Xenon bulbs

[DaveG]

Im thinking of changing my headlight bulbs on an A4 02 to Xenons, is it a straight forward swap for standard bulbs or does it require some kind of kit or something?

[Dave Avant]

Yes it requires a kit. You can't get Xenon bubls and pop them in, they need ballast units to fire them when switching on. They require about 20,000volts to fire up, this why on the ballasts you see a warning sign about electric shock. Once started they use less power (35W) than normal (55W) bulbs. They also work with the bulb failure computer, some kits give failure warnings as Xenon bulbs don't have a filament or direct current through them. They basically arc between 2 points, bit like a welder.

I bought a Xenon kit for £145 and its much much better than halogen lights. Easy to fit. Once you've had Xenons you won't go back!!

I took some pics if you're interested in seeing the difference.

[Dave Avant]

Heres a couple of piccies of my kit half fitted. You can see the difference in light emitted. The close up is of the indicator bulb which is silver looks much better than orange.

[DaveG]

Thanks Dave, I fitted some Xenons last week buy one get one free (£20) for the two which are 50% brighter than standard bulbs and are pretty good for the money. Obviously not as bright as the ones you have but without the need for the kit.

[Houdini Dog]

Where did you buy your kit from, how much was it and how difficult was it to fit ?

[Dave Avant]

Where did you buy your kit from, how much was it and how difficult was it to fit ?


I got the kit from http://www.turborevs.org.uk/ On offer at £145, there are cheaper kit on ebay, but there are alot from China.

So long as you have a torx set (and drill) to remove the headlights its dead easy. you have to put a hole in the back of the headlight cap to feed the new wires through. Comes with instructions anyway.

[tony_anon]

Were the ones you got for £20 from halfords? If so, were they easy to fit or did halfords fit them? I think they call them SB (SuperBrilliance).

Did you replace the main beam as well as the dipped? What about the fogs?

Cheers.

[DaveG]

Yes Halfords, the offer was on for last month only (November) but could still be on as they do extend these things, the bulbs are SB Super Brilliance code H7 50% brighter. I changed the driving beam bulbs, I couldent see the point in doing the parking lamps or full beam as my aim was to improve vision while driving at night. I did it myself, Its a fiddly job but not difficult just work your way towards the rear of the headlamp moving cables, clips etc. at the back of the headlamp the cover is removed by pulling off a retaining clip, the bulb simply pulls off but does require some leverage, put your new bulb in with a latex glove on so you dont get grease from your fingers on the bulb as this shortens its life, the air intake is easily moved on the left side of the engine compartment to access the rear of the headlamp.

Dave

[tony_anon]

Thanks for that. I'm a bit useless when it comes to maintenance!

Will halfords fit them? Or if I buy them from there, do you think I could get a local (approved) garage (not dealer) to do it? e.g. local Nationwide Autos.

[Gaz the Cab]

Thanks for that. I'm a bit useless when it comes to maintenance!

Will halfords fit them? Or if I buy them from there, do you think I could get a local (approved) garage (not dealer) to do it? e.g. local Nationwide Autos.

Halfords will fit them for a normally small fee.

[DaveG]

Thanks for that. I'm a bit useless when it comes to maintenance!

Will halfords fit them? Or if I buy them from there, do you think I could get a local (approved) garage (not dealer) to do it? e.g. local Nationwide Autos.

It would be straight forward job for a local garage if I can do it...:biglaugh:

[tony_anon]

I guess the Halfords ones won't work with the bulb failure computer? i.e. ECU?

Dave Avant: Which bulbs did you get in total? Main, Beam?, Sidelights? Fog? Its £145 for each kit? e.g. H7, H1, H4?

Cheers.

[DaveG]

No problems with the bulb failure system ECU at all, as long as the wattage is the same you will be fine.

