About the Xenon HID on 8L S3

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jomnhta

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Hi everyone, I have a few question regarding the Xenon light on my 8L S3. I always feel that the light is not as bright and focus as other Xenon HID light such as the one on the B6 A4 or the newer 8P A3/S3 or Mk.5 Golf. It looks almost like I am having a blue tinted halogen bulb instead of HID.

I am just wondering is there anyway to make it brighter? Is the problem coming from the projector glass or the bulb itself is not that good? Anyone try to do a bulb upgrade and solve the problem?
 
IIRC, the xenon bulbs use in the S3 is 4400k or there abouts, you can purchase 5000k or 6000k bulbs if you really want it to be brighter, 6000k has a strong blue hue to it though, so maybe a 5000k or 5500k os what you are after, they will all work with the standard igniter packs, but they are not cheap also...
 
I used to have a clio 172 which had brighter xenons.

It will be quite costly to change to the brighter ones, though I think al be spending my money on something else.
 
Yes mate i had the same problem with my S3 i ordered a set of ds2 6k bulbs from hid4u in southhampton cost around £60 totally sorted the problem, my headlights are great.
Hope this helps.
 
A common misconception is that the higher the colour temperature, the brighter the light. This is in fact quite the opposite of what happens. The 6000k and upwards may seem brighter but they have less useable light when measured in lumens. 4300-4800k is the amount where most useable light is available and for this reason all OEM factory fit xenons will be around this range. The reason why some cars appear to have bluer or brighter xenons is because of the projector lens and the headlight housing. I can guarantee that nearly all OEM DS1 & DS2 bulbs will be supplied by Osram or Phillips and any differences in light output is due to the manufacturers headlight housing design.

I do agree that the S3 headlights are a bit poor, but the bulbs on mine are over 6 years old and I changed them to 5000k to maintain the OEM look and aimed them a little higher and there is a noticeable difference.
 
mine were verging on dangerous when i first got the car. Plugged vagcom in and there was some sort of error. cleared the fault, manually adjusted the horizontal and vertical angles, set the home position in vagcom an they are miles better.


Also, "golf" is quite right about the colour/brightness info, bluer isnt better, unless your talking noggy!
 
I don't mind colour temperature. I believe most of the new OEM Xenon are well below 5000K. I saw a new C-Class pass by the other day and the light is quite yellowish. It almost looks like halogen colour tempertaure but the INTENSITY of light is mangnificient. It is well focused and really shine the road ahead.

What I want is something that can properly lit up the road in front of me, but then if the problem comes from the projector and housing, nothing will be improved even if I got new bulb, right?
 
I love it when you see some dickhead in a Corsa with 12000k xenons who thinks they are brighter and better than the 6000k in my A4 and the 5000k in the S3. Had a little argument with some runt today about it, after I told him his lights were ****.
 
I had emailed HIDS4U about new bulbs

our upgrade bulbs are £69.99 for a pair or our philips bulbs
start from £49.99for the D2S and £59.99 for the D2R.

Are the face-lift units better than the pre facelift headlamps?
 
I got mine from aceparts.com for £32.50 including delivery, they were 5000k D2S fitment for most factory fitted xenon cars. They also sell 4300k and 6000k.
 
i like the xenons on the mk4 golf r32 where they have a sort of a green look. but yer you do get alot of chavs in corsa's with the blue illegal bulbs that look awful
 
Hi,
does anyone know where to get new xenon alignment motors from, other than the dealer? And also how to replace them?
I think I've got the dreaded motor problem, as lights don't seem to shine as far as they use to, despite having been aligned twice.
 
you can get the alignement motors from vag parts, i think they quoted me 37.99 plus vat.

dont know how to change them... i would imagine that you need to take the light off the car, fettle around for a few hours. break some part of it accidently, penny would then drop and fix it in about 5 mins then fit the motor.

Thats the usual approach i take.

Good luck.
 
Hi

a newbie here - having come from a 3 series with Xenon's they were far better than my S3, is manual adjustment possible and if so.... how is it achieved?

many thanks

Garry
 
badger, there are two white screws above the headlight unit and these can be adjusted using a standard philips screwdriver. Don't go overboard with the adjustment or else you'll lose the correct beam pattern and cause glare to other drivers.

