Possible to have Audi xenon lights fitted

Clano

Hi Lads and Ladettes, ill be buying an 08 A4 pretty soon, its by far the best model i have found and iv really fallin for it.
Its pretty top of the range but the only thing its missing is the xenon lights.
All im wondering is it possible to have them, fitted by the Audi garage or someone else and how much mula would we be talking???
Thanks lads any help would be great:D

colm_mcm

Cost from Audi will be bonkers, strictly speaking theyll need to be self levelling and have headlamp washers to be legal.

You can get aftermarket conversion kits of varying quality

Clano

colm_mcm wrote: »

Cost from Audi will be bonkers, strictly speaking theyll need to be self levelling and have headlamp washers to be legal.

You can get aftermarket conversion kits of varying quality

Yeah i'v seen a few of the various types available on the net but i'd love the official ones seen on some of the Audi's around.

The ones i mean are just instead of the dimmers not the full so im not sure theyd need to be self levelling
http://www.google.ie/imgres?q=audi+a4+xenon+lights&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&biw=1280&bih=681&tbm=isch&tbnid=PcM9QaZTiu0tPM:&imgrefurl=http://paultan.org/2008/06/27/audi-a4-18t-b8-launched-in-malaysia/&docid=WFXR2pbeZpB4wM&imgurl=http://images.paultan.org/images2/B8_Audi_A4_Launch_1.jpg&w=450&h=314&ei=3wcKT9S5AZOxhAfml_mZCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=777&vpy=165&dur=375&hovh=187&hovw=269&tx=147&ty=78&sig=114541183435797783436&page=1&tbnh=159&tbnw=229&start=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0

I'd say it would cost a bomb alright, just want the car to be perfect:D
Cheers

-Corkie-

colm_mcm wrote: »

Cost from Audi will be bonkers, strictly speaking theyll need to be self levelling and have headlamp washers to be legal.

You can get aftermarket conversion kits of varying quality

Why would you need washers Colm.

mickdw

Its possible but there is a fair bit of work involved to retro fit the genuine audi xenons with LEDs. There are a few on the A5 owners club who have done it on A5 and it should be a pretty identical process on the current model A4.
You also need to fit the headlight washers as is law when you have xenons. This will require a new bumper or some very careful alteration to the exisitng bumper, also headlight washer units and an additional headlight washer pump for the washer bottle. There is also some coding to be done via vagcom.
Look up jonnieB on A5OC.com - He carried out this mod on an A5 as the uk A5 didnt have the xenon as standard. Alternatively, there must be some A4 websites with details Im sure.
Audi dealers have little interest in this type of stuff and will tell you its not possible probably

Clano

Sound Mick,
Sounds like a bit of a balls of a job i thought it might be just as simple as buying 2 new headlight sets and getting a car electrician to fit them. Sh!t

colm_mcm

-Corkie- wrote: »

Why would you need washers Colm.

Legal requirement IIRC

Clano

http://www.oemplus.com/headlamp-retrofit-eu-bixenon-p-1001.html

Ah Fcuk that lads!

Cheers anyway

TestTransmission

colm_mcm wrote: »

Legal requirement IIRC

Mine have been removed on my car and passed the NCT without any issue.

colm_mcm

TestTransmission wrote: »

Mine have been removed on my car and passed the NCT without any issue.

Absolutely, I'm not saying they're an NCT fail.

vectra

TestTransmission wrote: »

Mine have been removed on my car and passed the NCT without any issue.

You mean you removed OE Xenons and fitted Halogens?
I cannot see any problem there TBH

TestTransmission

colm_mcm wrote: »

Absolutely, I'm not saying they're an NCT fail.

I know yeah but makes no sense though when you think about it.Are they a NCT fail when fitted but don't work?

vectra wrote: »

You mean you removed OE Xenons and fitted Halogens?
I cannot see any problem there TBH

Nope, the washers have been removed.

nogoodnamesleft

I investigated retro fitting it to my VW Passat a while ago. It was cost prohibitive I would have to get headlight washers, self levelling headlights, sensors on the front suspension and link the whole lot into ECU and perform the necessary programming. Whole lot would cost the bones of 1000euro

Instead I got a kit on line as I have projector lenses the light isnt scattered as in come of the boy racer cars.

Here is the thread I wrote regards when I fitted it:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055860560


My car had the NCT last week and it passed on the headlights with the HID kit fitted.

