A little tweak to the car.
As my car doesn't have the xenon lights and LED DRL's it gets a fairly poor halogen bulb powered DRL.
Decided to upgrade these to DRL's as I haven't had the DRL's turned on since I bought the car, they are not really worth using.
They use a strange bulb called a P13W which is actually a 13W bulb that is designed to have a very long life but are ridiculously expensive, something like £15-£20 each.
Because they last so long Audi must have thought that you wouldn't have to replace them very often so they used a moulded breakable cover over the bulb that needs to be cut out and then you use a rubber cover over the top to reseal the light.
These bulbs double as sidelights so if you had one out and took it to the dealer it would probably cost you something like £80 to change. Say the bulbs are £20, the rubber cover is around £14 and 30 minutes labor , mad.
Needless to say I didn't pay anything near those prices.
The bulbs I opted to use are badged as 50W CREE white LED bulbs, ordering them direct from Fleabay China and waiting 3 weeks is the cheaper option. I actually ordered 5 just in case I need a spare.
You can get less powerful ones but I figured that as these bulbs are monitored you need to pull a certain amount of current to avoid getting a bulb blown warning.I have checked these bulbs and they pull about 320mA (0.32A ), where as the original halogen ones are 1.2A .
I got them from this seller shop
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/2008mysky?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 and cost me £23 with the postage for 5 bulbs.
I measured the diameter that the cover would need to be and had a look on Fleabay. Found a seller doing 54mm rubber lens caps that seemed ideal. Ordered 4 for £11.40 .
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121331856914?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&var=420388425571&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
The proper cap is part number 8J0 941 607 and looks like this
The bulbs and caps I got
Audi fortunately make it very easy to remove the headlights, they even supply the tool in the tool kit.
(Borrowed this excellent picture from a user called Clear on Audizine.com )
I would recommend a new blade in your stanley knife to cut out the plastic covers. There is a thin line around the outside which is where you cut.
Heres one
And the other
The bulbs turn approx 20 degrees to lock and unlock. sometimes you have issues with LED bulbs about polarity, these bulbs work connected either way.
i found putting the new bulb in you located the bulb in the holder, then put the connector on. They are too long to fit with the connector attached. Fit that after you have installed the bulb.
The caps fit pretty well but don't grip tight enough for me so put a bead of silicone on the inside and fitted them.
If they need to come off the silicone won't be an issue.
And both caps fitted, hopefully won't need removing in the future.
This is one side done, If you didn't know the original dim orange one is on the left.
And both fitted
This is without the headlights on, they are a good deal brighter than the originals.
Took just over an hour to change them over including taking the pictures and chatting to the neighbour.
Been for a drive, done around 10 miles and no bulb failure notices so look like the car is happy.
Karl.