Headlight upgrade options from Factory halogens

[Swisstony]

Afternoon all, perhaps you lot can help

My headlights are a bit dim and frankly pants. They are the standard factory Halogen version ( see pictured)

So I have a warm white DRL with two bulbs, one running llights ( side beam) and the other bulb seems to work in conjunction with the mail light when on full beam. Main light seems to be a whiter white but again Halogen. And finally the fried egg look that is the indicator but bizzarly is also on when you turn on main lights...really weird.

So my plan was to upgrade them all and I thought I had cracked it when I saw a video from EM Tuning where they have a wiring harness that turns the double bulb setup in the DRL to a single brighter bulb. Sadly that only works on Bi-Xenon which I dont have. This kit 

https://www.emtuning.co.uk/product/em-tuning-drl-sidelight-kit-audi-a4-s4-rs4-b7/

So thought, no worries will get the Bi-Xenon upgrade kit from holland which would provide this 

https://retrofitlab.com/collections/audi-a4-b7/products/audi-a4-b7-2005-2008-bi-xenon-halogen-headlights

But it turns whilst I can do this upgrade because the DRL is controlled separately then it work together. 

The side light bulbs I can fix by removing the orange lens and fitting in a chrome bulb. 

So that leaves me with two sections of the light nice and bright and whiter but this annoying warm white and dim DRL

So wondering if anyone has pulled this trick off , had to resort to swapping the entire assembly or just gave up because it was juts too much hassle ?

thanks

 

[Stevey Y]

5 hours ago, Swisstony said:

Afternoon all, perhaps you lot can help

My headlights are a bit dim and frankly pants. They are the standard factory Halogen version ( see pictured)

So I have a warm white DRL with two bulbs, one running llights ( side beam) and the other bulb seems to work in conjunction with the mail light when on full beam. Main light seems to be a whiter white but again Halogen. And finally the fried egg look that is the indicator but bizzarly is also on when you turn on main lights...really weird.

So my plan was to upgrade them all and I thought I had cracked it when I saw a video from EM Tuning where they have a wiring harness that turns the double bulb setup in the DRL to a single brighter bulb. Sadly that only works on Bi-Xenon which I dont have. This kit 

https://www.emtuning.co.uk/product/em-tuning-drl-sidelight-kit-audi-a4-s4-rs4-b7/

So thought, no worries will get the Bi-Xenon upgrade kit from holland which would provide this 

https://retrofitlab.com/collections/audi-a4-b7/products/audi-a4-b7-2005-2008-bi-xenon-halogen-headlights

But it turns whilst I can do this upgrade because the DRL is controlled separately then it work together. 

The side light bulbs I can fix by removing the orange lens and fitting in a chrome bulb. 

So that leaves me with two sections of the light nice and bright and whiter but this annoying warm white and dim DRL

So wondering if anyone has pulled this trick off , had to resort to swapping the entire assembly or just gave up because it was juts too much hassle ?

thanks

 

Hi try Philips Diamond vision bulbs they are far brighter than standard the retrofit labs conversion works superbly but only if you have the fish eye lenses if you try and fit the whole kit it involves trying to bore accurate holes in the existing reflector which is very hit and miss the other thing is you would have to fit washer ports that work and self levelling units to the suspension to comply with current mot regs, other than that try and source some bi xenon units which will involve recoding and another light control module which will also need recoding as well again the headlamp washers and levelling devices, try the suggested bulbs its cheaper and a worthwhile upgrade.

Steve.

[Swisstony]

Thank you steve I will certainly try the Phillips bulbs first on the DRL side to see if that improves things. The kit from holland does look really good so fingers crossed that works and finally the indicator bulbs.

If that all fails, then once I have finished crying I will source some bi-xenon headlights and go through the painful process of coding etc. Just wondred if any members on here had done the former or the latter 

 

 

[Stevey Y]

19 minutes ago, Swisstony said:

Thank you steve I will certainly try the Phillips bulbs first on the DRL side to see if that improves things. The kit from holland does look really good so fingers crossed that works and finally the indicator bulbs.

