New S4 want to upgrade foglamps & brights to HID

[indica]

HI everyone!!! I am new to the board and glad to have found a well designed audi forum site!! thanks!

Does anyone know where i can find a set of replacement Xenon fogs and possibly an upgrade for the high beams to xenon??? I just picked up the car last weekend and was supremely disappointed when i noticed the fogs and highbeams were not HID...

other than that the car is amazing, i am planning out all of my upgrades and the list is getting longer by each day that passes. so far looking into an APR chip and an AWE tuning Twin 2 true dual exhaust. I am still unsure of what intake to get into. I realized the need for upgraded brakes the third night i had the car out and was really exercising it around a track with many tight turns and fast straights. they held up very well for the first 5 laps or so and then the fade started in rather tough... looking to stoptech to fix that little problem.
thanks for listening all!

indica

 

[DavidR]

There is no easy way of getting HID main beams as it would require an entirely separate healight unit complete with self levelling mech and associated filter.

You can get bright white bulbs that give the HID effect, but are not actually gas discharge. I don't worry about it as I never use the fog lights and the main beam is pretty bright with an upgraded filament bulb.

The APR chip is nice BTW, I reccommend it strongly.

 

[excursion]

Vagparts sell the kit, I'm ordering oen shortly and may do both High and low beams.

Here's a guide:
http://www.audiworld.com/tech/ext36.shtml

 

[excursion]

It's not a botch at all, there are no block plates in Audi Xenon housings, so the kit works 100% in the Halogen housings.

 

[DavidR]

Ok, but the guy above has already got HID dipped beams on his S4 and wants to upgrade the main beam and fogs, this is not the appropriate mod?

 

[excursion]

Yes mate this will be fine for main beams. Also the Fogs too as they use H7 bulbs.

 

[DavidR]

I still maintain that this would be a terrible idea beacause of a few reasons. Firstly, a HID xenon bulb takes at least 5-10seconds to properly warm up on my s4 and provide a decent amount of white light therefore you would effectively have no main beam flashers and when flicking main beam on on a country road (i.e. when you need it most) it would take time to heat up by which time another car will most likely come in the other direction (OEM main beams in BMWs for example have a light sheild that moves aside inside the dipped / main projector to provide instant light and a separate filament main beam flasher) AFAIK they would still be illegal and likely fail MOT tests as a main beam HID needs a very rapid and accurate self levelling mechanism which is not there in the OEM headlight and the bulb brightness would simply be too great (when it warmed up). Fog lights are completeky useless anyhow, they provide no extra useful light in the event of dense fog and they are also illegal at any other time. Least of all is the cost implications, an aftermarket HID setup is >£500 incl bulbs per system, so 1k for a mod that is (1) ineffective (2) illegal (3) IMO pointless seems not to be a good reccommendation.

I think the OEM HIDs on the S4 are great, and other than the ignorance of others flashing at me sometimes as they think i have main beam on, I wouldn't be without them. The upgrade for the OEM filament projectors on the S4 seems worthwhile for dipped beams alone, but again you don't get the auto levelling AFAIK and this can have MOT implications.

 

[excursion]

[ QUOTE ]
David R said:
(OEM main beams in BMWs for example have a light sheild that moves aside inside the dipped / main projector to provide instant light and a separate filament main beam flasher)

[/ QUOTE ]

That is a Bi-xenon system David, as fitted to BMW's and Skoda's etc. A much later system that uses the single bulb for both light modes. A moving sheild cannot make a bulb heat up faster if you think about it anyway - that's down to the ballast design and bulb. Later types are fairly instant.

MOT should be fine as they only check the lvel stationary.

 

[DavidR]

[ QUOTE ]
excursion said:
That is a Bi-xenon system David, as fitted to BMW's and Skoda's etc. A much later system that uses the single bulb for both light modes. A moving sheild cannot make a bulb heat up faster if you think about it anyway - that's down to the ballast design and bulb. Later types are fairly instant.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yawn! Thats the whole point!!

A single bulb, always lit when dipped beams are on and the sheild moves out of the way when main beam engaged therefore no need for bulb to heat up before light is trasmitted in main beam pattern. IMO the ONLY way to have dipped and main beam xenons.

There ARE specific regulations about the brightness of your bulbs, people locally have been given on the sopt fines by the police for fitting upgraded high performance filament bulbs, xenons poorly fitted in a filament projector lens are much more likely to attract attention.

 

[DavidR]

[ QUOTE ]
excursion said:
Later types are fairly instant.


[/ QUOTE ]

Depends on whether you count 5-10s as instant, I don't and I know that the bi-xenons on the new 5 series still take 5-10s to provide pure white light at max intensity.

 

[mramage]

Those with Bi-Xenon headlights also have a single old style halogen bulb for flashing, because of the warm up problem.

Incidently, it's apparently not good for the HID bulbs to be flashed in that manner, especially if they are already warm. Guess that wouldn't be a problem though.

 

[DavidR]

[ QUOTE ]
David R said:
(OEM main beams in BMWs for example have a light sheild that moves aside inside the dipped / main projector to provide instant light and a separate filament main beam flasher)

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps i write too much /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

If I jump out of the car of an evening to open the garage and switch the xenons off and on again (i.e. when the ignition goes on the xenons fire, the shut down as the starter turns) often one or both shut down and give the headlight warning lamp on DIS until they cool...

 

[mramage]

[ QUOTE ]
David R said:
[ QUOTE ]
David R said:
(OEM main beams in BMWs for example have a light sheild that moves aside inside the dipped / main projector to provide instant light and a separate filament main beam flasher)

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps i write too much /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

If I jump out of the car of an evening to open the garage and switch the xenons off and on again (i.e. when the ignition goes on the xenons fire, the shut down as the starter turns) often one or both shut down and give the headlight warning lamp on DIS until they cool...

[/ QUOTE ]

Or maybe I just don't pay attention /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Interesting. I have turned mine off and on to get them to return to the correct level (other thread) with no probs. Not often though and no DIS warning. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif

 

[excursion]

[ QUOTE ]
David R said:
Yawn! Thats the whole point!!


[/ QUOTE ]

You've gone out of your way to pick fault at everything I've said, what is your problem?

 

[DavidR]

[ QUOTE ]
excursion said:
You've gone out of your way to pick fault at everything I've said, what is your problem?

[/ QUOTE ]

Guess I'm just a particular kind of person who doesn't really like the idea of spending excessively on dubious mods. My perspective is that as far as I see, the conversion of H7 bulbs to xenon is dubious and I intented to make clear to interested people the potential pitfalls of such a conversion.

My intial comments re bi-xenons was, i thought, both concise and inclusive of all the major points, and I was weary of reiterating my opinions to avoid ambiguity.

Not a dig, not personal, not a **** take etc /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[excursion]

Ok fair enough. Friends car's I've been in so far have seemed worth the money.

I have just paid £175 for RS6 ballasts and bulbs. I don't really think that's a lot of money, especially as they are brand new! I will post a guide and results of my conversion when it arrives from the states next week.

 

[indica]

well i just ordered a 2 sets of the piaa plasma blue h7's and i will let you know how they werk/look when i get 'em. Thanks for helping me sort all this out.

indica