headlight upgrade, is this the right choice...?

P

Pete69zx

Guest
OK, so i took the pluge earlier today & ordered a set of genuine headlights from what i hope is a facelift A3 (mine is a 1998 A3 1.8T Sport).

I have ordered these from eurocarparts as the ebay items are unclear to me as to will they actually be the correct headlight alignment for us brits.

Anyways, i digress...

These are the part numbers from the ECP website...

471441950 NS HEADLAMP A3 01-03 A3 2001-03 L/H From 8L1-000001

471441960 OS HEADLAMP A3 01-03 A3 2001-03 L/H From 8L1-000001

Does anyone know if these are actually what i hope they are?

I hope they are facelift headlights that i will be able to fit into my 1998 A3?

From what i have read on this forum & tried to digest, my car will need a little modification to the wing area inside to accomodate them?

Im pretty sure i read somewhere that they wont just plug & play with the cars exisiting headlight connectors/wiring loom.

Where can i get the correct connectors/loom from?

Do i have to make the loom myself?

Are there any diagrams to help show me how to achieve this?

Sorry for all the probably dumb questions, lol

I just want to get them fitted as soon as possible so i can appreciate where my hard earned cash has gone! And also, im blind as a bat at night time aswell, hence another reason for the upgrade.

What i hope they are, are the projector style facelift headlights from the same shape A3 as what i have.

Thanks all

Pete.
 
Also, thinking to possiblly add some HID's when cash flow will allow.

Just all the information for you guys to take in to hopefully help assit me in my quest:)
 
1. Yep Sound like the correct part to me!
2. Yes
3. Just removal of some of the wing. Becomes clear when you take the old units out!
4. You have to make them yourself. You need to buy the wires and plugs from Audi, and make yourself a loom. I used the bulb wiring that can be removed from the headlight to make an interconnect between old loom and new lights, so i didn't have to modify the actual vehicle wiring.
5. As above
6. No - Sorry! Just get yourself a multimater for determiniong which wires do what.

PM me if you need any more info. Im sure i can take some pics of the wiring to give you a better idae of what is necessary.

Just fitted a HID kit to my facelift lights and they work really well in them.

Rich
 
Thanx Rich.

It would be great if you could take some piccies for me of the headlight wiring :)

Pete.
 
Pete69zx said:
278 pounds! :wtf:
Click to expand...

Ouch! I paid £110 delivered on Ebay. They were from germany, but have a little lever to flick them over for RHD cars\Driving on the left.

I'll take some pics for you tomorrow mate. Got some tidying up of the HID install to do.

Rich
 
RichA3Turbo said:
Ouch! I paid £110 delivered on Ebay. They were from germany, but have a little lever to flick them over for RHD cars\Driving on the left.

I'll take some pics for you tomorrow mate. Got some tidying up of the HID install to do.

Rich
Click to expand...

Looking forward to seeing the pix m8 :)

Pete.
 
Hi Pete,

The parts you need are:

Universal Yellow wires with crimped connectors - 000 979 133 (x4)
Black 4 pin Plugs - 1J0 973 724 (x2).

Firstly, the wires come double ended, so you chop them in half, that gives you 8, 4 per side. For Main beam, dipped beam, side lights and Ground.

Now when you remove the old headlights, you will notice that the plug on the light unit is a twist fit, into the headlight itself. If you remove this, and the wiring from the old units, you use make a loom to save chopping the existing wiring in the vehicle. Its the safer option!!

First you need to make note of which color wire goes to which bulb so that you get it correct with the new ones. You will also need to do the same with the new units so you know which pin on the new plug, needs to go to which color on the old loom.

I chopped the bulb connectors off the old loom, and soldered them to the new wires, and the attached the new plug. protected the osldered joints with heatshrink, and then wrapped the entire loom in self amalgamating tape to waterproof it.

Here is a pic of the finished product.
3.jpg

4.jpg


This connects to the OEM loom, and then you simply plug it into the new headlight housing.

Removing the material from the inner wing is easy enough. I used an angle grinder with a cutting disk to remove the majority of the material, and then used a grinding disc to smooth it all and finish it up. I suggest using hammerite to rust proof the raw metal as you dont want it rusting!

here are some pics of the finished product

1.jpg

2.jpg

5.jpg


Any questions, just shout!

Those are 6000k HID's fitted to the lights.

Rich
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: fanta
Superb Rich.