If that all fails, then once I have finished crying I will source some bi-xenon headlights and go through the painful process of coding etc. Just wondred if any members on here had done the former or the latter 

 

 

Hi the only problem I can see with the retrofit system is you will have to find a good way of hiding the ballast boxes and wiring as if you have not a very liberal mot tester [rarer than rocking horse manure] you will fail on sight, no washers and levelling as well, try the Philips dipped beam bulbs first.

Steve.

[Swisstony]

My car is weird ....

When I turn the ignition on and go to the first position on the headlight switch, I get a small bulb come on in the left hand cluster ( where there is another one for high beam) and the !Removed! sidelights come on but are orange as they are in the indicators !!! 

So when I use the indicators they just glow brighter....man that is so odd, almost like it is a US import... 

If I remove the orange lens and put a silvertec bulb, you know the ones that look silver but glow amber when activated, that means that they will still be on with the sidelight switch to position 1.

Someone please explain what the devil is going on with my car. 

Some photos. 

This is position 2

and this is full beam (apologies for the photo)

 

[Swisstony]

I think ( possible ) that I may have solved this. 

It seems that the headlight section under Central Electrics was set to North America when it should be rest of the world/nordic countries. Obviously US have this silly sidelight/blinker thing as standard .Luckily I have OBD eleven and using their forums could see that if I wrote the values back to Rest of the world it will work. So made the changes last night and seems to have worked. This means when I turn on position 1 ( to old school people like me that is sidelights) it makes the driving lights/inside bulb come on. Then I have main beam in position 2 which is fine. Finally the outside or sidelights will only illuminate as orange when I use the indicators. 

So at last when my new bulbs arrive I can swap out for better ones , remove the orange cover and have them all working as expected. Fingers crossed as I need to get this sorted before the dark nights approaching. 

 

 

[Just Rob]

That aftermarket bumper has Headlamp wash which implies the car had headlamp wash from the factory , which means it already has xenon's.

Unless the previous owner went all the faff to fit headlamp lamp into that bumper which seems a bit strange for halogens, xenon's were only available from the factory with headlamp wash.

[Swisstony]

29 minutes ago, Just Rob said:

That aftermarket bumper has Headlamp wash which implies the car had headlamp wash from the factory , which means it already has xenon's.

Unless the previous owner went all the faff to fit headlamp lamp into that bumper which seems a bit strange for halogens, xenon's were only available from the factory with headlamp wash.

Ah you return, this place hasnt been the same without you , nice holiday 🙂 

Sadly not . This bumper is aftermarket and this weekend decided to swap over my headlights which meant bumper off job. Now the headlight swap was a disater but will leave that for another day. In the meantime managed to do quite a few things whilst the bumper was off. 

1. remove the RS4 badge . In fact have removed all the RS4 badges as well this isnt that

2. tidy up the honeycomb grill where some had cracked.

3. Clean and tidy up behind the bumper, the airtec hoses etc.Tidy up the wiring loom for the front fogs which was all over the place 

Discovered that some parts of the bumper were tiger sealed to the existing bumper frame, really odd, basically a right bodge job. Then can see the parking sensors which are not plugged in and the headlight wash which are also emoty as my options on this car was neither of those things. so yes Halogen from factory. 

Anyway old lights back in for the time being whilst I wait on some parts. will update when I have this finally sorted 

[Just Rob]

I did wonder whether the previous owner had just opted for a bumper with PDC and headlamp wash, maybe it was a good deal.

Aftermarket bumpers are a real nightmare fitment wise on B7's they are just poorly made, well a lot are but there are a few decent ones out there .

[Just Rob]

You can find me on ASN aswell , been there for a fair few years now.

[Swisstony]

6 minutes ago, Just Rob said:

You can find me on ASN aswell , been there for a fair few years now.

is that Audi sport net ? 

[Just Rob]

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