Changing sidelight bulbs on a 2000 S3.

[lloydsta101]

Hi there,

Forgive me if this sounds stupid, but is there a sequence to changing the sidelight bulbs etc. on a 2000 plate S3?

I've just purchased some LED Xenon look 501 sidelight bulbs to match my Xenon headlights, as the standard dim yellow ones don't really look that attractive up against the headlight bulbs... but it seems to be near impossible to get at the back of them.

I've removed the cover from the back of the light and tried to find my way to the back of the sidelight bulb, but even with my small hands I can't get a grip on anything.

Do I need to start unscrewing things or is there something I'm not doing right? Apologies for silly question, it's just I've owned four cars now and never had trouble changing a bulb before.

Thanks in advance for any response!

 

[jojo]

Do you have a facelift(one piece headlamps) or pre facelift(2 Piece headlamps/indicators) S3?

For pre facelift, you need to tug on the wires firmly to pull them out.

 

[rossbrownlee]

If they are pre facelift which is where the headlight and indicators are two separate units then the way i do it is to put my palm on the top of the headlight unit and curl my fingers down into the headlight and grab the bulb holder between two fingers. failing that you can pull the wires but be careful.

and most importantly, whatever you do. DON'T do what i did and rattle the LED bulb out of the holder so it drops down inside the headlight in front of the reflector.

****!

 

[lloydsta101]

Cheers for the replies.

I have the pre-facelift model (2 piece) headlights. Ahh, I see... so I was on track then, just not being as daring as I could have been.

I know on some cars you just need to give a bit of force to get something done, but it's always best to check just incase!

And cheers for the tip rossbrownlee, I'll put them back in as gently as possible to avoid doing that.

 

[jojo]

Another thing is, these 4LED 501's which is what I presume is what you, don't seem to last very long on the S3, I was running them on my car and went through 3 sets! Went back to standard 501 bulbs afterwoods.

 

[ianysm]

Whats the procedure for facelift lights then?

 

[HP]

one of my sidelight bulbs has just gone. How would i change this on a facelift model? is it relatively easy?

 

[lloydsta101]

They have a single LED in the centre, but I know what the quad ones look like as had those on a previous car... ended up using them up in car neon’s.

And I'm not 100% sure how to change the bulb on the facelift models, but I've read that they are on the outside of the light unit or something, as opposed to being inside the housing on the pre-facelift. I might be wrong though?

 

[rossbrownlee]

have a search back through the last couple of pages, this was covered really recently mate.