tomo51
Guest
hi there people just wondering if poss to upgrade to bi-xenon lights not just the bulbs though the whole unit and is it just plug in and play or is it a mare
Basically, its a 'mare'
Do a search and someone in another country (leviathan18) have upgraded the light units which includes the projector lenses, bulbs and ballasts.
This is fairly expensive by itself, you are looking at at least £300-400 for new parts. cant remember the exact amount.
Although to make the lights legal, you really eed to fit the self levelling system and the washer jets in the bumper. Both can be retrofitted with alot of effort.
I was thiking of doing it, I researched all costs and wiring diagrams as well as the parts to buy. I would of only done the lights and the self levelling system, and not bother with the washers.
Do a search and someone in another country (leviathan18) have upgraded the light units which includes the projector lenses, bulbs and ballasts.
This is fairly expensive by itself, you are looking at at least £300-400 for new parts. cant remember the exact amount.
Although to make the lights legal, you really eed to fit the self levelling system and the washer jets in the bumper. Both can be retrofitted with alot of effort.
I was thiking of doing it, I researched all costs and wiring diagrams as well as the parts to buy. I would of only done the lights and the self levelling system, and not bother with the washers.
tomo51
Guest
Hi there,
Been looking at installing a pair of RHD bi-xenons on my leon. I know for the sake of legality that technically you will need self levelling and washers but unless they are specced on the car from new they are a right royal pain to install. I went a different route with a mk4 golf I had. I bought the housings bulbs and ballasts from ebay. Took time though. Then I got 10 pin sockets from a pair of old scrapper headlights. Removed the 12pins from the xenons and replaced with 10pins. Wired up the levelling motors to the same pins as on normal halogen lights. I then had xenons with MANUAL levelling from the rheostat next to the headlight switch. My outlook on the Leon setup would be as follows: Get RHD headlamps, non AFS ones. Get the 10pin sockets from old set of lamps (any vw golf mk4 lamp would do) and do the dirty job, its easy really. All you would need then was one wire from each lamp (original pin 11) and lead these into the drivers side (no need to remove battery) and connect into the relevant positions for the CECM (A5 and D6 IIRC). Now you have control of the bi-xenon shutter as well. Of course access to VAG-COM would be needed to enable the bit. Once I have part numbers for the proper lamps, i'll be getting a quote from SEREMOTORS. Can get ballasts and bulbs from ebay. Of course there is always the possibility of a complete set of lamps from the scrappy. Will keep you informed of developments...
Been looking at installing a pair of RHD bi-xenons on my leon. I know for the sake of legality that technically you will need self levelling and washers but unless they are specced on the car from new they are a right royal pain to install. I went a different route with a mk4 golf I had. I bought the housings bulbs and ballasts from ebay. Took time though. Then I got 10 pin sockets from a pair of old scrapper headlights. Removed the 12pins from the xenons and replaced with 10pins. Wired up the levelling motors to the same pins as on normal halogen lights. I then had xenons with MANUAL levelling from the rheostat next to the headlight switch. My outlook on the Leon setup would be as follows: Get RHD headlamps, non AFS ones. Get the 10pin sockets from old set of lamps (any vw golf mk4 lamp would do) and do the dirty job, its easy really. All you would need then was one wire from each lamp (original pin 11) and lead these into the drivers side (no need to remove battery) and connect into the relevant positions for the CECM (A5 and D6 IIRC). Now you have control of the bi-xenon shutter as well. Of course access to VAG-COM would be needed to enable the bit. Once I have part numbers for the proper lamps, i'll be getting a quote from SEREMOTORS. Can get ballasts and bulbs from ebay. Of course there is always the possibility of a complete set of lamps from the scrappy. Will keep you informed of developments...
I now have a full set of OEM xenon's. Got the housings and levelling motors from Ted Johnson's. Pair of philips D1S bulbs new from ebay ( £90 pair ) and a pair of OEM ballasts from ebay from an american seller ( $120 for a pair ). Beware, when you buy the lamps from the dealer, you will only get the housings and covers. You will still need to source, bulbs, ballasts and levelling motors. All I have to sort out now is the wiring for manual levelling. The halogen levellers have 3 wires and the xenon levellers have 4!!!. I have access to ETKA and ELSAWIN so i'll have a look at the wiring diagrams when I get a chance. I'll post up a full list of part numbers and prices when I suss out the levelling. My total outlay at the moment for all NEW parts is approximately £550 - 600. More soon....
No real luck on what the pin assignments are on the 4pin xenon level motors. I am looking into installing a set of ordinary 3pin level motors instead and modifying the wiring or replacing the 14pin plug with a 10pin one. This would involve modding a standard level motor and utilising the blank which holds the light in position to get the appropriate reach. I'll post some pics to show what I mean. I am also toying with just selling the xenons, etc and leaving well alone, but they cost me dearly in both time and money and I feel a bit loathe to give them up for such a trivial problem. My golf 4 xenons were much easier, they used the same motors for both manual and auto levelling.
Dismantled a level motor to see what made it tick. Bad news is that it is totally incompatible with the ones in a halogen setup. It is very simple, consists of 2 coils, one to wind the plunger out and the other to wind it back in. 2 connections each so supply is AC. All the donkey work is done in the auto level controller. Good news is I think I can transplant the plunger rod into a halogen level motor and fit this instead. The reason we need to transplant the plunger is because the ball on the end is bigger in the case of the bi-xenon. An alternative would be to use the transport pieces from the lamp housings to 'manufacture' alternative ball ends for the halogen level motors. I will get pictures up which will hopefully show what I mean.
James sorry for not responding to you earlier - you're doing great work. It would appear that the reversing circuitry and the small amount of control hardware that sits on top of the motor in the halogen lights is all done by the glovebox controller as you say.
Im still confident it can be done even if we have to utilise the glovebox controller and mount that next to the headlights - Im in the process of having a controller delivered to me so that the clustermeister....(aRd) over on uk-mkivs can work some magic with it.
As soon as it becomes difficult the its human nature to revert to the full mounted levelling system but if we can break its back then it might well work. People were probably saying the same when trying to retrofit xenons on to the Mk4 golf in 1998!!
This thread had gone sort of cold anyway so lets use it to keep up to date on ideas/progress.
Some pics would be great
Im still confident it can be done even if we have to utilise the glovebox controller and mount that next to the headlights - Im in the process of having a controller delivered to me so that the clustermeister....(aRd) over on uk-mkivs can work some magic with it.
As soon as it becomes difficult the its human nature to revert to the full mounted levelling system but if we can break its back then it might well work. People were probably saying the same when trying to retrofit xenons on to the Mk4 golf in 1998!!
This thread had gone sort of cold anyway so lets use it to keep up to date on ideas/progress.
Some pics would be great
I had a set of R32 xenons on my MkIV GT TDI. All I had to do to make them plug and play was replace the 12pin plug with a 10pin one and rewire as per halogen setup. The level motors were the same. These are a bit different. Like I said previously, the motors are simplified but allow for constant adjustment. No electronics in the motors whatsoever. All the donkey work is done from the controller. I still think the way to go is to mod a set of halogen levellers using the blanks which hold the lights in the default position to get the correct size ball end on the motors. Then rather than go with adapters, rewire with a 10pin plug and connect the bi-xenon shutter to the vacant pin. The shutter wire coming from the CECM could then be inserted in the car loom and plugged into the corresponding vacant space in the socket. Pictures will explain it better, just gotta take them. Will keep you posted....
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