[fatblokescanfly]

Has anyone tried these Bosch HID (High Intensity Discharge) Xenon replacements ? - on ebay.de item no #330060387877
Include ballasts etc and all wiring loom inc. del EUR137

Looks good value to me.....don't want to splash the cash until I'm sure though.

I've just upgraded my headlight which look really nice but they are pretty crappy in the dark

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e351/fatblokescanfly/DSCF0936.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e351/fatblokescanfly/DSC_1711.jpg

[Dave Avant]

I guess the Halfords ones won't work with the bulb failure computer? i.e. ECU?

Dave Avant: Which bulbs did you get in total? Main, Beam?, Sidelights? Fog? Its £145 for each kit? e.g. H7, H1, H4?

Cheers.

I got the kit for the main headlight (dipped beam) (H7). If you wanted to put Xenons on the main beam you would have to buy another kit - H7 again I think. Side lights I got Philips Blue vision bulbs as these even make the std side light bulbs look yellow.

Bulb failure warning is also fine with this kit. The Xenon bulbs are 35W as oppose the halogens at 55W. I didn't connect the kit on one side properly and got a RH bulb failure, push the plug in properly and all was well. The bulb failure detects the circuit current/resistance I think, as I thought the kit would give a failure as the Xenon bulbs don't have a filament giving a direct current like the halogens.

[Dave Avant]

Has anyone tried these Bosch HID (High Intensity Discharge) Xenon replacements ? - on ebay.de item no #330060387877
Include ballasts etc and all wiring loom inc. del EUR137

Looks good value to me.....don't want to splash the cash until I'm sure though.

I've just upgraded my headlight which look really nice but they are pretty crappy in the dark



The 'Upgrade' bulbs are an improvement normally, but you can't beat Xenons.

They look good, and a good reliable make if genuine. But this is a kit that needs a separate power source (ie battery), these tend to be cheaper and more wiring is involved although not anymore technical. The Kit I installed uses the power from the actual headlight making it slightly neater and easier.

[tony_anon]

Thanks for that. So if I want to convert Main Headlight (dipped), Main Beam, Fogs (I guess also H7?), that would cost 3 x 145 quid = £435!!

I guess if you compare with the xenon optional extra on new cars (about £900 I believe), its about half the price, maybe worth it.

[Dave Avant]

Yep!!

I've just got a parking sensor kit too, much cheaper than the cost when new.

Also upgraded my roof bars to aluminium from black for a few quid - £125 option!!

So after Christmas I'll have added over a £1000 worth of extras for much less than £200!! :D

Also got the tuning box upgrade too - 90mpg at 50mph and a better dart to the redline. Got a few more mods planned at Christmas too.

[tony_anon]

90 mpg @ 50 mph?! Wow!! How did you do that? Chipped I guess but how/where can it be done?

Cheers.

[DaveG]

90mpg ! WOW? HOW? WHERE?...tell us more Dave Avant

A mate of mine has changed his air mass meter and says things have improved but he`s not getting 90 MPG

[Dave Avant]

Its just one of the 'boxes' from ebay, like TDi tuning and Tunit but without the branding. About £50 to buy upto 25bhp xtra and 50NM of torque.

Only time will tell if the computer reading is correct. Obviously the 90mpg was doing 50mph on a flat motorway and pressing reset to get an instantaneous reading, started at 200mpg, but it seemed very consistant at 55mph hovering around 81mpg for some miles!! :D . I was consistently averaging 45mpg before, but now with the box its levelled out at 56mpg, this is with mixed driving and some heavy right foot testing the extra power. :D I normally get about 580miles to a tank - driving to work, mixed urban - what do you guys get? Will report back when this tank is finished with the tuning box in place, but I am using the xtra oomph!! Pulls more cleanly to over 4,000rpm.

Exhaust and intake mods next - this should give extra power again and mpg. Doing this over Christmas. Also heard cleaning (very carefully with leccy contact cleaner) the MAF which can make things better as some can 'dirty' within a few thousand miles, also the EGR valve and maybe the intake and intercooler - diesels aren't the best for cleanliness especial with recirculating valves!!

