Some new pics of the car and Fog Light mod.

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aragorn

"Stick a V8 in it!"
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So i've been working on painting various parts of the car for a bit, starting with the joey modded facelift headlamps, and now the wheels and facelift grille.

I wanted to wash the car and take some decent pics, but the weather hasnt been good enough, so i just took some quick snaps while we were out for a walk the other day and i thaught i'd post them up to see what folk think.

http://lr90.org/Audi/060109/car1.jpg
http://lr90.org/Audi/060109/car2.jpg

Also while out yesterday i noticed we had a sidelight bulb out, so when changing it i decided to check all the bulbs on the car while i was there, they all seemed fine, bar the nearside rear fog. Took it apart to see what was wrong and found no bulb, and no hole in the cluster for it. Seeing as one fog looks a bit crappy i decided to see if the lens actually had a reflector inside and was just missing the hole for the bulb. After attacking it with a screwdriver and hammer i found the bits i'd broken out had nice chromeness on the inside of them, so i set to with various brute force implements to make the hole large enough for the bulb. Put it all back together and it works perfectly. Only problem was that after all that, i discovered i didnt actually have a spare bulb to put in it, so i'm still fogless on that side, but i'll pick up a bulb at some point this week to finish it off.
Some pics:
http://lr90.org/Audi/060109/fog1.jpg
http://lr90.org/Audi/060109/fog2.jpg
 
Looks a lot more symmetrical with 2 fogs, I must say.
 
im sure that car was recently for sale wasnt it?

rear fog mod looks good; ive been tempted to do that to mine.

whats the lagality on have two rear fogs? i assume its all OK?
 
nah car wasnt for sale recently?

We baught it from ebay about a year ago.

Twin rears is fine, as is one on the offside or one in the centre. One on the nearside isnt though.
 
aye it does, i also made an **** of the grille when fitting it. I couldnt get the bonnet to release properly, it seemed like the little handle that pops thru wasnt pulling out far engouh, so once i finally got the bonnet open i decided to file a little bit of the plastic away from the rear of the louver the handle was hitting. The file hit the edge of one of the rings and took the paint off :(
 
aragorn said:
aye it does, i also made an **** of the grille when fitting it. I couldnt get the bonnet to release properly, it seemed like the little handle that pops thru wasnt pulling out far engouh, so once i finally got the bonnet open i decided to file a little bit of the plastic away from the rear of the louver the handle was hitting. The file hit the edge of one of the rings and took the paint off :(
Click to expand...

You can bend the metal on the arm of the release so it doesn't come through the grille and you just reach it by putting your fingers under the bottom lip of the bonnet.. works well on mine.

..Or does the black bit on the handle form part of the standard grille? Can't remember.
 
a combination of the filing and bending it down a little made it all work nicely, just a bummer i caught the edge of the rings.

I'll spray up the rings on the grille i removed the swap them over when i get a chance!
 
Just done the fog light mod on my 1999 Avant.

Dead easy, remove lens, drill out top hole from the rear with a cone cutter, fit bulb and put back together. Took all of about 15 mins !!

As far as legality goes, no problems whatsoever in dual fog lights.
 
That is the "proper" way!
 
Whats involved in changing thse headlights then? I have the 2 piece ones on my car, and keep seeing the one piece ones (and the China stuff on fleabay) but do not understand the Xenon, HID, projector differences etc, and am I correct in thinking that some lights require some form of self levelling mechanism to be fitted?

Can someone explain please?
 
The ones on my car are halogen projectors. Just takes a normal H7 bulb and uses the normal dash mounted levelling switch. No legal problems there, but you do need to take an angle grinder to your wing to make them fit pre-facelift cars.

The HID ones are the same externally, but have HID bulbs instead of the H7 and a ballast bolted to the underside. These require automatic self levelling and washers to be fully legal.

If you want to fit the halogen versions, you need the light units and a bit of the wiring loom of a facelift car (the plug on the rear of the light unit is different), and thats it they'll fit straight on. HID versions will also fit straight on, but you'd need the light unit, ballast and wiring, however they wouldnt be strictly legal without the self levelling parts and the washers.
 
I remember the gold old days when proper cars ALWAYS had two rear fogs, and two reversing lights. Can't really figure out why they threw symmetry out the window, having one makes it look like you have a bulb out.

Also, what is up with the sheer number of fools out there who still have at least one blown headlamp bulb?

