MK5 Golf GTI
All Things Mk5 => Modifications & Technical Area => Technical Workshop => Topic started by: animal on February 13, 2009, 10:09:00 am
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In my on going search for a 3dr DSG GTi it's become apparent that a lot of people who originally ordered the cars were either stingy or didn't appreciate the benefits of Xenon lights. As my current car has them, I'm loathed to go without on a Golf but it seems that I'm going to have to compromise to get what I'm after and there is a high probability that I will have to retro-fit a few options, including OE Xenons (with levellers and lens-wash I assure you - I'm trying if possible to find a Winter Pack equipped car if Xenons aren't available). And an HID kit is not an option for me as they aren't legal.
I've been keeping an eye on German eBay, for prices and to see what's around, as there seems to be more VW parts available there for obvious reasons. My question is, are Golf Xenons generic? I know on some cars the lights aren't 'handed' and can be switched from one side of the road to the other - is this the case with Golf headlights or is it a lost cause and I need RHD units?
Also, I think this has been covered before so forgive me, but do you need a high-line dash and/or updated CAN-BUS to run Xenon lights bearing in mind I'm looking at 55-56 registration GTi's. I know you can enable them in software with VAGCOM but are there any upgrades required to the actual hardware as well to handle the Xenon coding?
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i have found in my experience, they are not handed. there is a switch in the light housing that flips a metal plate, creating either a LHD pattern or a RHD pattern, depending on what you want.
i swapped toms xenons in france when we got there in august last year, it takes 10 seconds, even if there fitted to the car
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i just bought some xenons from hong kong..
not seen behind the housing yet.. but theres 2 cables coming from the ballister (sp?) red and black.. if i remember correctly on the housing its just a connector with no cables? so how would i go about fitting them?
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you got genuine xenons?
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you got genuine xenons?
sound like ebay items to me
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yep, sounds like a HID kit.
watch out for the HID police benny.
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Thanks JPC - that's good to know, I drive abroad too so even better.
Also, am I right in saying that there are two types of Xenon housing like the Halogen units? Black/smoked and Chrome/silver ones?
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I feel your pain animal, wish I had xenons too :sad:
found these
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-Mk5-Golf-Bi-Xenon-Zenon-R32-GTI-Headlights-Headlamps_W0QQitemZ290295104770QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item290295104770&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A4%7C65%3A16%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-Mk5-Golf-Bi-Xenon-Zenon-R32-GTI-Headlights-Headlamps_W0QQitemZ290295104770QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item290295104770&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A4%7C65%3A16%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318)
If I hadn't just booked in for a blueflame TBE, then I would be the highest bidder :P
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i dont know who is selling those, but i wouldnt recomdend buying those in the auction. they have been fiddled and dont include the OEM bulbs or ballasts by the looks of it. just cheapo HID kit in them.
some might not mind this, but in my experience, the light output is never as nice, and the ballasts break all the time
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yep, sounds like a HID kit.
watch out for the HID police benny.
HID kit yep enon ones 10000k
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oh jesus...dont do it benny, they will look worse than dose of chicken pox
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yep, sounds like a HID kit.
watch out for the HID police benny.
HID kit yep enon ones 10000k
I spent 70 hard earned squids on a HID kit and every oncoming car flashed me because I was blinding them - also the xenon bulbs do not fit properly in the halogen bulb holders, so every small bump in the road makes the xenon bulbs rattle/shake!!!
You have to drill holes in the plastic caps which I wasnt keen on, so then I had condensation building up in the lights + im £70 down!!! HID was ripped out within a week!!
I know they are a cheap alternative to REAL xenons BUT IMO a complete waste of money :sad:, but hey ho, you learn by your mistakes I suppose!
so you wanna buy my HID kit benny, £50 incl p+p :signLOL: just kidding, wouldnt sell these to my worst enemy :fighting:
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yep, i really hope the police start pulling people soon with HID kits in standard housing.
Im really glad you came to the conclusions you have vwrascal.
i got sent to F*****G court for a numberplate that CAN be read via ANPR and theres LOADS of cars with HID kits round my area and nothing gets done!!!!!!
argh!
