How To: Fitting A HID Kit to A3 8L (pic heavy) !!

[A3 T]

I noticed there isn't any guides out there for fitting these kits to an a3 8l and questions about fitting them keep popping up, so as i fitted mine today i thought i would do a quick guide.


All you will need is a drill , drill bit and some insulation tape


Here is the kit i bought....


Its just a basic 6k 35w H1 kit with no mention of canbus....etc:

You will first need to remove the covers from the back of the headlight:


You do this by pushing down the tabs (circled):

Once you've got the cover off you'll need to drill a hole to pass the wires through.

some people make a cut in the bottom of the covers to allow the wires to pass in to the headlight i i wanted to make sure there was some sort of seal round the wires, but its up to you.

I cleaned the holes up after with a bit of sand paper (not shown in the pics)


Now pass the wires and part of the seal through the hole :

Back to the car...


Pull the brown and the yellow wire from the back of the headlight , unhook the wire bulb holder and withdraw the bulb you are about to replace:

Now replace the bulb with your new hid one:

You now need to connect up the wires from the hid kit to your factory wires:


Yellow goes to red and brown goes to black.

I did find that i had to squash the factory terminals with pliers as it was a bit of a loose fit.

And insulate the wires (i only did one in this pic):

Now replace the cover reverse to removal:

Next connect the red and black wires to the wires coming out of the ballast, and plug the connector into ballast:

You'll now need to find somewhere to mount the ballast....


My ballasts had a sticky pad on the back of them , so i mounted the drivers side one one the headlight cover (i fixed the rubber seal after the pic was taken....lol)

And the passenger side one on the inner wing:

That's it turn them on



Before :

After:

Do you think i went too blue ? .....lol





I hope this helps some of you out there

 

[DenCar]

Great i love it well done and good pics, what camera did you use?

DC

 

[A3 T]

Great i love it well done and good pics, what camera did you use?

DC

Thanks mate

Believe it or not i used my blackberry......lol

 

[DenCar]

Wow, nice clear pics, iv got an iphone the earlier one, and its not too good at photos. I also shoot amature stuff with a nikon D90, thats my second love after cars.

DC

 

[s3dave]

Great Guide mate....

 

[Syvo]

great guide

 

[bhavin1986]

Nice guide mate. This should be put into the A3/S3 FAQ sticky.

PM a mod and ask them about it dude.

 

[DaveA3]

yeh should def go in there. its a good guide

 

[A3 T]

Thanks for the comments guys

 

[voorhees]

Thread stuck in A3/S3 guides

 

[sulaiman]

Worth mentioning, you should add some silicone sealant once you have passed the grommet and wires through the cover to stop the headlamps steaming up and be 100% sealed.

 

[Nilz]

Good effort, well done...

 

[A3 T]

Will stick it,good guide

Thanks mate :thumbsup:

Worth mentioning, you should add some silicone sealant once you have passed the grommet and wires through the cover to stop the headlamps steaming up and be 100% sealed.

I didn't find that necessary as the grommet was already fitted to the wires so had a good seal and once it was pushed through the hole i made in the cover it was so tight it was like it was meant to be there....lol

 

[Jay A3]

Thanks for that A3 T, i consider HID but never thought it was that simple!

 

[A3 T]

Thanks for that A3 T, i consider HID but never thought it was that simple!

No probs mate

I also changed my sidelight bulbs for some white led ones to blend in with the hid bulbs

 

[murran]

come 2012 having hid bulbs in non hid lights becomes a failure item.

 

[voorhees]

come 2012 having hid bulbs in non hid lights becomes a failure item.

I will remove it in 2012 then :thumbsup:

 

[jojo]

I will remove it in 2012 then :thumbsup:

And put them back in when you get your fresh MOT cert.

 

[voorhees]

And put them back in when you get your fresh MOT cert.

Ermmm the thread

 

[quattro1]

Great guide mate any chance of a link to the kit you have?

 

[A3 T]

I will remove it in 2012 then :thumbsup:

He speaks the truth .....lol

come 2012 having hid bulbs in non hid lights becomes a failure item.

Whenever there is any mention of a hid kit on a forum, it turns into a legal debate .

If your referring to the article mentioned here:


http://www.uk-mx3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3665&sid=64faa49919277ea61fe1e305aaa5e891


Then you should also start telling people to stop remapping their cars as that's also spoken about in the article.

I've not seen anything to back this up on the dvla / direct.gov.uk websites and is probably another thing that has been brought up but will never happen (the article even says “after-market hid kits “MAY” not be legal”.