Sadly my front passenger shock is on the way out and it failed on the imbalance (32%) limit was 30% . It will have to get retested when I return home.

mickdw

Its not worth the hassle IMO. I forgot to add that self levelling function is also required on xenons - more messing.
Id look for a car with the xenons instead.
You would be looking at 2 to 3k Id say and then find someone who can do it all for you. Hazzydayz in the uk are a good one stop shop for this kind of stuff on a vw/audi

heate

If it doesn't have Xenons don't bother trying to fit them or replacing the head lights with HID kits or whatever crap people find necessary to blind ther drivers with!
Xenons are fitted to cars with self levelling adjustments to avoid blinding others. Xenons in EU are normally always fitted with headlight washers as well.
In the US BMW's standard Xenons do not always include washers.
What is so wrong with the standard A4 headlights.

colm_mcm

heate wrote: »

What is so wrong with the standard A4 headlights.

they don't look as cool.

mickdw

I figure the OP wants the xenons because they are the ones that come with the LED drls. The non xenon a4 has terrible drls which appear to be 3 yellowish sidelight bulbs.

heate

colm_mcm wrote: »

heate wrote: »

What is so wrong with the standard A4 headlights.

they don't look as cool.

Ha if you want a cool Audi buy an A5 sportback!
The A4 only looks marginally cool on ginormous wheels with the s-line exterior with the fancy drl's

bazz26

The A4 Sport model has LED DRLs and Bi-xenons as standard afaik.

vectra

heate wrote: »

Xenons are fitted to cars with self levelling adjustments to avoid blinding others.

Xenons ( HID's) can be fitted to cars with Projector lights as well. not for the reason of blinding others but to make an improvement over the standard ones.

ardle1

Hi sorry jus a wee bit off Thread,,, but can any of you tell me if I can fit 6000k bulbs to a 8000k Hid Xenon kit..

langdang

ardle1 wrote: »

Hi sorry jus a wee bit off Thread,,, but can any of you tell me if I can fit 6000k bulbs to a 8000k Hid Xenon kit..

Please do! Better yet, go a little closer again to 5000k

langdang

colm_mcm wrote: »

heate wrote: »

What is so wrong with the standard A4 headlights.

they don't look as cool.

Surprised there isn't a paddy special with the "prestigious" lights and a hobo spec interior (other than the prestigious dashboard)

vectra

ardle1 wrote: »

Hi sorry jus a wee bit off Thread,,, but can any of you tell me if I can fit 6000k bulbs to a 8000k Hid Xenon kit..

If you are finding the 8k's too blue then you need at least 5k's as said above.
Better still if it light quality you need then fit 4200's, they are as close to oe you wil find.

JoeA3

If you haven't bought the car yet and xenons are a must-have for you, then I would strongly advise waiting and finding another car that has them factory fitted! I have them on my car and aside from the fact that they look a lot better than halogens, they are also far more effective at their actual purpose - lighting up the road. Mine even bend around the corners! The auto-levelers are also very important, or you risk blinding everyone on the road. I notice, for example, that if I'm going down a steep hill, my headlights automatically dip upwards... and vice versa if I go up a hill.

Retro-fitting xenons is both eye-wateringly expensive and very labour intensive, definitely not a casual DIY job.

Every second A4 on the road seems to have them anyway, I think they are standard fit on the Sport models. So there must be plenty of A4's with them factory fitted available for sale.

vectra

JoeA3 wrote: »

If you haven't bought the car yet and xenons are a must-have for you, then I would strongly advise waiting and finding another car that has them factory fitted! I have them on my car and aside from the fact that they look a lot better than halogens, they are also far more effective at their actual purpose - lighting up the road. Mine even bend around the corners! The auto-levelers are also very important, or you risk blinding everyone on the road. I notice, for example, that if I'm going down a steep hill, my headlights automatically dip upwards... and vice versa if I go up a hill.

Retro-fitting xenons is both eye-wateringly expensive and very labour intensive, definitely not a casual DIY job.

Every second A4 on the road seems to have them anyway, I think they are standard fit on the Sport models. So there must be plenty of A4's with them factory fitted available for sale.

A) NOT correct..
If a HID kit is fitted to a car that has Projector lamps as standard then you will not blind anyone providing your lights are correctly focused.


Are you sure every second one has them?
My car came with projectors fitted with Halogens when new.. They gave the impression to some people that they were Xenon's because of the blue tint they gave off. I put HID's into it and never had one issue with them

JoeA3

vectra wrote: »

A) NOT correct..
If a HID kit is fitted to a car that has Projector lamps as standard then you will not blind anyone providing your lights are correctly focused.