You are to commended for your pix & description :)

I will be giving my car to the guys at where i works bodyshop on Wednesday. They will get the lights to fit with no problems im sure :)

So, all i need to do is order up the new style connectors for the facelift lights, with the Audi part numbers you have stated & away i go, hopefully, lol

Incidentally... what in your opinion are the best upgrade bulbs to use in these lights?

Obviously im not going HID straight away ;-)

Cheers, Pete.
 
nice guide rich.

edit: what happens when put the "fog lights" on if there are no fog lights? i will probably get the vagparts kit when some money becomes available.
 
gonna be very dense and ask this:
RichA3Turbo said:
1.jpg
Click to expand...
..but what lights are what? from left to right, is it: indicator/side/dipped? you said in the other thread that you use h1/h7 bulbs as per oem facelift lights, where do they fit in?

:)

love your bumper btw! do all the rs4 style bumpers come with headlight washer cutouts or was yours specially done?
 
If you try and put the front fogs on, nothing happens...No 'bulb out' warning.

From left to right:
Indicator, Main (H7) (sidelight is above right of main), dipped (H1).

As for the bumper, yes it came like that. Some brands, the washer holes is an option...Mine just came like that.

Rich
 
right, i've brought a set of those facelift lights from the same ebay seller you mentioned and will need to go to audi dealers at some point next week and grab the other bits and pieces.

can the indicator/sidelights can be reused from the pre-facelift lights? if so, i'll reuse the h7 i got and get a osram h1 bulb for the dipped.
 
RichA3Turbo said:
If you try and put the front fogs on, nothing happens...No 'bulb out' warning.

From left to right:
Indicator, Main (H7) (sidelight is above right of main), dipped (H1).

As for the bumper, yes it came like that. Some brands, the washer holes is an option...Mine just came like that.

Rich
Click to expand...

Nice sticky Rich! You're using the H1 HID kit then?Are these the vision bulbs HID kits 6000K as you sell on your site?

I remember my BMW E39 had a different set up, with the lens light next to the indicator. On the A3 facelift lamps, will then the low beam be the H1's behind the lens? and the high beam the H7's ?
Just need to be sure before I set up an order =)


Regards,
Richard.
 
Hi Richard,

Yes i am using the H1 HID kit we have on our site. The quality of the kit is great! I used a other kit previosly which cost 3x the amount and was much lower quality.

The indicators are resuable, yes.

The H1 (dipped) is the projector part of the unit, and the main is the standard type reflector.

Rich
 
RichA3Turbo said:
As for the bumper, yes it came like that. Some brands, the washer holes is an option...Mine just came like that.
Click to expand...
where'd you get yours from? looks liek a good fit. mines all scratched up so might be an excuse for a new bumper! :)

edit: and are the hid kits you sell on your site waterproof? and do they qualify for the 5% discount?
 
I got it from www.s3-tuning.de But the quality was shocking. I spent a good day doing prep work to it getting it ready for the body shop. Had to sand down the whole thing, fill bits of it .etc. The Rieger one is probably a better fit.

Yes the HID kits are weatherproof, but i still suggest not placing it in the line of fire or water and road dirt...Just for safety sake!

And yes, 5% discount is available!
 
what does the reiger bumper look like, any pics anywhere?

Ouch! I paid £110 delivered on Ebay. They were from germany, but have a little lever to flick them over for RHD cars\Driving on the left.
Click to expand...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....70036221564&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1
is this the same one you brought, with the lever to change between driving on the left/right?

edit: rich, if i do the cutting etc, will i be able to use the existing wiring for the "fogs" and wire it up to a set of fogs in the bumper?
 
got mine done today, hardest part was definately cutting the bits of wing to make it sit nice. i did end up not using the washers that were selotaped to the side of the light, didnt know where to use it :)

andyuk: i had a look at those but decided against the angel eye look, so got the facelift set from ze motherland instead.

xenons next i think :)
 
Hi guys...great forum by the way!

I have one nagging question that I couldn't find an answer to while searching.

When you fit the facelift headlights to the pre-facelift A3 they seem quite shaky over the bumps...What do you guys do make them a bit more rigid...Has anyone figured out a way to make use of the outside rear mount found on the facelift lights?...If so please enlighten me as I'm about to tear my hair out!!

Thanks.
 