To me coming from a big 2.5 V6 car to the 1.9 TDi makes it seem like the car is running on nothing. The V6 was lucky to see 320miles to a tank!!

[DaveG]

Audi Diesels are amazing cars dont you think? well built, quick and economical with the bonus of looking like the dogs wotsits, iv converted a few mates and they cant understand how they are so good but no one raves about them. Audis seem to come out average in the reliability ratings which I cant agree on they are very reliable for me.

Dave Avant let us know if this amazing MPG is for real, do you think the computer could be getting fooled by the chip?

[fatblokescanfly]

Whats this got to do with Xenons????

Any how if you can't beat them join them i say.....

My 2003 5cylinder 2.5TDI VW T4 888special Xpack only kicks out 88bhp as standard but by adding an intercooler and changing the all important injector nozzles and having a rolling road live remap done by the super special wayne at chipwizards I am now producing a very smooth and economical 155bhp a massive gain of 67bhp and its very reliable non clutch renching gains to boot......very pleased.

Anyhoo back on track.....what do you know about these bosch xenon hid kits?

:beerchug:

[Dave Avant]

Whats this got to do with Xenons????

Any how if you can't beat them join them i say.....

My 2003 5cylinder 2.5TDI VW T4 888special Xpack only kicks out 88bhp as standard but by adding an intercooler and changing the all important injector nozzles and having a rolling road live remap done by the super special wayne at chipwizards I am now producing a very smooth and economical 155bhp a massive gain of 67bhp and its very reliable non clutch renching gains to boot......very pleased.

Anyhoo back on track.....what do you know about these bosch xenon hid kits?

:beerchug:

He he sorry, don't know anything about the Bosch HIDs, but Bosch are a good make so long as it not some copy from China, but they are the direct power fed units which I'm not sure whether they are better or not, but most kits tend to take power from the headlight loom.

(I'll keep you posted DaveG - did speak to member on here who has one on his TDi 100 and reported an mpg improvement.)

[DaveG]

Cheers Dave Avant can you let me know exactly which "box" you got from ebay?

[tony_anon]

MAybe this should be a thread on its own right!

How easy was it to attach the tuning box? Did it come with instructions?

I've seen a few on ebay and there seem to be to 2 plugs coming out of the box. Where do they plug in?

Cheers.

[fatblokescanfly]

I personally ran one of the tuning boxes on the non PD 5cylinder TDi until oil pump failure. Not sure but it could possibly be linked, if the map was bad and it boiled the oil it would result in sludging thus clogging the entry meshing. Unfortunately this resulted in the need for a full brand new engine....

[DaveG]

I personally ran one of the tuning boxes on the non PD 5cylinder TDi until oil pump failure. Not sure but it could possibly be linked, if the map was bad and it boiled the oil it would result in sludging thus clogging the entry meshing. Unfortunately this resulted in the need for a full brand new engine....


But whats that got to do with Xenon bulbs????? ;)

Couldent resist...:beerchug:

My mate has fitted one of these "boxes" and he is happy with it, faster, a bit more torque, MPG slightly better but my concern is the revving in the "red" surley this is not good long term for the engine without doing some damage? As I said in an earlier post changing the Air mass meter was a good improvement for his car and the advice to change it came from an Audi technician.

[fatblokescanfly]

The cost to fix my problem caused by a sludge up oil pump mess resulting in big end wear at only 48,000miles on a 3year old was £4500.

Spend a few hundred pounds and get it live remapped...do it properly

There is honestly no comparison between a tuning box and a live remap which actually cost me £350..... it was an amazing transformation throughout the rev range........take it from me I've done the tuning box!!! ;)

[Dave Avant]

I personally ran one of the tuning boxes on the non PD 5cylinder TDi until oil pump failure. Not sure but it could possibly be linked, if the map was bad and it boiled the oil it would result in sludging thus clogging the entry meshing. Unfortunately this resulted in the need for a full brand new engine....