 

[bhavin1986]

come 2012 having hid bulbs in non hid lights becomes a failure item.

In most cases this will only apply if they're fitted to a reflector headlamp. But if they're fitted to projector lenses it will be okay at the MOT testers.

The only thing making them non-compliant is the lack of a washer jet, which most MOT testers will not even be aware of, and even if they are most will turn a blind eye to that fact, since its so minor. I know my tester won't fail me for them anyway.

 

[murran]

im not telling anyone not to do anything.
but the amount of people with soon to be failing cars out there......
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:173:0047:0072:EN:PDF
the european directive. its been ratified. vosa are working how to implement the changes. how they'll do it without a) lengthening the test time b) spending money on stuff like db meters and trailer socket testers c) putting the test fee up. is anybodys guess.

 

[Dani_B19]

So are A3 bulbs, H1 for dipped and H7 for main?

 

[pangsterA3]

Great thread!! - I should find it useful when converting my car back from HID (that the previous owner installed) to factory halogen..

I've seen some horrendous attempts at HID retrofit - so to be fair to the previous owner - it would appear as though he at least bought a semi decent kit and has had them set up properly (there is no glare above the cut off) and the kick off is correct - (it's also just passed it's MOT before I bought it) - he also went for a sensible colour (i.e. factory white - not blue or purple).

The reason for wanting to change them back as I've read a few problems on here about them frying the wiper motors and causing all sorts of other electrical problems (or does this only effect newer models??) - and the fact that they're likely to be a fail item without washers and self levellers being installed...

 

[s3schofield]

Good guide **** vosa lol

 

[jameslattimer68]

Great pics this was helpful. Yesterday I got my hid kit. I got OSRAM CBI 5000K HID lights. They are some of the brightest bulbs on the market and as well are 5000K with no loss of light output over 4300K bulbs. The second bulb is the Philips 81522+ bulbs. They are 4300K but they are a bit brighter than the stock bulbs.

 

[Markeyboy]

exelent guide, do you have the lamp checker on your car, if so does it still work ok with the HID's

cheers

 

[A3 T]

exelent guide, do you have the lamp checker on your car, if so does it still work ok with the HID's

cheers

Not sure what you mean by “lamp checker” but if you mean do i get a bulb out error on the dis after fitting the kit then no everything works as it should

 

[Markeyboy]

Yea That's what I was going on about

Cheers fella

 

[A3 T]

Yea That's what I was going on about

Cheers fella

No probs mate

Another good tip is to buy an extra bulb to keep as a spare so if one goes you don't have to wait for it to come in the post.....lol

 

[ChaddyA3]

Very good write up buddy, the HID's still going strong? what K HID's are those looks sweet Cheers buddy

 

[Gops]

Good guide mate! I was looking at 55w ones.. You reckon they're too bright? Also where would people recommend getting a decent hid kit from as I don't want a cheapie one.

 

[A3 T]

Very good write up buddy, the HID's still going strong? what K HID's are those looks sweet Cheers buddy

Late reply but....


Yes mate still going strong (touch wood).

I went for 6000K.

Good guide mate! I was looking at 55w ones.. You reckon they're too bright? Also where would people recommend getting a decent hid kit from as I don't want a cheapie one.

55w is just the wattage of the ballast (i used a 35w kit).

The brightness is determined by the K rating.

For example i used 6000k as it gives a bit of a blue effect. The lower the K rating the brighter they will be but they will also be less blue.

 

[anderswhk]

Great guide. So can i do this safely? I keep reading how much i am gonna be blinding other drivers on the road. I dont want that. Not terribly worried about cops, was gonna get 5 or 6k, nothing too fancy.

Its on an A3 8L from 2002. It has the halogen projector headlights.

Basically i dont wanna be one of those assholes on the road, with extremly bright white xenons.

 

[Tim_Attard]

i have had 8k i think or 10k cant remember for over half a year and not been flashed once so i assume there alright, altho at the moment my drivers is pointing straight to the ground

 

[Chlippo]

sorry for reviving an old thread.

But i am wondering why we don't see those wires on the S3? are the headlights different?
If someone is to retrofit xenon's but in oem way/standards how would that go?

 

[Sham101]

errm

 

[Ian2012]

Have you had issues with them at all since fitting, like warning lights on the dash coming on?

 

[Lavis89]

I've had mine in for quite a while (over 6 month) and never had a warning light or any kind of problem with them