Black Edition Xenon headlights Touring in Europe

[PilotAudi]

Hi - we hopefully get our BE in March and regularly go over to Europe.

Does anyone know if the lights can be adjusted inside the car as with the A4/A5?

Thanks

 

[PilotAudi]

Does anyone know or have a BE Handbook with the info please?

 

[DJAlix]

Dealer only, unless you have VCDS and some time to adjust them yourself.

 

[PilotAudi]

Dealer only, unless you have VCDS and some time to adjust them yourself.

******. Thanks Alix that confirms my fears! Do you know much for a VCDS and how difficult is it. We have been abroad by car 9 times this year so this could be a problem.

 

[PH1L]

nhnh sells vcds its a coupla hundred quid pays for itself quickly though. did you opt for cornering lights?

 

[NHN]

That'll be me, if interested in vcds then PM me, thanks.

 

[PilotAudi]

I have seen Adaptive lights on A5 we have not ordered these for A3. Does it make a difference? Am I too late for a week 7 build?

 

[NHN]

Adaptives are ace, fantastic for windy roads & lanes etc, glad I installed them to my car one of my best mods.

 

[PH1L]

i agree with nige, ive gone from halogen to bixen to adaptive over the past month or so and i really rate the adaptives, and this is even after i paid audi's price for them!

haha im blaming the extra h on the hangover

 

[PilotAudi]

Adaptives are ace, fantastic for windy roads & lanes etc, glad I installed them to my car one of my best mods.

I've driven over 20k miles with Adaptive lights but probably only about 500 when I've had them on. They are superb but not sure I would pay extra for them unless I did a lot of night driving around bendy roads which is where they are absolutely superb.

 

[h5djr]

I have adaptive xenons on my A3, mainly because it was the only way I could get any form of xenon headlights factory fitted. They seem to work OK.

As far as changing them over for continental driving, I always do mine as I'm waiting to board the Eurotunnel Shuttle train using VCDS loaded on my laptop.

 

[PH1L]

being honest going from bixenon to adaptive isnt a cost effective mod (buying new) but if youre going from halogen its deffinately worth it as the wiring etc needs changed and added anyway

 

[Vertigo1]

Asked this very question a short while back - tis really annoying that it's not configurable from the DIS.

NHN: Out of interest how much is VCDS these days with the Micro-CAN USB cable which I believe is all you need for the A3?

 

[DJAlix]

Setting to lights to Tourist was not so simple, for me anyway. I changed the setting in VCDS before I drove to Monaco in September. The setting saved, warning light on the DIS as a reminder, but the lights did not move. Reading deeper in to it I then saw that you have to aim your lights at a wall (or alike) and adjust the angles as needed.

 

[NHN]

NO, you shouldnt have to aim the headlights at the wall & adjust manually atall, thats the whole point of the tourist mode, if you're not seeing the adjustment, then either its your eyesite not seeing even a minimal adjustment or there is an issue with your coding/car, I have done mine for several trips to italy now & each time they adjusted.

 

[DJAlix]

Interesting... before I made the change I looked at the levels on the garage wall, even marked with masking tape. Setting changed and I could see no difference bar a warning light (yellow - cannot remember the symbol) in the DIS. My lights are BI-X and Auto Levelling factory fit.

I was indeed under the impression that it would work as you described NHN, logical really, but this was not the case for me. Maybe it's my eye's but my best mate was also of the same opinion.

When trying to get to the bottom of the issue I remember reading somewhere, a web link, that a manual adjustment was needed. Maybe this was after installing units from new, a "before leaving the factory" / first calibration type thingy...

 

[PilotAudi]

On an A5 with XENONS and DRL's etc and MMI the adjustment to Touring mode is definately noticeable and all done when stationery from the Drivers seat.

£244 for the VCDS thingy seems fair enough and does a lot of things I believe but I had hoped to be able to adjust using car's 'IT' system rather than faff around with Laptops and cables. ;-)

 

[PH1L]

im not gonna lie without a doubt vagcom IS the best value for money diagnostics system in existance, the only system more powerfull is mercedes compact 4 machines but at over 100 times the price :< vagcom will pay for itself in diagnostics of your own car and beer favours over the years couple this with being able to change little niggles in your car ie turn off or on seatbelt chimes and youre onto a real winner

 

[NHN]

When trying to get to the bottom of the issue I remember reading somewhere, a web link, that a manual adjustment was needed. Maybe this was after installing units from new, a "before leaving the factory" / first calibration type thingy...

That calibration would be the mot positioning, not tourist mode & would be done probably at the dealer tbh before handover you would think & any adjustments for mot's later are manual aswell, but you still need vagcom or the audi diag tools to set the mot position so you can then adjust them manually to the correct position.

On an A5 with XENONS and DRL's etc and MMI the adjustment to Touring mode is definately noticeable and all done when stationery from the Drivers seat.

£244 for the VCDS thingy seems fair enough and does a lot of things I believe but I had hoped to be able to adjust using car's 'IT' system rather than faff around with Laptops and cables. ;-)

Yes but the A5 uses a much better set of technologies IMHO, where allot of settings are in the mmi display anyway, 8P is fairly old now tbh, it started in 2003

 

[PilotAudi]

That calibration would be the mot positioning, not tourist mode & would be done probably at the dealer tbh before handover you would think & any adjustments for mot's later are manual aswell, but you still need vagcom or the audi diag tools to set the mot position so you can then adjust them manually to the correct position.



Yes but the A5 uses a much better set of technologies IMHO, where allot of settings are in the mmi display anyway, 8P is fairly old now tbh, it started in 2003

Think we'll keep taking the A5 abroad for now!! Agree the 8P is getting old and due to be replaced in 2012 but a lot of the internals have been upgraded along the way from 8P1 to 8P3.. We had our first in Summer 2003, second March 2005, third March 2008 and BE on its way MArch 2011.

 

[NHN]

Agree the 8P is getting old and due to be replaced in 2012 but a lot of the internals have been upgraded along the way from 8P1 to 8P3..

They havnt upgraded any of the technology that much tbh, they've only really done mostly aesthetics, some minor tech upgrades, nowhere near as much as the A5, A4, A8, A6 etc with full mmi have, I would hope the new A3 would be substantially different tech wise, but knowing audi it will be lacklustre.

 

[Vertigo1]

Well the A1 is available with the full MMI 3G nav complete with 3D mapping and so on so it looks like it has all the latest tech as fitted to the higher models, which bodes well for the next A3.

Whilst I don't dispute that the tech in the A3 is a bit antiquated compared to the more recent models and even some other cars from the VW stable, I still think it's far superior to the vast majority of other brands. People that climb aboard mine never cease to be amazed at how well the nav/phone/audi systems work and how good they look, even compared to the likes of BMW & Mercedes.

 

[PilotAudi]

I agree with you Vertigo the Nav and phone functionality on the A3 is pretty good considering it's age and far more user friendly than the BMW or Mrc equivalent.

I am not that inpressed with Audi's latest HDD NAv on the new A4/A5 the earlier DVD version circa 2008 was far superior in my opinion.