Headlight Problems - Anyone else?

[kennym999]

For a while have had a problem with the headlights, they were not giving out adequate light on unlit roads. Fitted blue vision bulbs which helped but still not a good amount of light to the front (just brighter). Took my car in to garage today who told me lights are fine (according to MOT light allignment) and they claim that when you put it beside another Passat mine look dimmer . She states that allignement is fine. I state that I have put better bulbs in. She states they are not VW. I state they are brighter. She states that they are not VW and lights are fine. I state that they are not, I dont disagree with what MOT tester says, however I have to drive the car at night and its not fine (also let slip at this time that I am a traffic cop and I drive a variety of cars at night and lights are no where near as bad with lesser qaulity bulbs). She states that she drives a variety of cars too...... im puzzled as to how this relates to and will solve my issue . She also states that bulbs fade over time which might explain why I wanted to change them. The car was less than 2 years old when I changed them. I doubt that a qaulity brand like VW would use such poor bulbs that would dim in less than 2 years. Long and short of it is that the car is going in over night and a 'trained technician' will take it home and drive it in the dark. Im quite concerned as Im a bit **** about my car and I dont want soming driving it who wont look after it.

Feel a bit better to get it off my chest but my problem is not cured and I fully anticipate that they will say it is fine. They offered to let me buy new VW bulbs to try and see if they work..... that was nice of them. Anyone else suffered the same issue?

[james_tiger_woo]

Ahhhh

Been there, done that.

Are the bulbs in and rotated properly? It can be very hard to align them as I found - the bulbs have to be a certain way up and it's wasy to get it wrong:

https://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/s...ad.php?t=41631

This might help too:

https://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/s...ad.php?t=38602

[kennym999]

Yep, going to prob fit HIDs when warranty expires next year. Cant wait till then to get lights sorted though. Hopefully VW guy will be realistic as opposed to just agreeing with the person on the service desk and mechanic that 'checked' them.

[james_tiger_woo]

Yep, going to prob fit HIDs when warranty expires next year. Cant wait till then to get lights sorted though. Hopefully VW guy will be realistic as opposed to just agreeing with the person on the service desk and mechanic that 'checked' them.

Your best bet could be to check them yourself first - pop the rubber cover off and use a mirror to have a look - it'll be obvious if it's not rotated right.

With the HIDs though - I had a problem where when I used full beam, the HIDs cut out, they'd come on after I turned the lights off and on again but that was a bit of a nuisance. It might have been the HIDs I had though.

They were, however, a massive PITA to fit - the ballasts took some placing and there were other bits that had to go in the headlight assembly (it'll be obvious when you get the HIDs).

However, I did read a few stories of HIDs making wiper motors blow for some reason:

http://forums.fourtitude.com/zerothread?id=4343449
http://forums.fourtitude.com/zerothr...ostid=59895387

Funnily enough - about 2 weeks after I fitted my HIDs - my wiper motor blew (fortunately a warranty job) - the HIDs didn't last and I re-swapped them out for some standard bulbs.

[Cylon2007]

I have to agree that the standard dipped beam is not that good on the Passats (was the same on my B5), however I have fitted Bluevision and it has made a marked difference, however when I intially fitted the bulbs all was not well as the drivers side beam seemed wrong, I removed and re-fitted the bulbs and they are OK now (not a patch on HIDs but acceptable) as James_tiger_woo says it's really easy to get the bulbs not correctly fitted and this throws the beam pattern right off.

[james_tiger_woo]

The main problem is that the little tab isn't big enough to prevent you from putting the bulb in wrong - either on the bulb or in the car:



I remember in other cars that it was impossible to fit the bulbs wrong - that and there was a retaining clip to ensure they stayed in too as the HID bulbs were, when I was fitting them, forever falling out....

I eventually used some Phillips extreme bulbs and they were fantastic.

[russell hayward]

I uprated the bulbs on mine with philips Xtreme. I did this before driving the car in the dark with the standard bulbs. I refitted them 2 or three times to ensure proper fitment. However they never clicked in properly.

Well I was totally shocked how bad they were. I literally could not see 5 feet in front of the car. I adjusted them upwards, with little or no improvement.

So I bought some HID's. As it happened these did not work correctly, so I refitted the Philips bulbs.

This time, I managed to fit them so they clicked in place properly. The difference ? Massive improvement.

So ensure you fit your bulbs so they click into place. The locating tab, if looking from the front of the car is at about 8 oclock .

I did post a PDF file a few weeks ago showing the light unit and tab location.

What I did was insert the tab into the cutout with the bulb tilted backwards sligtlhy, then press the bulb into position. It takes a few goes to get the magic click.

[jonsey24]

Anyone know the best place to purchase some HID's as i am unimpressed with the light output my standard bulbs produce.

I have looked on HIDS4u and im thinking of going for the 4300k would this achieve the OEM look that standard lights produce

[kennym999]

Got car back the next day (after being asked to refit my original bulbs). The garage didnt even phone me despite telling me they would first thing. Apparently they didnt have to test drive it at night as the bulbs hadnt been fitted properly. The car is now fine and the allignement is the best it has ever been. Bit suspicious about the garages claim that they werent fitted properly but at least they are now working right.

[m12oby]

The dipped beam on my B6 was very poor. Infact the lights may as well have been switched off. I read on the forum that the bulbs are pretty tricky to get out. Which suprised me as when i checked mine (both sides) they almost fell out. Re fitted (correctly) and the lights are acceptable. Not as good as my wifes golf but at least i can see wildlife in the road!