think its just the el cheapo bulbs i got then? i think i might have just gotten the cheapest autozone had as i wasnt convinced it was worth it until i installed them. i am a little hesitant on using LEDs as ive heard they dont work much better unless you buy really expensive ones, also would i need the resistors? most problems ive heard of were with the brake and signal bulbs, ive also noticed if bulbs on the same circuit are mixes of regular and led(dome, map and cutesy lights being different) the regular bulbs get very hot. would this be a concern? honestly wouldnt have a problem going full LED minus the cost and if the are still going to burn out(the main perk of LEDs for me), and them not acting right as turn signals or brake lights. i like the look and they arent that expensive if ill never have to worry about them burning out.

I have seen on another thread that someone had bad sockets and the bulbs kept blowing, but mine havent blown yet just not amber. i do figure its the coating coming off. thats what was happening to the signal bulbs when i did the mod, but i also noticed my old drl bulbs were burnt looking and the sockets were discolored and brittle as well when i did it. but those bulbs were bigger than the ambers i put in. are my sockets going bad? also are the drls supposed to be bright enough for me to see on the road while driving? i thought it was so others could see you but someone in the other thread said something about not liking the light output of the ambers like they werent lighting stuff up, but i cant see mine unless im driving behind a dark colored shinny car or a glass panel, even the white ones didnt light anything up.

would it be possible to make the lens amber on the inside? this might be more helpful if i keep having the problem. i love the look of the amber contrasting the dark blue body color, but replacing the bulbs just because of discoloration every 2 months is ridiculous. especially when the bulbs still work hell even once a year is dumb. at that point id rather have them disabled.

The purpose of DRL is to make your AV more visible to other drivers, it is not to increase visibility for you especially in daytime. My guess is you were reading in threads about someone doing the "all on mod" so that their  DRL would be on when their headlights were on.(they were probably hoping for more light thrown forward to increase AV driver visibility of the road.)
I don't know if bulbs are still marked this way but years ago they would have the letters NA after the number to indicate it was a natural amber bulb not just an amber colored glass bulb.
EX: look for a 3157NA bulb not just a 3157 bulb in amber. They will stay amber for life of bulb.

I've been replacing my bulbs with LEDs as the old bulbs burn out. The only issue I've seen is with the turn signals... needed a special flasher too.

This pic has LED DRLs, turn signals & driving lights. And Nighthawk headlights. No issues.

I recently purchased led bulbs at Walmart that were direct plug in replacements to the stock drl?s . They are amber color & work great. I have an ?02 cladded 1500