Are you sure every second one has them?
My car came with projectors fitted with Halogens when new.. They gave the impression to some people that they were Xenon's because of the blue tint they gave off. I put HID's into it and never had one issue with them

On point (A), I was talking about retro-fitting xenons without fitting the required auto-levellers / ballasts and the washers. Projectors are a different thing entirely... I don't know much about them.

On point (B), yes, nearly every other new-shape A4 I meet on the roads has them. As I said, the "Sport" models have them as standard, and a lot of the A4's are probably in Sport trim. The wavy LED DRL's are a bit of a give-away. There are 3 of them in my work carpark!

daRobot

To the OP:

Just get a good HID kit, and use 4300k bulbs and you'll get the effect you want.

Providing that they're aligned correctly, you'll have no issues, as you've projector headlights.

I think people are getting confused with HID kits being fitted to reflector headlights which are a different matter entirely.

ardle1

Hi sorry I'll ask again,, jus wanna know can I put any bulb with any ballast,,
I have a 8000k kit,, but SEPERATELY I have 6000k Bulbs,, which I got in the past. Gonna install this weekend,,
Thanks for all your help in advance.

vectra

ardle1 wrote: »

Hi sorry I'll ask again,, jus wanna know can I put any bulb with any ballast,,
I have a 8000k kit,, but SEPERATELY I have 6000k Bulbs,, which I got in the past. Gonna install this weekend,,
Thanks for all your help in advance.

Are they all 35 watt?
That is the only thing I could think of for now.

jayok

vectra wrote: »

A) NOT correct..
If a HID kit is fitted to a car that has Projector lamps as standard then you will not blind anyone providing your lights are correctly focused.

If your car has Halogen Projector lamps, fitting a HID bulb into this lamp will most certainly alter the standard halogen beam pattern and potentially dazzle on-coming drivers.


A correct HID Projector lamp will shape the beam correctly provide proper cut-off and if that type of lamp is aligned correctly, will not blind oncoming drivers.

The amount of misinformation about HIDs is astonishing.

vectra

jayok wrote: »

If your car has Halogen Projector lamps, fitting a HID bulb into this lamp will most certainly alter the standard halogen beam pattern and potentially dazzle on-coming drivers.


A correct HID Projector lamp will shape the beam correctly provide proper cut-off and if that type of lamp is aligned correctly, will not blind oncoming drivers.

The amount of misinformation about HIDs is astonishing.

Can you back up those comments?
Or is it all in your head..:P

jayok

vectra wrote: »

Can you back up those comments?
Or is it all in your head..:P

Physics 101 - the focal points of lens et al.

This guy does a much better job of explaining it:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html


Also, and light sources such as HID or Halogen fitted to automobiles with reference luminous flux of 2,000 lumens or more need to have both washers and self-levellers fitted under European Regulation ECE R48

http://www.unece.org/trans/main/wp29/wp29regs/r048r5e.pdf


So what makes you think they are ok - or is it all in your head? :cool:

tossy

It's not as expensive as you might think.The main cost/prohibitive factor is the availability/price of second hand xenon headlights,you would need to scour on-line owners forum classifieds and UK breakers for them.

After that you will need a set of adapters to plug them in halogens are 10 pin while OEM xenons are 12 pin.

Not sure of specifics on modern A4s but the re coding could easily be done by anyone with VCDS.

I wouldn't care about self leveling or washers,on my old bora i had unplugged the self leveling as the car was lowered beyond the range of the sensor and the washers were crap as both of them squirted together so at night it was akin to turning of your dims

langdang

jayok wrote: »

Physics 101 - the focal points of lens et al.

This guy does a much better job of explaining it:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html


Also, and light sources such as HID or Halogen fitted to automobiles with reference luminous flux of 2,000 lumens or more need to have both washers and self-levellers fitted under European Regulation ECE R48

http://www.unece.org/trans/main/wp29/wp29regs/r048r5e.pdf


So what makes you think they are ok - or is it all in your head? :cool:

danielstern wrote:

In many lamps, especially the projector types, the cutoff will remain the same regardless of what light source is behind it

To be fair, if the cutoff is right I'd say you're 90% there - it's HIDs thrown into normal reflector housings that are the problem (I suspect H4 fakey bi-xenons are the worst culprits)

vectra

jayok wrote: »

If your car has Halogen Projector lamps, fitting a HID bulb into this lamp will most certainly alter the standard halogen beam pattern and potentially dazzle on-coming drivers.

I have mine done/
Original lamps are projectors.
Fitted a HID kit myself and coded to suit
Got the levels checked.
You are welcome to come and point out to me if and where they are doing something to affect other drivers and I will take them out.

jayok

langdang wrote: »

To be fair, if the cutoff is right I'd say you're 90% there - it's HIDs thrown into normal reflector housings that are the problem (I suspect H4 fakey bi-xenons are the worst culprits)

Yeah, the H4 are the worst by far, H1 and H7 improve the scatter but it's still there.

