HID to LED

[Sebastian1985]

Hi all,

is been a while since i posted something. I upgraded my a6 2007 to a 2009 facelift version, all good so far except for lights always getting error message and the lights have started to turn on when they want, went to mechanic just to find out the back lights were FULL of water, all had cracks, ordered a new set of 4(outer and inner)on eBay for £220 should arrive in a few days and they have all the bulbs included.

Forgot to mention, the outside lights were flickering every 28 seconds, i also have some internal lights under dashboard flickering at the same time, not sure if it helps

the front is a lot more expensive and can t afford now to change the whole headlights, so opened them up to change the bulbs only.

-first weird thing I found is the bulb near the signal one is an h15(img 7378 & 7379) with 3 pins( when looked at halfords it says it should be h1) and other websites too. Being rare, Some decent led cost £45 on amazon, can i change them back to h1?

-second thing, the h7 halogen were upgraded to an old xenon version with a ballast device and 2 other mini power units(img7368) or something, is so complicated with all the cabling and things i am not even sure i can ever fit them all back inside, so i decided to switch to led, do the leds from amazon, need any other type of conversion? Do i need to use the ballast from the xenon ones? Or something? 
i am just ordering blindly on amazon after i spent 2 days watching youtube videos and can’t find one that says clearly how to go from HID to LED.

thanks a lot for the help if someone done this before much appreciated any help

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Sebastian1985
Forgot to add something

[Sebastian1985]

Quick update, managed to replace all 4 bulbs in the headlight, all LED, H15(pain in the hands) h7, p21w(signal) and drl w5w, waiting hopefully tomorrow for the back lights which is much easier.
thanks all and if someone needs any guidance, find yourself someone with tiny hands otherwise is almost impossible to replace the headlight bulbs 🙂

[Steve Q]

Glad you got sorted. They don't make it easy that's for sure! 

[Darryl Hill]

Can I just ask, have you converted existing halogen headlight units to take LED bulbs? if so you will fail your next MOT, the following is from the MOT manual, I'm a qualified MOT tester and just giving you the heads up thats all, if you have retro fitted complete LED/HID Headlamp units then that is fine, however I believe you will need to get the lights re-pinned to the ecu so as to work correctly and not throw up can-bus errors

 

4.1.4. Compliance with requirements

You must inspect all ‘mandatory’ headlamps fitted.

Mandatory headlamps consist of a matched pair of main beam headlamps and a matched pair of dipped-beam headlamps. These can be separate or a single pair of headlamps.

Lamps are matched if they:

• emit light of substantially the same colour and intensity
• are the same size and shape that they are symmetrical to each other

Vehicles first used before 1 January 1931 do not need headlamps.

Buses first used before 1 October 1969 only need one headlamp. If 2 are fitted, neither the main beam or dipped beams need to form matched pair.

The colour of the light headlamps emit must be one of the following:

• white
• predominantly white with blue tinge
• yellow

In a four-headlamp system the outer headlamps do not need to emit the same colour light as the inner pair.

The precise position of lamps is not part of the inspection, but you should check visually that they are at about the same height and the same distance from each side of the vehicle.

Existing halogen headlamp units on vehicles first used on or after 1 April 1986 must not be converted to be used with high intensity discharge (HID) or light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp for light source and lamp not compatible.

Edited January 16 by Darryl Hill

[Sebastian1985]

10 minutes ago, Darryl Hill said:

Can I just ask, have you converted existing halogen headlight units to take LED bulbs? if so you will fail your next MOT, the following is from the MOT manual, I'm a qualified MOT tester and just giving you the heads up thats all, if you have retro fitted complete LED/HID Headlamp units then that is fine, however I believe you will need to get the lights re-pinned to the ecu so as to work correctly and not throw up can-bus errors

 

4.1.4. Compliance with requirements

You must inspect all ‘mandatory’ headlamps fitted.

Mandatory headlamps consist of a matched pair of main beam headlamps and a matched pair of dipped-beam headlamps. These can be separate or a single pair of headlamps.

Lamps are matched if they:

• emit light of substantially the same colour and intensity
• are the same size and shape that they are symmetrical to each other

Vehicles first used before 1 January 1931 do not need headlamps.

Buses first used before 1 October 1969 only need one headlamp. If 2 are fitted, neither the main beam or dipped beams need to form matched pair.

The colour of the light headlamps emit must be one of the following:

• white
• predominantly white with blue tinge
• yellow

In a four-headlamp system the outer headlamps do not need to emit the same colour light as the inner pair.

The precise position of lamps is not part of the inspection, but you should check visually that they are at about the same height and the same distance from each side of the vehicle.

Existing halogen headlamp units on vehicles first used on or after 1 April 1986 must not be converted to be used with high intensity discharge (HID) or light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp for light source and lamp not compatible.

Oh my god Darryl,

I am so ignorant, I get error messages everytime I start the engine, I bought an obdeleven to remove them but they come up back again after 1 second.

Nighteye H7 Led Headlight Bulbs, 350% Extremely Bright H7 Led Bulb 9000LM 72W, Car H7 Led Headlight Conversion Kit, 6500K Cool White Replacement H7 Headlight Bulb (2 PCS)

H15 Bulb Led-Car Led Bulbs Applicable signal lights, front lights, headlights, daytime running lights, fog lights

Sidaqi 4 Pack BAU15S PY21W 1156 LED Bulbs Amber Replace for Front and Rear Turn Signal Lights 5630 33SMD 900LM/Bulb 3.6W Interior RV Camper Bulbs

Can I re pin them to the ECU myself with the obdeleven? I can buy credits if there is a way, if not I will have to go somewhere right?

Any help is much appreciated. Luckily my MOT is October now so have time

[Darryl Hill]

You need to be able to find which wires go to which pin on the ecu, there are some specialists who can do it for you (which I would recommend doing) as they know what has to go where and how to do it, I don't know about OBD11, never used it but have heard some good reviews on it

[Sebastian1985]

Thanks a lot Darryl, now is question of finding those specialists, I will ask the question at halfords tomorrow to begin somewhere.

And I thought the errors are cause they are cheap LED's so I gave them 4 star only on Amazon for that reason.

Thanks again
 

 

[Darryl Hill]

No problems Sebastian, Halfords wouldn't have a clue where to start, you would be better speaking to an indi VAG specialist, they may know what to do, or an ECU remap company

[Darryl Hill]

Just now, Darryl Hill said:

No problems Sebastian, Halfords wouldn't have a clue where to start, you would be better speaking to an indi VAG specialist, they may know what to do, or an ECU remap company

You don't need a remap just re-pinning for headlights on the can-bus

[Sebastian1985]

WIll start the online research and let you know once I have a solution.
Just wathcing a youtube video of a guy doing it through obdeleven, and will give it a go myself tomorrow and see how it goes.

Thanks