facelift lights fitted - hid's next.....

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fARQUARE

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Got a set of facelift lights delivered this week so today i had a shot of fitting them,

my car is pre-facelift so i went to machinne mart and got a 4.5" grinder and some thin cutting disks to get rid of the lip on the pfl wing. I'd never used a grinder before and it was quite surprising how easily the disks cut through the wing!

you basically have to take the bumper off then trim the lip down as much as you can. After that it's a case of priming and painting the bare metal to prevent rust then you can move onto the wiring.

I hate wiring, and i always avoid it where possible. I decided that i didnt fancy cutting and soldering incase i had to get the lights out again so decided to use the loom inside the old headlamps and transfer this into the facelift units - here's a step by step:

-take the old light unit out - twist the wiring connector with mole grips to free it from it's housing. you'll then need to strip the lamp to get the wiring out. Remove all the little metal clips that hold the lense onto the plastic body then remove the lense. Remove the plastic reflector that sits behind the lense then you'll need to wind out the adjuster to get enough clearance to get the wiring plug out.

- once the harness is out you'll need to remove the black wire (live for fogs), to do this stick a flat blade screwdriver in the 2 recesses in the connector and move the purple piece forwards which will allow you to remove the pin from the block. while your'e in there swap the yellow and white terminal pins - i couldn't get the wires to stretch without doing this.

- next remove the harness from the new lights - this is easy in comparison.... once out use a terminal wiring tool to free the 3 wires for the height adjusters from the connector block.

- next you're going to cut some holes in the backing plate that the square wiring block was in, i used a hole cutter which gave me a push tight fit, but i will silicone this up tommorow, the gaps are not very big.

- all you have left is the wiring for the motor which is different colours but i will just be shoving the male pins into the female terminal block and shrink wrapping when i figure out the correct colours.

there you go....

next i will be ordering some hid's (and of course all the associated gubbins), any tips on what voltage and 'k' rating and any good suppliers would be great.

cheers
 
Hi Mate, to make it look OEM 6000k would be the best ones, they are a pure white colour and are really the ones that shine best.

i can supply you the kit and all other bulbs that go with it, side lights, plate lights and even interior bulbs if you want.

Thanks
Trups
 
4300k is the best result at 35w. On a 50/55w kit, go for 6000k as the 4300k seem a bit yellowy. I've fitted these kits since 2006 on MANY different cars and as above, 4300k is the OEM colour.

Make sure your new headlights are aligned properly, as although they are projector lenses, they can still dazzle oncoming drivers!!
 
will be setting them up tomorrow once i have sorted the motor wire connections.

with reference to 35w or 50w, what's the difference, can you fit either or?
 
thanks, but what would make you choose 35w or 55w? i obviously want as much useable light as i can get without dazzling or looking aftermarket. I want to go for as white as i can get also - any reccomendations on suppliers or kits to go to?

here is a pic of the work so far

DSC00006-1.jpg
 
A factory bulb is 5000k on every car with a xenon, i had some 4300k on my mk4 golf and they where yellow, no white in it at all, just yellow. as you cant get a 5000k aftermarket bulb the next best to get white is the 6000k, yes the 4300 will shine abit further but we are talking a few CM's.
 
Sorry, but OEM bulbs ARE 4300k.

Osram D2S HID Xenon headlight bulb
Philips D2S Bulb Xenon HID Bulb Philips 85122

Those are the stock bulbs used in most factory HID installations. 4300K bulbs output the optimal usable lumens, and if you go any higher you get the color starting to tend towards blue, and the light output falls.

You cant compare them from any tat from china, as lets face it, you've no clue whats inside the box. Proper brands like Philips and Orsam only make bulbs with a proper D2S base, so any bulb designed to fit a H7 headlight is dodgy in some way.

Its also worth noting that as bulbs age, the color temperature increases. So comparing a brand new 4300k bulb with a 10 year old one, the new one will appear yellower, because the 10 year old one isnt actually outputting 4300k any more.
 
I was under the impression that HID lights were illegal unless you had all the appropriate leveling electronics otherwise you dazzle the **** out of people? I always stick full beam on at night when people (namely Barry boys) approach blinding the crap out of me with terrible non OEM HID's. I guess if you can see where you are going thats all that matters.
 
The BIGGEST issue with aftermarket HID's is when people install them into reflector headlamps as found on your typical chav-box.

In those headlamps a HID bulb will cause lots of glare and dazzle everyone, even with auto levelling fitted, because the reflector assembly simply cant control the light output properly.

The Facelift A4 units have projectors for dip beam, which do a much better job of controlling the light output.

It is still technically illegal, and even with the autolevelling and washers it would still be technically illegal as you need type approved headlamp assemblies, but if you do the job properly it'll work perfectly well and wont annoy anyone.
 
Well i've got a kit ordered, so by the weekend I should be able to give progress on how the install went.

I suspect the fl lights need alligned, not driven in the dark yet but there is a very pronounced beam cutoff that you can see on the back of cars at lights.