One thing to remember with the cut-off on Halogen projectors is that it's a lot less sharp than a HID projector. The HID projector gets away with this because the light source is much brighter. There tends to be light "bleed" on the cut offs with Projectors and this improves visibility (See Image in next post)

jayok

vectra wrote: »

I have mine done/
Original lamps are projectors.
Fitted a HID kit myself and coded to suit
Got the levels checked.
You are welcome to come and point out to me if and where they are doing something to affect other drivers and I will take them out.

So you fitted a HID bulb to an existing H1/H7 projector and you believe all is ok? I don't doubt it was aligned correctly, but the problem is the scatter pattern. This is what will dazzle drivers.

I don't need to do much to demonstrate this. Point you car towards a wall and take a photo of the light patten shown. Compare this to a proper HID enclosure with proper cutoff (taken from another site)



If you are still stuggling with this, post the photo here and I'll show where you scatter pattern is causing an issue.

jayok

Actually, I'll save you the hassle. From www.hidretrofits.com

Above the line is where you will dazzle drivers...

vectra

To be fair my ones look more like the firs pic and nothing like the scattering in the second one. I have a clean cut line on mine. I dove a similar model while I was waiting for my car to arrive from the factory and it had Factory Xenon's fitted. I cannot see any difference to the extent you are implying between both to be honest.

jayok

The might look like the first one, but you will still have scatter above the cutoff. This is inevitable as H1/H7 projectors are designed to have such scatter as the main beam will bleed into this space for better visibility. This is not required with HIDs as the light source is much brighter.

pippip

jayok wrote: »

Actually, I'll save you the hassle. From www.hidretrofits.com

Above the line is where you will dazzle drivers...

I might be misreading it but according to your link that appears to be a hid bulb fitted in a reflector headlight, not a projector. so you cannot compare the two examples you have provided.

jayok

pippip wrote: »

I might be misreading it but according to your link that appears to be a hid bulb fitted in a reflector headlight, not a projector. so you cannot compare the two examples you have provided.

Ok, so, how about you prove me wrong? I've provided all the evidence in this instance.

langdang

That's a very sharp cut off on the real-deal HID kit jayok!

I'd be very interested to see some beam shots from a projector lamp originally fitted with filament bulbs, but now with a HID kit.

A H7R kit in a reflector headlamp too, if anyone has them.

Gumbo

jayok wrote: »

Ok, so, how about you prove me wrong? I've provided all the evidence in this instance.

I'd imagine the fact that they include this large image in the piece you quoted, would lead me to believe they are showing you the incorrect fitting of HID into reflector housings.

jayok

langdang wrote: »

That's a very sharp cut off on the real-deal HID kit jayok!

Yep - it really is that sharp. There is no light-bleed to ensure drivers are not dazzled. It also explained the need for self-levellers, not only to ensure that they are not too high, but also too low.

kceire wrote: »

would lead me to believe they are showing you the incorrect fitting of HID into reflector housings.

Possibly, I don't know what the original housing was. My point was to demonstrate the difference between the cut off and the scatter pattern.

A lot of people believes halogen projectors are fine for HID bulbs, but yet no-one seems to do the proper research. Please, if I am wrong, point where? Provide the evidence.

jayok

Acutally this guy has provided the shots with a HID in a Halogen Projector.

Third photo down.

http://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-second-generation/416422-why-i-can-never-go-back-to-hid-kits-in-halogen-projectors-pic-intensive.html

langdang

I really did think that the optics of projectors meant that the cutoff was the cut off and there was no scattered light or glare higher than that.

Previously I had just accepted that any blinding from cars I knew to have projectors was down to lights deliberately set too high, or 55W kits rather than 35W (or whatever the two choices are).

Hmmmm

Still interested to see beam patterns from any boardsies with retrofitted HIDs

ardle1

vectra wrote: »

Are they all 35 watt?
That is the only thing I could think of for now.

Yes they are all 35watt.is that all I have to look out for Vectra.

vectra

ardle1 wrote: »

Yes they are all 35watt.is that all I have to look out for Vectra.

Yes.

Media999

I recently got a set of Xenons from http://www.xenons.ie/ for my Audi.

Best thing i ever bought for the car. Makes a massive difference.

Took about 15 mins to fit. Just a matter of plugging out old lights and plugging in Xenons.

at 74.99 Delivered it was well worth it aswell.