poor headlight a6

[seahunter]

dear audi friends, i have a 98model a6, the main headlights on this model, is in worst case poor, therfore i want to change for a better light, but i need suggestions on fitting substitutes, what can i change for, and where can i find the parts .

thanks in advance.

"poor norwegian audi owner !!""

[ini]

Not sure if you mean complete headlights or just bulbs.

I think your 98 A6 should already have projector headlights.
Something like this:
http://www.lltek.com/A6_4B_light_centr.htm

For upgrading bulbs for a brighter light either go for 'offroad' high output bulbs (probably not strictly road legal). H4 110/90w or H7 100w depending on headlight design.

Or one of the newer high output 42w HID kits. (twin H7 for projector headlights or H4 bi-xenon for older single bulb type headlight)

Before i fitted an HID kit to my A4, i had H4 115/100w 'Offroad' bulbs in my car, i must say that they were very bright and probably put more light on the road than my xenons.

Ebay is a good place to find cheap headlights and bulbs.

[gazza57]

Sorry to be a bit of a killjoy ini, but the two solutions you propose for seahunters poor headlights do have some snags attached to them.
The first using 110/90w lamps apart from being illegal for road use means you are drawing between 7.5 amps to 9.1Amps per headlight feed instead of the 4.6 amps you would draw from a conventional 55w lamp.
Now the cabling does have some safety margin built in to it as does the fusing so you may get away with it from a cable max current viewpoint but then you also have to consider that a lot of the switches are simply not rated to carry 100% more current than that for which they have been designed for any great length of time. The same can also be said for relay contacts, for example a relay may have contacts that can cope with 9.2amps (2X 55 Watt headlights@ 4.6 Amps) but probably would struggle with 18.3Amps (2X110 Watt headlights @ 9.1Amps).
In the short term, you might get away with this but as time goes on you will get switch contacts burning, and relay contacts welding themselves together.
I know of an individual who did this on a mk 4 golf, they uprated all the lamps to 100watt and added high wattage spotlamps and eventually welded the main beam relay contacts together and melted a loom. End result a rewire very expensive.

The second idea using an Xenon upgrade seems OK, but I looked into this for my A6 and it's not so straightforward as it might seem.
There are plenty of botchers/cowboys out there who'll tell you anything you want to hear and fit anything you ask them for the wonga but the facts are that any retrofit xenon lamps are not approved for use on the road and require different fixtures and fittings and therefore will fail an MOT test. There is also the additional hazard of high voltage usually 20,000 volts in Xenons so you have to know what you are about with these from a personal safety viewpoint.
Additionally, if you have lamp failure detection on your car this will aso see an Xenon lamp as an open circuit and further mods will be required.

I would purchase some high output lamps which are still 55Watts but have a higher lumens/watt ratio.
You basically get more light for your 55 watts than conventional lamps.

Gazza57

[ini]

Not sure what the Norwegian law on retrofit xenon's is, but it is probably stricter that the UK.

99.9% of MOT testers in the UK do not care if you have aftermarket xenons, with or without headlight washers and auto-leveling system, they are mainly concerned about correct headlight alignment. Seems to me that all the latest cars with Gen5 factory HID's dazzle oncoming drivers however they are set.

If you fit a higher wattage 'offroad' bulb it is allways sensible to use a heavy gauge fused & relayed circuit, direct from your battery to your headlight, and a localised grounding point. Any 'bulb out' warnings can be easily overcome with simple mod's depending on your model.

The first thing to try if your battery/alternator is ok and you have dim headlights is clean all the main earth/ground points within your engine bay. Also check/replace the factory wiring, which can degrade.

Apart from this a set of projector headlights made by a quality manufacturer HELLA/VALEO/BOSCH etc may give you a better beam pattern.

If you want people to start getting ready for work, because they think the sun has come up when you drive past, you will have to accept the 'Bond' style danger of replacing the odd relay. lol

Personally i would try a pair of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Off-Road-Rally...QQcmdZViewItem

Coupled with a relayed headlight harness like this:

http://www.eurowires.net/wst_page5.html

[gazza57]

It's clear ini, that you've every intention of doing the job properly, with upated looms/relay packs etc.
I merely wanted to point out that it's not a simple unplug/plug changeover that some HID sites would have you believe.
I would like more powerful headlamps but not at the cost of making major mods to the vehicle wiring but that's a personal thing.
I'm also not too keen on having headlights which dazzle oncoming drivers, I'm sure thats a tongue in cheek remark about people getting up as you drive by but what's the point really?
Gazza57

[ini]

The last bit was a joke.

I upgraded my headlights to an OEM projector type with HID's purely for the styling, not for increased light output.

The 'offroad' bulbs that i used previously did make a considerable, useful, and practical difference, and shed much more white light onto the road, without altering the appearance of the car or blinding other road users.

I ran them for around 3.5 years with absolutely no adverse effects to the car i.e melted wires or reflectors, burned switches etc. However they do run hotter and draw more power, especially if you use main beam for several hours.

My original wiring is still completely intact, although i had to make an adapter for my car to plug into my original loom connector in order to fit the later type S4 'ecode' headlights with a 'D' shaped connector.

The only real modification i had to perform was to a single wire in the loom going into the indicator/lights stalk, as my previous headlights were H4 and the new headlights were twin H7, this prevented the low-beam cutting out when i switched to full beam. (as it would on a twin element H4 bulb)

For a sensible and easy A6 light output upgrade try some Osram Silverstars:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OSRAM-SILVERST...QQcmdZViewItem