Low beam headlights

[Dave_Bounce]

Well peeps! I've been browsing this forum quite alot over the past few months and finally decided to join :D

I have a 2005 Passat b6 2.0tdi for the past five months and since I have it I have not been able to get a decent low beam pattern. I have tried almost everything in order to improve it but none of which were hugely successful.

- I replaced the bulbs which made no difference
- Aligned the low beams which made no difference
- Upgraded to 35w hids with 4300k bulbs which improved a small bit
- Upgrade to 55w hids which seemed the same as the 35w
- Cleaned out the inside of the projecter lens with cloth on a wire as I could see it was a bit dusty but didn't make any difference
- Checked that the bulbs are sitting properly in the housing which they are (mine are the Hella brand)

Although there is considerably more light from the HIDs, they still are not even close to the light output from that of a standard halogen low beam on other cars.

What could be the reason for this? I brought my car to a mechanic who said he can't figure out why this is but just to try getting new headlamp units altogether. Has anyone else had the same issue or know what is causing this?

Thanks

[patomlin76]

Hi

Make sure you're not comparing different types of headlights. The Passat uses a projector-type from behind a lens, whereas other cars use reflectors which appear brighter but spread the light differently. If I were to compare my lights to that of my wife's Ford Focus Mk1, her headlights always seem to appear brighter when driving at night but they also tend to spread the light a bit more haphazardly, whereas my Passat's lightbeam is more concentrated and direct. And because the bulb is behind a lens, I've found any subtle differences in the bulb (i.e. blue tip/50% brighter etc...) is countered by the fact the light is passing through a convex lens in the first place.

I'd hazard a guess that you have nothing wrong with your lights, unless they look dull compared to another Passat. A previous car of mine, the Mazda6, also had projector headlights but they were pants. The Passats are much better!

[micheal balbrig]

Could it be possible that your lamps were for lhd model
You should expect to get a horizontal line that angles upwards at one end with dipped beam on.
Regards
Michael

[Dave_Bounce]

Thanks for the replies!


patomlin76 I completely agree with you about what you are saying with the projector lens compared to the reflectors but unfortunately that is'nt the problem. I've compared my headlights with other passats and there is a noticeable difference in light. Looking head on with halogen bulbs in mine they look extremely weak next to another passat with halogen bulbs, with hids in mine they seem almost as bright but still not as they should. The main problem I have is that there is very little light being projected onto the road, even on dark country roads...the light being projected seems to be of the same pattern as another passat but the intensity of the light is considerably dimmer.


micheal balbrig they are definately RHD headlamps, they do project a horizontal line upwards at one end with the dipped beam but as said above the intensity of light is the problem

[rapport25]

Thanks for the replies!


patomlin76 I completely agree with you about what you are saying with the projector lens compared to the reflectors but unfortunately that is'nt the problem. I've compared my headlights with other passats and there is a noticeable difference in light. Looking head on with halogen bulbs in mine they look extremely weak next to another passat with halogen bulbs, with hids in mine they seem almost as bright but still not as they should. The main problem I have is that there is very little light being projected onto the road, even on dark country roads...the light being projected seems to be of the same pattern as another passat but the intensity of the light is considerably dimmer.


micheal balbrig they are definately RHD headlamps, they do project a horizontal line upwards at one end with the dipped beam but as said above the intensity of light is the problem

I find my hids excellent!! Are yours seated correctly? Also are they a cheap kit.
I agree with Pat. Projector give off a different beam compated to reflector. Your issue is news to me.

[Dave_Bounce]

I find my hids excellent!! Are yours seated correctly? Also are they a cheap kit.
I agree with Pat. Projector give off a different beam compated to reflector. Your issue is news to me.

Yeah they are seated correctly I checked them with a mirror as its to tight to look in properly...my headlights are the hella brand which is just a matter of lining up the base of the bulb with that on the housing and pushing it in. Also my HIDs are a very good kit, ive tested them on my friends 2003 a4 which also has projectors and they gave off an excellent beam...the problem seems to be an issue with the projector unit in my own car whatever it is...

[rapport25]

Yeah they are seated correctly I checked them with a mirror as its to tight to look in properly...my headlights are the hella brand which is just a matter of lining up the base of the bulb with that on the housing and pushing it in. Also my HIDs are a very good kit, ive tested them on my friends 2003 a4 which also has projectors and they gave off an excellent beam...the problem seems to be an issue with the projector unit in my own car whatever it is...

Very strange, Sounds like your headlights :-(.

