Halogen --> Xenon

ESD1711

ESD1711

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So..... I've just rather foolishly gotten in to an ebay battle for a set of xenons and emerged victorious. T'was a fight my wallet didnt actually want me to win, but never mind.
Anyways - that now leaves me with the dilemma of how to get them in and working.
My initial thoughts were to use the xenon headlights, but fit a cheap / aftermarket HID kit in them. So...... is that possible? Can it be done? And what do I need in terms of harnesses and anything else in order to make it work that way??
The second route for me to go would be the 'proper' route to go. In which case, I think what I need is as follows:
- Bulbs
- Ballasts
- Kufatec harness
- VCDS programming
Is there anything else I've missed out?
Do I also need a cable to run from bulb to ballast? Or does the ballast attach directly to the bulb?
I've seen talk of maybe needing a control module if my existing one isnt compatible? Is that correct? If so, where is it located and how can I check if mine will do the job and what am I looking for?
All help / advice / part numbers / prices etc much appreciated :)
 
Have you bought just bare light units, or are the ballasts and wiring not bolted to the lights like the B6?
 
I'm not 100% sure but I heard it was a test failure if a car has xenon headlights and no washer jets. Will you be tackling that or chancing it?
 
Yeah, its just the headlight units I've got - no bulbs or ballasts included.

I'll not be going down the washer / leveller route so that side of things doesn't matter to me.
 
I would recommend decent ballasts, not cheap Chinese ones as these don't seem to last very long and poorly made (speaking from a freind's point of view - he bought cheap, bought twice!).
You can get 'plug 'n play' kits on ebay ( I have such a kit on my show car*) and a decent kit should last a good while. It cost me around £100 including burners (bulbs), wiring kit, relays and ballasts.
You can get burners with all the halogen bulb base fitments, plus DS1 and DS2 burners, which may need adaptors to fit your car. My A4 has DS1 (I think!) factory fitted HID lights.



*Regarding the legality of retro-fitting HID headlight conversion, there's bit of a grey area here.
I built and fitted HID lights to my Vauxhall Carlton GSi show car, over ten years ago (cost an absolute fortune back then, too!) and the guy who MOT'd the car said that on dip, the beam pattern was legal. BUT he really should question there not being levelling devices or washers and the fact that hte Carlton headlights are reflective, not projective (like the Audi). Only question, not fail.

As an aside, the high beams (which I also converted to HID and learned to be not a good idea!) were all over the place and pretty useless, so I replaced the lot with a plug 'n play Bi-Xenon kit.

The Department of Transport might have tightened this up since then, as the Carlton hasn't been on the road for 4 years........
 
I didn't have any issues with what i'd bought - most of the second hand units come without ballasts / bulbs so that was all fine and dandy.

However - its a bit of a non-issue as the seller has cancelled my order after a debate about shipping costs.

Thanks for all the input anyway guys!
 
Just as well, ask t8ups for the complete kit. At least you can get the whole package from him.
 
I don't think t8ups is doing complete OEM bi-xenon kits though is he?

Anyways....... think i'm gonna go plan B. Just going to get another set of halogens and set about stripping them and tarting them up a bit, much less hassle in the long run :)
 
He does have them but is not totally convinced that they don't cause problems in other areas. Other ASN suppliers say they are ok and there has been much discussion about this, especially on the A3 forum.
Your are right that it is a lot of faffing around to do the proper conversion. If you want the most light out the halogens then Halfords Extreme or Ultra Brilliance, if you want pure white then Philips Diamond Vision but are not EU approved and frankly don't put out much light on the road.
If I have to buy halogens again, I'd be trying Bosch Pure Light.
 
This only really came about cos one of my halogens has started fogging a bit.

Happy enough with the light output of my current bulbs (although they'll never compete with a xenon for sure). BUt i'm more interested in changing the aesthetics of the units themselves, so gonna use it as a good excuse to strip a set and joey them.

Cheers for all the input anyway folks - appreciated as always!
 
I can share my experience with you - Morimoto projectors integrated in you halogen units :) you will receive Bi-xenon , brand new projectors so good output and the price will be not as OEM ... all cost will be like 200 Gbp or 300 for complete headlights ... i sell mine to a guy here who can share opinion !
 
can i chip in and say @t8ups kits are awesome...i had the conversion done and the light output/cut off is really very good. I opted to use my own HID kit from HIDS4U.
 
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I stock Morimoto Projectors as I am UK re seller, there projectors are awesome and you can see the difference between them and an non official part. I would say they would out perform a OEM xenon from the factory.

Get in touch and I can go through it more in depth with you.

Trups
 
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And also, if you the conversion kit rather than OEM - what are the other implications - i.e will they still need the kufatec harness and will they still rely on a specific control module being in place and need coded on VCDS etc etc?
 
I didn't need anything else doing...trups installed the projectors in my headlights...hooked up the HID kit and put everything back together again. Off I went with some cool looking headlights and awesome light output for night time driving. I didn't need a harness or vcd reprogramming etc and I'm pretty sure you won't need it either.

I have a bmw with oem projector xenon headlights...as awesome as they are, the light output is much better on my audi now and with my choice of 6k bulbs I personally like the colour better too.
 
ESD1711 said:
And also, if you the conversion kit rather than OEM - what are the other implications - i.e will they still need the kufatec harness and will they still rely on a specific control module being in place and need coded on VCDS etc etc?
Click to expand...

As UMUK has said. no VCDS needed or kufa harness's, all goes into your headlights and after its done you would not know any different.
 
You will need LED bulb for the full beam so when you flash - not switching BI-xenon and halogen bulb together but this mean that you need some load for the LED bulb as they are not error free !
On top of that - if you are with Main beam OFF during the day your flash on again on the full beam (led bulb) and bi-xenon won't work !
On mine i put led bulb and resistor for the full beam and Xenon on the projector so when i flash to someone - they are with the same color ;)
 
Just a word of warning before you change any bulbs in the headlights-------Make sure the torx screws that hold the headlamp housing are not seized/rusted up and you do indeed have a long handled 30tx driver.

Been changing all the bulbs this week (supplied by t8rups) after finding out how the bumper comes off the car and 2 torx screws had rusted into the captive nuts, blinking nightmare, had to drill out the old screws and re-tap the threads. Nearly there now, should be finished by Christmas :)
 
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Few discussions with @t8ups this morning and it looks like we've managed to come up with a complete solution.

Should look mighty fine :)
 
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