Also it's worth noting that the OEM bulbs will fade slightly after several years use, and the 8L S3 is not a new car by any means, so it might be worth investing in some newer bulbs which should work a lot better.
 
Does anyone know if the Range Rover Xenon bulbs are the same fitment as ans S3's??

Just asking, as I got a set in error a while ago, and was thinging I could use them, when i need to...

Thanks
 
Ive had the old S3 for a while and also had a new 8L S3 for about 6 weeks. I found that the new S3 has visibly less intensity on the HID's than my old S3. Old S3 lamps were so much better.
However;
Had two new headlamps fitted recently to my S3 (old) and these seem to be the same as what the new S3 had; ie poorer intensity. Ive compared my new ones against the original S3 headlamps in my friends car and he agrees.
 
golf said:
badger, there are two white screws above the headlight unit and these can be adjusted using a standard philips screwdriver. Don't go overboard with the adjustment or else you'll lose the correct beam pattern and cause glare to other drivers.

Also it's worth noting that the OEM bulbs will fade slightly after several years use, and the 8L S3 is not a new car by any means, so it might be worth investing in some newer bulbs which should work a lot better.
Click to expand...

I believe you need to unplug the self adjusting motor if you want to raise it to the desired height.
 
jomnhta said:
I believe you need to unplug the self adjusting motor if you want to raise it to the desired height.
Click to expand...

No mate, ive adjusted mine a few times and you dont need disconnect the self adjusting motor to do this, its carried out as golf states. Only difference ive found from his explination is that my adjuster screw are adjusted with allen key, not screwdriver.
 
cjhill said:
you can get the alignement motors from vag parts, i think they quoted me 37.99 plus vat.

dont know how to change them... i would imagine that you need to take the light off the car, fettle around for a few hours. break some part of it accidently, penny would then drop and fix it in about 5 mins then fit the motor.

Thats the usual approach i take.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

They are actually really easy to change, you just have to disconnect the plug from the motor then the motor is just twisted 90degrees and pulled out. All this can be achieved without removing the headlamp.
 
brilliant, thanks.... he was me about to start fettling at the weekend. sounds like you have saved me alot of time.

Cheers
 
S3Steve said:
They are actually really easy to change, you just have to disconnect the plug from the motor then the motor is just twisted 90degrees and pulled out. All this can be achieved without removing the headlamp.
Click to expand...

Hi Steve, thanks for the advice. Really appreciated.

Any clue on the time it takes to change the motors? I'm about to take my car to a specialist to get it diagnosed. If they say its the motors I might try to change it myself.

Is it ok to just change one side?


Thanks.
 
I've just been to Audi Specialist in Burwell, and they say that its something to do with the mechanism the motor spins inside, and its not the motors itself. They say it require around 3 hours labour to take off the bumper and remove the headlight to fix it. ~£190.

Does that sound reasonable to you guys?
 
glen_jai said:
Hi Steve, thanks for the advice. Really appreciated.

Any clue on the time it takes to change the motors? I'm about to take my car to a specialist to get it diagnosed. If they say its the motors I might try to change it myself.

Is it ok to just change one side?


Thanks.
Click to expand...

Not long mate about 10 to 15 minutes and yes its fine to change just one, i did.
 
glen_jai said:
I've just been to Audi Specialist in Burwell, and they say that its something to do with the mechanism the motor spins inside, and its not the motors itself. They say it require around 3 hours labour to take off the bumper and remove the headlight to fix it. ~£190.

Does that sound reasonable to you guys?
Click to expand...

I actually got my S3 from Burwell mate.

Its an interesting diagnosis that mate, the motor pugs into the headlamp and the mechanism is inside the headlamp so i dont know how they can fix that. £190 seems ok if they can fix it and save you buying a new headlamp (a new headlamp from Audi is about £480).
 
its so easy to take out and even easier to change the motor i have a spare one sat in my car i bought when mine failed its MOT as the headlight was just too low! the manual adjuster did nothing so i thought it was the motor, but... the guy at the garage at used the manual adjuster so much the motor couldn't move the interior of the light, fiddled with it and it did the trick! if you need a brand new motor i've got one here paid £40 odd can have for £20 as its sat here doing nothing!
 