This would be an oil pump failure, the tuning box or remap wouldn't affect this.

[Dave Avant]

But whats that got to do with Xenon bulbs????? ;)

Couldent resist...:beerchug:

My mate has fitted one of these "boxes" and he is happy with it, faster, a bit more torque, MPG slightly better but my concern is the revving in the "red" surley this is not good long term for the engine without doing some damage? As I said in an earlier post changing the Air mass meter was a good improvement for his car and the advice to change it came from an Audi technician.


Only the driver can make it rev into the red!! :D

[Dave Avant]

Spend a few hundred pounds and get it live remapped...do it properly

;)


Have to agree with you there!! :beerchug:

But, £40 as oppose £250+ You might not get the finesse of the remap, but it adds that bit more for not very much.

DaveG, mine is the mrmcbuk PD Pro box. It fit in a few minutes. Remove engine cover and remove plug and plug box in.

[fatblokescanfly]

It is possible to relate one to the other i.e if you have a peaky power curve and thrash it around it is possible to increase the oil temp beyond good run capacity thus boiling the oil and increasing sludge. :biglaugh:

[DaveG]

Only the driver can make it rev into the red!! :D

Point taken Dave but its difficult to rev into the red on a standard set up and for a reason, I know Iv tried:p I suppose modern engines are over engineered and can take it, especially Audis :approve: maybe Im being overcautious as you dont hear of theses boxes causing many problems do you?

[fatblokescanfly]

Yes..............
You here of lots of problems associated with these boxes as they fool the fuel pump into thinking they need more fuel!

Maybe its just a case tha you do not know what you are on about (other than basic EGR and MAF) but are just trying to justify you cheap expenditure!

[Dave Avant]

It is possible to relate one to the other i.e if you have a peaky power curve and thrash it around it is possible to increase the oil temp beyond good run capacity thus boiling the oil and increasing sludge. :biglaugh:


Absolutely not. If you thrash it, yes the oil temp will go up, but not considerably more with the box fitted. If you managed to boil the oil, then tell me how as the engine would have blown long before, not to mention a blown cooling system. Any temp increases would be noticed in the water temp first. I think you had a faulty pump or had neglected maintenance, nothing at all to do with the box. It is highly difficult to get the oil to sludge up unless you put dirt and crap in the oil.

The oil can safely go to 150 degrees C, normal driving will see about 110 and high speed motorway will see about 120-130.

[Dave Avant]

Point taken Dave but its difficult to rev into the red on a standard set up and for a reason, I know Iv tried:p I suppose modern engines are over engineered and can take it, especially Audis :approve: maybe Im being overcautious as you dont hear of theses boxes causing many problems do you?

If its difficult to rev upto the redline then I think maybe something is wrong. I did rev TOO the redline NOT into it which is at 4,500rpm before fitting the box, now it makes a cleaner pull at higher revs. There isn't any actual need to rev to the redline anyway as the engine won't make any more power after 4,000rpm. :D

[Dave Avant]

Yes..............
You here of lots of problems associated with these boxes as they fool the fuel pump into thinking they need more fuel!

Maybe its just a case tha you do not know what you are on about (other than basic EGR and MAF) but are just trying to justify you cheap expenditure!


If you could point us in the direct of these problems? Yes they may put more fuel in, but a diesel engine will only increase in revs and power only when fuel enters the engine unlike a petrol engine which has a throttle to control revs and power, obviously you can't just shove a ton of diesel in and expect 1000bhp. The boxes that increase the fuelling on petrol engines are best avoided as these cause bore wash as the air intake volume isn't increased this creates a rich mixture. On a diesel as the revs increase with the fuel entering the turbo also boosts more hence why some say the box doesn't 'directly' affect boost pressure. With a diesel you can tell when its overfuelling as it basically smokes alot, its 'safer' with a diesel to tune as unlike a petrol esp. a turbo that will carry on revving even if the mixture is lean, a diesel won't.

