Are the headlight connections to same?

[Staz]

Does anyone know is the socket on the back of your headlight the same whether it's xenon or not?? Next year I will have to change my xenons for normal lights to pass a roadworthiness inspection in Germany.

P.S My car buying agent today told me there is a 7% discount on S models. He recieved the email today. I didn't want to start a new thread just for this btw

 

[JohnS3]

So that story I was told about no discounts to keep the resale values high is a load of crap? Oh I forgot, I live in the UK so I just have to pay more.........

 

[h5djr]

Does anyone know is the socket on the back of your headlight the same whether it's xenon or not?? Next year I will have to change my xenons for normal lights to pass a roadworthiness inspection in Germany.

If you are referring to normal halogen headlights and the current Bi-Xenon headlights then the answer is No, the are not the same.

Here are some illustrations from the workshop manual showing the back of the Bi-Xenon headlight and the back of the Halogen headlights. Also note that the Bi-Xenons provide both dip and main beams in the same unit, whereas with the halogen they are individual units. The wiring connections are totally different as well with the halogen units wires connected directly onto the end of the bulb whereas with the xenons it's a single multi-pin connection to the headlight unit.

halogen - main beam
halogen - dip beam
B-Xenon

Hope these help. Why will you existing headlights not pass the test?

 

[Staz]

If you are referring to normal halogen headlights and the current Bi-Xenon headlights then the answer is No, the are not the same.

Here are some illustrations from the workshop manual showing the back of the Bi-Xenon headlight and the back of the Halogen headlights. Also note that the Bi-Xenons provide both dip and main beams in the same unit, whereas with the halogen they are individual units. The wiring connections are totally different as well with the halogen units wires connected directly onto the end of the bulb whereas with the xenons it's a single multi-pin connection to the headlight unit.

halogen - main beam
halogen - dip beam
B-Xenon

Hope these help. Why will you existing headlights not pass the test?

The pictures don't illustrate what I mean but I think what you said it what I wanted to know. I'm not refering to the connection to each bulb. I'm refering to the multipin block connecter on the back of the whole unit. I don't have xenons on my current car so I don't know what the connection is like. What is the connection to xenons like?

My next car will have xenons and to pass BFG (British Forces Germany) roadworthiness test you must change your headlights to continentals, or in the case of xenons change them to the flat beam (with VAG.COM). After 31 Mar 08 flat beam will no longer be acceptable. I already have a set of continentals so I need to now how easy it'll be to fit them to a xenon fitted car.

Thanks for the help so far though

 

[h5djr]

I don't have xenons on my current car so I don't know what the connection is like. What is the connection to xenons like?

I've just had a look at my Xenons and each one seems to have a single multi-pin connector. I have just taken a photo of each of mine and also added a PDF about how to remove and replace the headlight units themselves. The multi-pin connect socket is shown on the original B-Xenon picture in my previous post, just above the number 1.

Xenon 1
Xenon 2
headlights - remove and replace

If you need anything else - just ask.

 

[Staz]

Well that's extremely kind of you Dave, I thank you wholeheartedly.

The connector looks the same as on mine, however it's at 90 degrees for some reason. I guess I'd need to see the wiring diagrams to be sure that it's all ok electrically.

I recently changed my headlights so I know how to do it but thanks for the how to anyway.

 

[alfiejts]

I've swapped Halogens for the original Xenons (ie not bi-Zenon) and I can confirm that the wiring is different!

The plug is the same but the pins are wired differently - all to do with the levelling motor which is different between the Xenons (auto levelling) which is a different 4-wire motor and Halogens (3-wire manual height control).

Easiest way (I found) was to swap the adjustor motors over inside the headlight, so that you're still using the original ones that were designed for your car and to connect them up inside the headlight to the same pin connections as they were originally fed from (disregarding the colour coding, which won't match...)

 

[Staz]

Right thanks for the help there Alfie. Just opened my headlight up and it looks pretty easy to swap motors, or do a rewire. Couple of questions though. Where is the sensor for the self levelling on Xenons? And the 4 wires go into the motor yes? But where from? I'm guessing 2 from the block connector and 2 from the sensor.

Problem is, swapping from halogens to xenons would be piece of ****, the other way round isn't so easy. Think I'm going to have to get my multimeter out and work out what voltages go on which pins and then I can replicate it.

Or I could unclip the motor connection to the headlight and make it so the lights are always at their highest setting without any adjustability. That would be a bit easier.

 

[JohnS3]

Where is the sensor for the self levelling on Xenons?

There are two sensors, one on the front and one on the rear suspension. There's also a black box that makes sense of the signals and tells the headlamps to go up or down.

Hope this helps.

Regards, John.

 

[Staz]

There are two sensors, one on the front and one on the rear suspension. There's also a black box that makes sense of the signals and tells the headlamps to go up or down.

Hope this helps.

Regards, John.

They do make things overly complex don't they?!

Where is that little black box John?

 

[alfiejts]

But you shouldn't need to worry about the sensors, as all the wires route through the big oval multi-pin coinnector from the wiring loom.

If you swap the levelling motors over inside the headlights so that you keep the same motors before and after, all you need to ensure is that you make a note of which pins on the headlight connector each wire of the motor was connected to before and make sure that when you transfer your existing motor to the new headlight, you connect each wire to the same pin, even though the wire colours will be different.

There will then be two hefty wires running inside the headlight to the ballast connector, which you'll have to cut and simply conect to the back of the halogen bulb....

One other complication though is that the levelling motor mounts are different and I had to do quite a bit of faffing about to swap the motors and mounts over and to get them to fit inside the housing, because of the different size and shape of the Xenon and halogen assemblies inside the headlight case.

 

[Staz]

Ok thanks alfie. Making them non adjusting is going to be far easier and means I can sell the continental lights on without them having been played with! Thanks for the infor though.