AndyUK said:
Anyone know anything about these ones from USA on ebay?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Audi-A3-1-8t-...QQihZ019QQcategoryZ23009QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem\


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Audi-A3-1-8t-...3QQihZ019QQcategoryZ23009QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


They look like they should fit straight onto the 1998-2000 models and RHD
Click to expand...


Ive got em on my 1999 pre facelift A3, got em all installed & washed my car & ended up with a small ammount of condensation in em (hardly noticable), its not too bad and they dont look bad at all considering all the people slagging em off!

day.JPG


night.JPG


If you get them, then make sure you get the chrome indicator bulbs with them. You might also want to get a set of chrome/clear side repeaters with the chrome bulbs too, otherwise your crystal clear headlights wont match the rest of the car!

If your going for angel eyes then go for the ones by DPM styling, they look a bit better.
 
Mine are genuines from ECP & suffer from fogging up after i have washed the car.
 
Hey Rich. What brand is the HID kit you have fitted so i can do a bit of research into them? I did the facelift light conversion a good year ago now, all going fine but i'm thinking of doing the HID version.

I like to do alot of research into products before i buy them, especially if it's up in the hundreds of pounds. Cheers for any info you can give.

To everyone else i made pin outs for wat pins do what if you don't have a meter, if yo pm me to remind me to check i can supply these.

Ross
 
Yeh i had a quick look on your site and saw the kit for sale. On the website it doesn't say what brand the kit is. Could you let me know the brand so i could look into the kit's quality please? cheers

Ross
 
The kits are vision bulbs - There are a few guys on here that have the kits now that i am sure can vouch for their quality. There are many kits on the market, most of which are overpriced. I had a kit before that was roughly £300, and the ballast blew within 9months. These kits are of a higher quality (visibly!!) and a muc more reasonable price.
 
I'm torn between 6000k and 8000k colour temperatures. I assume 6000k would be more stable? Rich do you have any pictures of your lamps illuminated in the dark so i can get a better idea of their output please? Have you seen the 8000k illuminated, if so what did you think? cheers

Ross
 
6000k is the best choice. 8000k are much more blue, and the light output isnt as great due to the color temp. 4300k are not blue enough for my liking. As 5500k is sunlight, 6000k is as close as you can get to the real deal.

I will try and take a pic tonight for you.

Rich
 
a bit of clarification please because i think i've wired the lights up wrong :)

at the moment, when i turn the dial 2 notches to the right for what i assume is dipped lights the lights next to the indicator turn on and when i push the left hand side stalk forward or backwards, the center lights turn on.

thats the wrong way isnt it? the dipped lights should be the center most ones and not nearest to the indicators, yes?
 
correct. Youve got high beam and low beam the wrong way round!
 
cha1n said:
I'm torn between 6000k and 8000k colour temperatures. I assume 6000k would be more stable? Rich do you have any pictures of your lamps illuminated in the dark so i can get a better idea of their output please? Have you seen the 8000k illuminated, if so what did you think? cheers

Ross
Click to expand...
vbpgimage.php


here you go mate!

The color is off in the pic. It looks really blue, but its not THAT blue in the flesh.
 
Done mines today, basically as the facelift lights only with angel eyes. Quite like them but having problems with the fit - seems like i'll need to chop some of the bumper guide and bottom of the inner wing to get them to sit right in at the corners. Any1 had to do this?

Im considering just putting some rubber strips in the gap as its only about 15mm or less and they arent sitting proud at the side of the bodywork
 
The bodyshop at work that did mine, had to shave some of the wing off. (the area that sits at the back part of where the originla indicator lense would sit. The recesed bit.)

HTH.
 
Yeah i had to remove all of that, but its the actual bumper guide and bottom section of the main wing that seems to be in the way now - you wouldnt se eit because the bumper is there anyway but im a little wary of cutting it out
 
Yep i had to remobe a little of this. Just do it though...Anything else is a bodge.

Rich
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
is this the right one???
Replies
21
Views
1K
M12RJX
M
S3 Johnny
  • Locked
Is this the right price?
Replies
12
Views
2K
Broken Byzan
Broken Byzan
B
Is this right ?
Replies
8
Views
1K
BD's S3
B
S3-Oski
Is this right??
Replies
7
Views
917
S3-Oski
S3-Oski
RyanS3TT
Turbo Upgrade. But is it the right one?
Replies
2
Views
1K
RyanS3TT
RyanS3TT
Top
Back