[Doctle Odd]

Might sound like a silly question but do your headlights look like they have cataracts? If so, a temporary cure is to polish them but really they have to be replaced

[micheal balbrig]

Only other suggestion I can make is to check to see if you have battery voltage at bulbs
I had this light intensity problem with my A3 on dipped beams
I cleaned up all earths and fitted relays to restore lost power (through resistance etc) and found a big improvement in light output. (Halogen projector dipped beams)
Regards
Michael

[Dave_Bounce]

Might sound like a silly question but do your headlights look like they have cataracts? If so, a temporary cure is to polish them but really they have to be replaced

The passenger side headlight does look like it has cataracts but only very slightly...ive rubbed the outer plastic on the headlamps with rubbing compound to clean them and cleaned the inside of the projector lens with a cloth attached to a piece of wire.


Only other suggestion I can make is to check to see if you have battery voltage at bulbs
I had this light intensity problem with my A3 on dipped beams
I cleaned up all earths and fitted relays to restore lost power (through resistance etc) and found a big improvement in light output. (Halogen projector dipped beams)
Regards
Michael

I will check all the earths tomorrow and see if there is a problem with any of them. Only thing is I have a feeling this isn't the problem as when I take the bulbs out of the headlamps and have them switched on there seems to be quite a good amount of light off them...the problem only seems to arise once I have them fitted back into the headlamp itself...it's as if there is something partially blocking the light coming through the projector or maybe its something wrong with the projector lens itself. I only have the car five months and have this problem since purchased, maybe the person who had the car before me was messing around with the headlights and damaged them or something?

Thanks for all the suggestions much appreciated!

[Quatrelle]

Can you compare the clarity of your car's lenses with another Passat, ideally a newer one? Being plastic (polycarbonate), they can loose their clarity, especially if the previous owner was careless. Visors for m/cycle helmets are made of the same stuff - I only ever cleaned mine with warm soapy water and a soft cloth. Wiping across them with a gloved finger when riding in rain eventually ruined them, so if the previous owner just cleaned them with a cloth when dirty...

There are companies that will polish them back to original, and it's possible that doing it yourself can make things worse.

[Dave_Bounce]

Can you compare the clarity of your car's lenses with another Passat, ideally a newer one? Being plastic (polycarbonate), they can loose their clarity, especially if the previous owner was careless. Visors for m/cycle helmets are made of the same stuff - I only ever cleaned mine with warm soapy water and a soft cloth. Wiping across them with a gloved finger when riding in rain eventually ruined them, so if the previous owner just cleaned them with a cloth when dirty...

There are companies that will polish them back to original, and it's possible that doing it yourself can make things worse.

I polished the outside and as best I could the inside of the headlights and the clarity has really improved...unfortunately the intensity of the lights haven't. I said in an earlier post that I have Hella headlights which I was told by a VW garage, however I went looking around the lights today to find in fact a Valeo sticker on the headlights! With a hand held mirror I had a look at the inside of the housing...there is no metal clip to hold the bulb in place, is there not ment to be a metal clip that goes over the back of the bulb in the Valeo?...Maybe this is the reason my light output is so poor?

[RichardSEL]

Cut your losses. Put a pair of Osram Nightbreaker Plus in there. All for £12 about a pair, delivered

The bulbs have been fingered leaving grease on their glass bulbs. In the operating heat this hardens clouding the bulb glass. But is difficult to see when bulb is removed. It can be removed with Servisol or Maplins switch cleaner, or iso-alcohol

I've got the Alldata Valeo .pdf here, and the Hella one. But can't attach due to site restrictions. PM me your e-mail address and I'll file attach. Shows construction

[Quatrelle]

...I've got the Alldata Valeo .pdf here, and the Hella one. But can't attach due to site restrictions. PM me your e-mail address and I'll file attach. Shows construction
You beat me to it. I've got some pdfs but I'm guessing they're the same as mine.

[Dave_Bounce]

Cut your losses. Put a pair of Osram Nightbreaker Plus in there. All for £12 about a pair, delivered

The bulbs have been fingered leaving grease on their glass bulbs. In the operating heat this hardens clouding the bulb glass. But is difficult to see when bulb is removed. It can be removed with Servisol or Maplins switch cleaner, or iso-alcohol

I've got the Alldata Valeo .pdf here, and the Hella one. But can't attach due to site restrictions. PM me your e-mail address and I'll file attach. Shows construction

I don't think the bulbs would be the issue...I had 6000k HIDs in mine but change to 4300k last week and made a conscious effort not to touch the glass on the bulb for this reason when I was installing them.

I'm starting to guess that maybe for some reason the bulb isn't reaching in as far as it should. With halogen bulbs installed on my passat there is significantly less light of them, both on the road and to look head on at compared to another passat with standard halogens parked next to me. With the hids the light is improved (obviously because hids are brighter) but still are not fully as bright as another passat with halogens. Maybe because I don't have the metal retaining clip that is supposed to be on the base of the bulb for the valeo headlights?...Even though the bulbs seem to be secured well and are put in correctly.

RichardSEL and Quatrelle thanks for your help!

