Taking a grinder to my A4 tomorrow!

[DriveByShooters]

Well i've finally bit the bullet and decided to stick 99.5 B5 one piece headlights on my car.

Wiring all done, headlight adjusters all working....just need to get a grinder to the inner lip of the front wings now!

Wish me luck!!!

 

[aragorn]

heh ive got this to do to mine soon too, the first pair i baught from ebay one was damaged, so im waiting on another one arriving.

One of my front wings is damaged atm anyway, im wondering if i can fit facelift replacements?

 

[DriveByShooters]

Depends on the year of your car dude. Mine is a 98 and should have seperate headlight and indicators. I fitted Angle Eye conversion headlights (one piece units)and they went on fine without wing mods.

 

[Siena]

heh ive got this to do to mine soon too, the first pair i baught from ebay one was damaged, so im waiting on another one arriving.

One of my front wings is damaged atm anyway, im wondering if i can fit facelift replacements?

Facelift wings will fit fine.

 

[DriveByShooters]

heh ive got this to do to mine soon too, the first pair i baught from ebay one was damaged, so im waiting on another one arriving.

One of my front wings is damaged atm anyway, im wondering if i can fit facelift replacements?

Sorry dude, read your reply wrong. Thought you meant the headlights..

 

[Broken Byzan]

The wings will need modding if they are pre facelift. Some of the angel eye headlights even if they are one piece are made to fit around the lip on the wing.

Do yourself a favour and remove the lip almost completly instead of just removing a bit of it as the light just wont fit right.

Anyway back on topic, you won't be dissapointed they are a good mod and work much better than the original ones and the angel eye type also.

 

[DriveByShooters]

Yeah my angels went on without wing mods. The Angels do look good and i still like them, but i've done them now and just want something different.

 

[Markey]

Thats the next thing i need to do get the adjustment working.

 

[Siena]

Glad you're replacing the halo lamps with OEM.

I personally don't like the halo-type lamps at all, on anything other than a BMW.

 

[Siena]

For the amount of metal that has to be removed, i'd be inclined to use a Dremel or similar.

An angle grinder's a bit extreme - if the blade suddenly bites, before you know it, you've sliced right through your wing.

You'll have more than enough room to fit 3 facelifts headlamps per side then.

 

[DriveByShooters]

All done, went without a hitch. Dremel was far far too feeble so grinder it was....with care of course.
Angels over OEM? well each to there own. I like both, just wanted a cleaner stock look now, i've done the angels bit.

 

[Markey]

I used a grinder as long as you have a good hand its not a problem.

 

[DriveByShooters]

I used a grinder as long as you have a good hand its not a problem.

:thumbsup:Agree!

 

[joost]

One of my front wings is damaged atm anyway, im wondering if i can fit facelift replacements?

If your car is pre-facelift, the wings will fit fine and so will the headlights but the side repeaters won't be the same if you don't replace both wings - the pre-facelifts have a small, square repeater whereas the facelifts have a larger, trapezium(ish) shaped repeater (IIRC). The pre-facelifts also have a small Audi badge towards the lower edge of the wing towards the door that I think is absent on the facelifts.

Just my two penneth!

 

[aragorn]

i think i'll just grinder the wings for now to get the headlights in, and will keep my eyes open for a clean pair of facelift wings and get them sprayed up when i can afford it.

The lack of the audi badge and the side repeater will make it look a bit fresher too which is a bonus.

 

[Nessy]

The pre-facelifts also have a small Audi badge towards the lower edge of the wing towards the door that I think is absent on the facelifts.

That's just the earlier cars, the later pre-facelifts (think 98-onwards?) dont have the Audi badge......
Having fitted OEM Valeo facelift headlights to my '99 pre-facelift Avant I would say that it is a worthwhile mod as it cleans the front end of the car up immensely.
Just one word of warning though, I had PIAA H4 bulbs in my original (pre-facelift ) Valeos and the headlights were pretty damn good, when I changed to the facelift Valeos (which take H7 bulbs instead) I installed new PIAA bulbs and was really disappointed with the performance.......
Beam pattern is lovely and crisp (probably due to the projector headlight design), but the overall headlight performance is defo worse than the old glass-lensed pre-facelift Valeos.
Do a search on this forum on this topic and you'll see others have complained of this before too.....
If you do go ahead and fit facelift Valeos, it is quite easy to wire up the facelift headlight adjustment motors to the pre-facelift wiring loom (the wire colours are different on pre and post-facelift cars!) , and to overcome the fact that dipped beam goes out when main beam is selected ....more details here........

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=41297