S3 xenon lights low brightness

[daz-20vt]

Hi guys. I have a facelift s3 with xenons. The car was recently mot'd and it passed so guess the levels are ok. But the brightness is terrible. Other xenons ive had really light the road up but mine dont. No better than halogen (maybe worse) what could this be? Any help would be awesome thanks. Daz

 

[ManuGD]

The same happens with mine. "Tired" bulbs maybe?

Let's see if someone knows what causes this.

 

[JimS3]

My Xenons were total pants, was so disappointed the first time I drove my S3 at night.

Tired bulbs do not help at all, but an issue I had was a milky film on the projector lens, here's some pictures before and after cleaning:







Both sides were like it and the lights were a lot better after cleaning.

 

[daz-20vt]

Wow great help. Ill check this and change the bulbs.are they easy to remove? Thanks!! Daz

 

[JimS3]

Projector lens is fairly easy to remove. It needs a torx screwdriver, think it was a T15. It's a bit of a fiddle, but the lenses can be maneuvered out of the back cover.

Don't try and clean the plastic silver reflector, the silver coating comes off very easily with even a dry cloth!

 

[Gops]

S3 lights have never been good I'n my experience! I bought some a3 headlights and did a 55w hid kit.. Now it's brighter than most new cars!

 

[daz-20vt]

S3 lights have never been good I'n my experience! I bought some a3 headlights and did a 55w hid kit.. Now it's brighter than most new cars!View attachment 24989

Now this is interesting because i have thought about doing this. My car is facelift and i personally prefer the pre lift lights. Maybe a time to do that?

 

[Gops]

Pre facelift lights don't have the projectors for the halogen units so you can only do this with facelift halogen units. It's a cheaper way to do this rather than spending £400+ on xenon units