[rapport25]

I don't think the bulbs would be the issue...I had 6000k HIDs in mine but change to 4300k last week and made a conscious effort not to touch the glass on the bulb for this reason when I was installing them.

I'm starting to guess that maybe for some reason the bulb isn't reaching in as far as it should. With halogen bulbs installed on my passat there is significantly less light of them, both on the road and to look head on at compared to another passat with standard halogens parked next to me. With the hids the light is improved (obviously because hids are brighter) but still are not fully as bright as another passat with halogens. Maybe because I don't have the metal retaining clip that is supposed to be on the base of the bulb for the valeo headlights?...Even though the bulbs seem to be secured well and are put in correctly.

RichardSEL and Quatrelle thanks for your help!

Its funny you mention retaining rings. My first set of hids had them. My new set I had fitted has the same base as a normal bulb and simply sping in to locked position. These seem to be a lot brighter. But it could just be because they are new:-):-) They are a lot more secure.

[Caxap]

Valeo headlights have a plastic adapter to which you fit your bulb, then whole assemble screws inn to headlight housing. Hella has got clip inn system.


Poor output could indicate poor placement of a bulb, contaminated lense, and rarely ... due to overheating inside walls of projector bowls. Damaged flaky projector bowl walls usually happens due to overheating (55w hid?) or just bad luck with quality of concerned unit.


Checking voltage current would be very first step, before going into more advanced maintenance.

[Dave_Bounce]

Caxap yeah I'm currently using a 55w hid but this is only in the last few weeks. When I bought the car the previous owner had hids in them...when I checked them out though I noticed that for some reason they had 9006 bulbs in place instead of the proper h7 bulbs...why they did this I just don't know?!?...My guess would be that maybe because the 9006 bulbs would not have been installed correctly (obviously because they wouldn't fit properly) that they could have been been touching off the inside walls of the projectors and thus damaging them...

I noticed you have retrofitted a bi-xenon projector...did you notice much of a different in your light output after this?...Was it a difficult job to do?...And was it costly?

[RichardSEL]

You beat me to it. I've got some pdfs but I'm guessing they're the same as mine.

You have PM

[Caxap]

Dave_bounce, most probably your car has got Valeo lights I assume, and that's the very reason previous owner couldn't properly fit ebay xenon bulbs. As plastic holders being too tight, those adapters need some few mm dremeling out for bulb to fit. Even then that wouldn't guarantee proper snug fit as intended. Most probably he mod'ed harness with different bulb holder? Can't say for sure as didn't see it. Most probably old owner being tight arhse he might just transferred hid from other car.
Some other folk bought better quality bulbs and eliminated fitment problem.
The thing is with eBay hid kits, they're generic copies and at times they aren't what advertisement says. So problems if arise could be complex starting from errors to burnt out projector walls and god forbid electrical spikes and consequences of it to wires etc.

Complete retrofit is cheaper than OEM bixenons with levelling/cornering and washer systems, and understandably more expensive than eBay kits.

Perfomance wise, specific projectors blow out of the water budget xenons and give very good run for the money most prestigious and latest cars.

My retrofit costed me £380 all in. As sales have finished it may cost more.

[Dave_Bounce]

You have PM

got the pdfs in mail thanks mate!...always useful to have :D

[headlightregen]

Its the reflecting unit inside the headlight that is burned out, its possible to exchange it and we supply new ones on ebay.
When you exchange it headlight produce light like NEW!

[Dave_Bounce]

Its the reflecting unit inside the headlight that is burned out, its possible to exchange it and we supply new ones on ebay.
When you exchange it headlight produce light like NEW!

Pity I didn't know this a week or two ago. Got two new headlight units and replaced my old ones. Light output is very good now...they are the depo units which were about half the price of the hella or valeo ones. There housing is black so gives a more sporty look to the car and with 55w 4300k hids in them it lights up the whole road :)

[Quatrelle]

Pity I didn't know this a week or two ago. Got two new headlight units and replaced my old ones. Light output is very good now...they are the depo units which were about half the price of the hella or valeo ones. There housing is black so gives a more sporty look to the car and with 55w 4300k hids in them it lights up the whole road :)

Can you post a link to the depo units you used? - mine are ok but you never know!

[Dave_Bounce]

these are the exact units I got...light output is greatly increased with them :biglaugh:
VW VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT B6 2c HEADLIGHT 3c 2005-2010 BLACK HEADLAMP LH+RH (1 PAIR) | eBay (http://www.ebay.ie/itm/VW-VOLKSWAGEN-PASSAT-B6-2c-HEADLIGHT-3c-2005-2010-BLACK-HEADLAMP-LH-RH-1-PAIR-/230673493061?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item35b5362c45#ht_4869wt_1271)

[Doctle Odd]

The look the Mutts Nutts