I'm in no way saying a box is as good as a remap, I would have a remap and may do in the future, but for now I trying out the box. My parents have a tunit box on their motorhome which is well know in the diesel fraternity and that cost £400!! about the same as a remap.

Remap benefits are basically fine tuning like advancing retarding the timing, increasing boost pressure and obviously fuel, this is why a remap will give more power. A tuning box can't just shove more fuel in as it wouldn't give an increase in mpg. I'm not professing to know exactly how the box works, but there are plenty of people with them on all different makes of vehicles.

Now to be honest the only thing I have noticed recently is that the idle can be lumpy when warm, but it was doing it slightly before and after a bit of reasearch it does seem common with the VAG diesel and I have also swopped fuel brands. If it is the box then I will say here!!

[fatblokescanfly]

To be fair oil pump failure is quite common on VW Audi's but Injecting more fuel using the stock injectors inherently extends the injection period later in the power stroke, so exhaust temperature will go up during prolonged operation at greater than the stock power output.

[tony_anon]

Dave Avant, how is the box doing? Any probs? What mpg have you got out of it so far? How much does it increase the bhp by?

Cheers.

[fatblokescanfly]

Why don't you just send him a PM?

[1970Paul]

Re Xenon's and tuning boxes.

Xenon filled replacement lamps (proper name for bulbs) are not the same as HiDs.

You can retrofit HiD's using a kit that costs over three hundred quid for a decent one. Sadly, it's illegal to do so with the British motoring and type approval regulations. Quite why it should be illegal to fit something that enhances vision and visibility is beyond me.

As for tuning modern diesels, please, please do not mess about with plug in boxes. They just fool the car's engine management into delivering more fuel by means of distorting the input from other sensors.

Get a proper remap; not a generic one for the engine in your car, but one that is customised to YOUR engine, in your car, driven by you.

The difference is massive. A good ECU tuner will lift the code and stored data from your car, and examine it with you.

A good remap starts with examining ECu gathered data from your car of X thousand miles. Looking where the flat spots are, gear usage, driving habits etc. Flat spots are ironed out by changing fuel and boost (up or down) to get a really even response.

Next, parameters can be changed:......

Increase fuel pressure closer to max earlier in the rev range - a good remap will NEVER exceed max design fuel pump (rail) pressure. Just make it higher a bit sooner. Why? Because the pilot and main injection cycles can occur closer together in time.

(Turbo) boost pressure can be increased sympathetically by quite a few percent, obviously rolling off later but more steeply at the higher end of the rev range.

Fuelling is increased under acceleration to match the air the extra boost has made available.

Then the whole lot is again smoothed off to give a very linear response (no flats or peaks).

It's a very scientific process; matched with the tuner's art you get a car that drives exactly as you want.

They can even change accelerator pedal response curves (ie. short sharp response; alternatively a very modest response until you bury it in the carpet)
to suit you (or your shoe size).

A custom remap has turned my lively 136bhp Peugeot 2.2 HDi into a 192bhp (calibrated dyno test) sporty saloon. Consider that it's also now offering 325lbft (also dyno tested) torque you get the idea.

Yes, it goes:

30-50 in third about 3 seconds;
50-70 in fourth about 4 seconds;
0-60 (the obvious one) under 8 without trying too hard!!



Strangely (or not) it also does far better MPG's in my hands than in factory tune. It's been remaped for the last 50,000 miles and everything is fine.

No plugin box is ever going to offer this kind of stability and reliability.

Regards,

Paul.

[richard@thebrae]

For all you guys retrofitting Xenon kits take a look at this info sheet from the DT and Transport.(Her Majesty)

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/drs/hidheadlamps

and hope your local Bobbies or MOT testers are not very savvy.