Sort it out!
 
Funny you should post those pics because I was looking to paint my wheels the same colour. :)

Or is it just dirt lol? Looks good either way!
 
nickkeyser said:
im sure that car was recently for sale wasnt it?

rear fog mod looks good; ive been tempted to do that to mine.

whats the lagality on have two rear fogs? i assume its all OK?
Click to expand...

My car has always had 2 rear fogs, maybe because it was a german import?.. Nice to see a facelift grill on there, I've been considering that myself, now I've got a better idea I think I'll go ahead! When I get some money.
 
OK, well I was so impressed with the look of aragorn's rear fog light mod, I thought I'd have a go myself. However I dont actually know what the mod is, I've seen people taking dremmels to the rear light cluster inside mooulding etc but I dont know what else is required. I have been and boughta couple of fog light bulbs, I have a holder in place for it on the passenger side, and I even have a hole already in the rear light cluster, see pics :



And this is a pic of the rear cluster



whats next ?
 
I think your mod may be as simple as fitting the bulb into the holder where one is missing !!

After I had cut out my rear lens hole to accept the bulb, thats all I had to do
 
I think your mod may be as simple as fitting the bulb into the holder where one is missing !!

After I had cut out my rear lens hole to accept the bulb, thats all I had to do
 
Well I did just try installing a bulb and it fits fine and the cluster goes back in no problems, but I get no fog light. Ive tried different bulb also to see if that was at fault, but nothing. Hence why I'm asking if there is anything else I need to do ?

Thanks for your help.
 
Are they the right kind of bulbs?

when i did it the only bulb i had had two pins on the bottom, instead of one... and it didnt work, however when i moved the bulb from the indicator to the fog it came on fine.

I presume the offside fog works?
 
yer I bought a set of two new bulbs and the one in the offside is a new one and the other that came in the packet was in the nearside. I also tried the old offside bulb and that didnt work either, but yes they have two pins and they should be the right bulb..
 
Dave DND said:
OK, so projectors seems the way to go then

What and how much needs to be attacked with the grinder then? Is access easy enough?
Click to expand...

It's really simple. Once you get by the initial fear of taking an angle grinder to your pride and joy, (aye the car, not the missus:laugh:) it's quite straight forward. With the lights off the car there's a small metal lip on each of the wings, this is how the existing separate indicator locates. You must make this go away by using a fast abrasive spinning type implement. :rockwoot:
You'll need new 8 pin plugs for the facelift lights which will need to be wired into to the existing loom. (The existing wiring for the indicator will suffice). Two ways you can do this is a)Get the light harness off a facelift B5 b) get all the individual bit's from Audi and build your own. I did b) because I could find a).

It's basic electronics just matching the wiring from the loom to wires inside the headlamp.
 
are we still talking foglights or headlights ;)
 
Ah, I was just getting back to Dave DND about his headlight upgrade query. Absolutely nowt to do with the foglight upgrade, wrong end of the world! Although I'm sure there's a tech article out there for the rear light mod too ;)...
..You know, I never knew that A4 B5's only had one rear fog 'til I read this post.
 
dieselfitter251 said:
Ah, I was just getting back to Dave DND about his headlight upgrade query. Absolutely nowt to do with the foglight upgrade, wrong end of the world! Although I'm sure there's a tech article out there for the rear light mod too ;)...
..You know, I never knew that A4 B5's only had one rear fog 'til I read this post.
Click to expand...

TA DAAAAAA!!!!!

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/ext33.shtml
 
Thanks alot for that, that has kind of helped alot in that , that is exactly what I have done and it still doesnt work. I wonder if I have a dodgy connection somewhere, I might try and meter the connections tommorow and see if im getting anything from the cluster back plate.

Thanks Dieselfitter for finding that, thats been a great help.
 
Lol... I didn't even know if that link was there, I was looking for something else. I didn't mean anything by it honest!!!!

What I was thinking about your mod though is, how is your earth for the bulb, where are you getting your live feed from? I've not looked at the back of mine as I've got two but how do the other bulb earth, connect into the circuit? It may be that if it's got to contact against the cluster plate, the particular part of the plate a)doesn't have power or b)isn't a good enough connection?
 
H2o-uk said:
yer I bought a set of two new bulbs and the one in the offside is a new one and the other that came in the packet was in the nearside. I also tried the old offside bulb and that didnt work either, but yes they have two pins and they should be the right bulb..
Click to expand...