S3Steve said:
I actually got my S3 from Burwell mate.

Its an interesting diagnosis that mate, the motor pugs into the headlamp and the mechanism is inside the headlamp so i dont know how they can fix that. £190 seems ok if they can fix it and save you buying a new headlamp (a new headlamp from Audi is about £480).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise on changing the motor.

You bought your car from Burwell. Cool.... So are you local to Cambridge then?

I'm having engine work done on my car at backdraft this weekend (for 2 weeks), and have asked Mark from there to see if he can fix it for me, as he'll have the bumper off anyway.

Man, 480 for a headlight... ouch! I really hope it's fixable.
 
sitrials said:
its so easy to take out and even easier to change the motor i have a spare one sat in my car i bought when mine failed its MOT as the headlight was just too low! the manual adjuster did nothing so i thought it was the motor, but... the guy at the garage at used the manual adjuster so much the motor couldn't move the interior of the light, fiddled with it and it did the trick! if you need a brand new motor i've got one here paid £40 odd can have for £20 as its sat here doing nothing!
Click to expand...

If Mark from BD can't fix it while he's got the bumper off, then I might just give changing the motor a go before I go down the whole bumper off route. So I might take you up on that offer mate.
Cheers.
 
good thread is this (bit of yorkshire 4 ya lol)

Im of the opinion that you get what you pay for, really wana buy some 5000k bulbs after reading the above.... dont wana pay too much (as any member of the public would), but there seems to be some big differences in price....noticeably on the pair from aceparts.com @ £32.50, whats going to be the main diff between these and OEM ones (which are lower power as we know)
 
The OEM ones are Philips branded and the ones from aceparts and the like are generic bulbs. This in itself is no big deal, and you also get 12months warranty from the manufacturer. When I upgraded the bulbs in my 01 S3 to the 5000k aftermarket bulbs the difference was very, very clear. The OEM Philips bulbs looked a little tired, and the cutoff was white tinged with yellow. The 5000k is all white and is actually closer to natural daylight than 4300k or so I'm told. It has absolutely no hint of blue, and for £30 odd quid you can't really go wrong.

Beware though, changing the D2S bulb on facelift S3's is a ****** of a job, and needs much patience.
 
golf said:
<snip> The 5000k is all white and is actually closer to natural daylight than 4300k or so I'm told <snip>
Click to expand...

Yep, daylight photographic film, balanced for clear noon daylight is calibrated to 5500-5600K.

Regards,

Rob.
 
Cheers for that fellas..... one last question, this ****** of a job.... what is required if i were to do myself...i know its not recommended due to risk of explosion?? but im handy with a pair of pliers and terminal driver ;o)
 
The risk of electrocution is very small, but there is a chance as the ballasts are pretty powerful.

There are no specific tools that you need, it's just that space is very limited and the clip which holds in the xenon bulb is very fiddly to get out and to put back in correctly. Removing the battery is essential, and that's a two min job really.
 
what about the other side, is that more straight forward?....seem to remeber the standard bulbs in my1.8T being fiddly...i gather these are worse
 
Drivers side is the one which is an absolute pain to remove, as the massive 5.5l washer bottle comes in the way and you literally have a few inches of space. You could always remove the bumper, but I personally avoided this as I'm worried it won't line up properly, and I hate panel gaps. I've got a few on my R32 and it drives me mad.
 
golf said:
Drivers side is the one which is an absolute pain to remove, as the massive 5.5l washer bottle comes in the way and you literally have a few inches of space. You could always remove the bumper, but I personally avoided this as I'm worried it won't line up properly, and I hate panel gaps. I've got a few on my R32 and it drives me mad.
Click to expand...

I removed the bumper on my S3 a few years ago to extract the remains of a particularly stupid pheasant and it was easy to take off and put on again and no problem with the gaps etc, the only fiddly bits are the plug type fixings on the top edge under the bonnet which have a central locking pin to push out.
 
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