When adjustiing the alignment do you have the motors set to max up or max down assuming a half tank of fuel?

Sent from my U20i using Tapatalk
 
To adjust the alignment:

Set in car adjuster to 0
Find some flat ground with a wall and some room to manoever
Drive RIGHT up to the wall and mark a big crosshair on the wall that represents the centre of each projector (i find looking from the side to make the horizontal line and looking down from above to make the vertical one works best)
Reverse streight back around 5-10 meters.
Measure distance from the wall to the car, and divide by 100. This is the beam declination. If your 5m away this figure will be 5cm for instance.

Mark a new horizontal line on the wall, thats the above figure below the original horizontal line. Erase or ignore the original horizontal line, and use the new one.

Looking at the beam on the wall it looks something like this ‾‾‾‾\____

You want to twirl the screws on the headlight so that the crosshair on the wall intersects the dot in this representation: ‾‾‾‾\.____ IE the lower corner of the diagonal section.

One screw moves the light up and down, the other left and right.

Once both are aligned as above your sorted.
 
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On the same subject, does anyone have a pic of the rear of a facelift xenon headlight unit?
 
cheers Aragorn,

just set up the lights which was pretty simple, both were low and the n/s one was way left of target. Not driven in the dark yet but fitted my halfords +80% bulbs so hopefully the projector lenses will get me through till my hid kit arrives...

one tip i'dhave is cover the lamp your not adjusting so you can see the one your working on more clearly.
 
aragorn said:
It looks exactly like the rear of a halogen facelift headlight unit :p

What exactly do you want to see?
Click to expand...
The ballast mounts etc. Ive just bought a set of facelifts that the seller said were xenons. Im pretty sure they are halogens but not sure to be honest. They were cheap as chips so not bothered either way. Ill make them xenons using parts from my pfl lights if needs be
 
The ballast mounts to the bottom.

Halogens use the same casing, but will have a big empty space, Xenons will have a big flat metal plate underneath.

The projector assembly is different, and the proper D2S bulbs wont fit inside a halogen projector. You'll need to buy some of the dodgy chinese bulbs if thats the case.
 
I had a pic of the two next to each other a while ago. The projector lens is much deeper and I think it was purpleish in colour. The halogen reflector was silver.

As Aragorn says, the xenons will have a hole in the bottom where the ballasts fit through, the halogen's just have the recess for the ballasts but are sealed at the bottom.
 
Thanks for the replies. I'll have to get them out and take a good look and see whats involved in converting them. Surely i can just take the whole projector and ballast out of my pfl ones and fit them to the facelift?
 
They're made by different manufacturers, so i doubt the projector assemblies will swap. Can always try though.
 
aragorn said:
They're made by different manufacturers, so i doubt the projector assemblies will swap. Can always try though.
Click to expand...
ah right, i'll have to get them side by side and see whats involved
thanks ..lee
 
Hi aragorn, I have an A4/S4 sport quattro B5 december 1999 facelift model and have just brought a set of xenon HID conversion 6000k H7 kit from Trups, for the projector headlamps on dipped beam, bulbs work fine and give a great looking light, reading your thread on here about headlamp alignment I suspect mine need re-aligning, as I am seeing a definate dark triangle in the middle of the beam pattern from the drivers side when sat in drivers seat, also looks like its pointing too far to the right and a bit low to the ground, passenger side looks more like it's aligned correctly, would it make a difference if I just swapped the bulbs from one lens to the other rather than mess with the headlamp alignment ? or would it give the same problem the opposite way around ?
 
So long as the bulbs are actually decent, it wont make a difference.

If you read my instructions a few posts up, you should be able to work out if its aiming or a bad bulb by looking at how the beam cutoff falls on a wall.

Just follow post 14 and see how you get on.
 
It's a really easy job to check the alignment. Takes 10minutes, my hid lit arrived yesterday so i'll fit them tomorrow and report back

Sent from my U20i using Tapatalk
 
best mod you can do to a B5 IMO
night and day...excuse the pun
 
well, took 1 of the lamps out tonight to see how i'm going to tackle the hid install. I think i'm going to go for the below approachfor cable routing:

DSC00007.jpg


just need some hole cutters and velcro..
 
had to change plan in the end, got some velcro and stuck them on like this:
DSC00008.jpg

lights work - will need to wait till it's dark to see how much better they are and re-align.
 
Kind of similar approach to what I did only I mounted the ballasts in the recess by cutting some of the plastic inner lip off to get a snug fit and by looks of it same kit as what I used with slim ballasts. Just be sure to test fit as the front slam panel can get in the way in places.
 
At all fitted fine in the end - the ballasts on these kits are pretty small so it's just a case of tucking all the wires away.

Just had a quick run in the car and i have to say i'm quite impressed by the amount of light which is given off.

Will properly align them again whenever this rain stops.....
 
How did you tackle your indicators? Prefacelift bulb holders in facelift lights?
 
audi upgrades
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