Shouldn`t the rear fog light bulbs be a 21W bulb with a single pin ?

If you have two pins on the base of the bulb, then you have a stop/tail 21W/5W bulb instead - and that will not work !!
 
dieselfitter251 said:
It's really simple. Once you get by the initial fear of taking an angle grinder to your pride and joy, (aye the car, not the missus:laugh:) it's quite straight forward. With the lights off the car there's a small metal lip on each of the wings, this is how the existing separate indicator locates. You must make this go away by using a fast abrasive spinning type implement. :rockwoot:
You'll need new 8 pin plugs for the facelift lights which will need to be wired into to the existing loom. (The existing wiring for the indicator will suffice). Two ways you can do this is a)Get the light harness off a facelift B5 b) get all the individual bit's from Audi and build your own. I did b) because I could find a).
It's basic electronics just matching the wiring from the loom to wires inside the headlamp.
Click to expand...

Thanks !! Going to give that a go for certain.

Electronics is the easy bit for me - just wasn`t sure about the physical shapes etc.

So, do all of these projector style headlight conversions come with the motors also for the height adjustment then? I`m not talking of auto levelling (although may be the same mech - not sure) but I have the little thumbwheel on the dash for height adjustment. Do I have to be aware of anything special when looking out for some replacement lenses then?
 
Hmmm not sure if they come with the motors from new, I got my lights off ebay and they were slightly damaged and with no motors. The motors are quite pricey from Audi, (dealer only part) about £50 I think? maybe £25 each, can't remember. If you can get a set off a breaking B5 with headlight adjustment already on, it'll save you time & money. If you do have to add the motors later (which incidently aren't interchangeable with the pre-facelift lights) it's a fidley job to get them in but not impossible. I delegated that job to my dad while I was grinding the wings. ;O)

If you manage to get genuine Valeo units you should have no problems. Some of the afetr market units have been prone to fogging etc due to poor quality seals. An advantage of some aftermarket units is that they will work directly with pre-facelift cars without any need for grinding or wire chopping...

Original example....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Set-AUDI-A4-99-01-european-headlamps-headlights_W0QQitemZ370115052897QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item370115052897&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A3%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUDI-A4-99-01...3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:3|39:1|240:1318

other options....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUDI-A4-95-99...3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:3|39:1|240:1318

These are marked 95-99, so you would assume that they would fit a pre-facelift B5 without modifactions. Always best to check as Assume makes and *** out of 'u' and 'me'

:O)

Just notice, so your '99 B5 must be just pre-facelift, a late S reg or something?
 
the fog light needs a single Pin bulb, two pin bulbs will not work.

I used the single pin bulb from the indicator to test the fog.

As for aftermarket lamps, dont bother. The projectors are *****, and the beam pattern you'll get is completely ****.

You want proper valeos, preferably from a breaking A4 so you get the motors and the wiring loom plugs too.
 
aragorn said:
the fog light needs a single Pin bulb, two pin bulbs will not work.

I used the single pin bulb from the indicator to test the fog.

As for aftermarket lamps, dont bother. The projectors are *****, and the beam pattern you'll get is completely ****.

You want proper valeos, preferably from a breaking A4 so you get the motors and the wiring loom plugs too.
Click to expand...

^^^2nded
 
audi upgrades
This has turned out to be a very interesting thread........
I have twin rear foglights on my '99 model Avant, but didn't need to do any more than simply fit a single filament 21W bulb to the nearside rear light bulb-holder?
No cutting, no wiring up of anything, just a simple bulb insertion. Previous owners of my car were not 'enthusiasts' at all, so can only assume it came this way from the factory????
Regarding the projector light debate; I'd like to signal caution to those keen about changing from pre-facelift to facelift headlights.
I've done the swap from pre-facelift to OE Valeo facelift headlights on my car and despite using PIAA bulbs in both sets of headlights (H4 in the pre-facelift and H7 in the facelifts.....) I personally found the light output/penetration much better in the H4 (ie pre-facelift) headlights than on the facelift lights.....
Don't get me wrong, I love the look of the facelift lights , and can't believe I waited so long to retro-fit them, but in my experience the performance of the later Valeos is not as good as the old glass-lensed pre-facelift Valeo units.
I've recently fitted a 4300K HID kit to my car and the colour etc of the Xenons is great , but despite being correctly aligned I still wouldn't say the headlights are now fantastic.....
 
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