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oh right.. well whats the difference in hids and Xenons?
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yep, sounds like a HID kit.
watch out for the HID police benny.
HID kit yep enon ones 10000k
Oh dear! they will look terrible, 10000k is far too high a colour temperature, and will barely give out any white light. OEM xenons are about 4500-5000k as a comparison. Save your money mate, and look elsewhere.
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OEM are 4300k to be precise - generally.
Don't do it Benny - either that or you have got your colour temperature wrong? 10000k will be purple and virtually useless as headlights. I'd go with 6000k max and even they look quite blue and, dare i say it, - chavvy. Remember, the blue tinge is actually created from the diffraction of the light through the lens on projector headlights. OE 4300k Xenon bulbs are actually still pretty yellow in terms of colour temperature.
The other problem with cheap HID kits is that a lot of the time the ballasts are very 'noisy' which causes, at best, interference with the radio, and potentially worse in the car's electrical systems.
People are getting their terminology a bit confused here. HID is the name of the technology - High Intensity Discharge. A high voltage arc is produced with in the bulb and this produces light. Xenon is the gas within the bulb and is a more colloquial term for the technology. HID/Xenon lights are commonly combined with projector lenses (as in the MkV Golf) but not exclusively as some seem to believe.
Benny appears to have ordered an after market 'HID retro-fit kit' which are neither legal (not E type approved for road use in the UK) nor do they offer good value for money.
I think it very important to distinguish between the two as HID and Xenon are interchangeable terms - its the aftermarket HID Kits that are bad/illegal/rip-off, not factory fitted OE HIDs aka Xenons.
Unfortunately, and despite JPC's beef, you're still much more likely to get pulled for a dodgy plate and an HID kit unless it's really badly adjusted or you're really trying your luck with a dubious colour choice. I had a boy racer up my tail in a frankly ruin Zetec-S Fiesta coming out of Bracknell the other night. His lights we so bad I had to dip my rear view mirror.
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I feel your pain animal, wish I had xenons too :sad:
found these
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-Mk5-Golf-Bi-Xenon-Zenon-R32-GTI-Headlights-Headlamps_W0QQitemZ290295104770QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item290295104770&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A4%7C65%3A16%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-Mk5-Golf-Bi-Xenon-Zenon-R32-GTI-Headlights-Headlamps_W0QQitemZ290295104770QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item290295104770&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A4%7C65%3A16%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318)
If I hadn't just booked in for a blueflame TBE, then I would be the highest bidder :P
You missed an absolute lemon there vwrascal, thank your lucky stars. They almost look like Xenon/HID look-a-like headlights for halogen bulbs with an after market kit zip tied to the back. OE lights are 4300k not 6000k too.
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oh its 7500k :) btw these are quality ones made by enon :)
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mate, theres no such thing as quality HID kits that are 7500k. the light out put will be seriously compromised to get that colour. i dont know why people think 7500k would look good. they use salts and alsorts to get it the colour to that.
philips and osram are pretty much the only people that make good quality High intensity discharge bulbs. and they only make them at an efficient temperature. 4300-4500k but on paper, 4300k
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oh its 7500k :) btw these are quality ones made by enon :)
Have you already bought them? At that colour you'd be drawing a lot of attention from the old bill and performance-wise you'll be better off with a decent set of Halogen bulbs. Colour temperature has an adverse effect on the amount visible-usable light emitted, it drops off as you increase the temperature. OE 4300k is considered to be optimum for brightness, while 6000k is widely regarded as the best compromise between colour and performance. However, 6000k looks blue, so I'd be concerned with 7500k looking very blue and not giving out a very good light. They might also fail an MoT on colour alone, let alone beam pattern.
I'm with JPC, I've never seen a decent quality kit. Cheap HID bulbs go-off over time and in some cases I've seen with really cheap eBay kits, can become duller than cheap Halfords halogen bulbs. Even the kits sold by the likes of HIDS4U still cause all sorts of interference with radio reception and I personally know someone who had a dud kit arrive from them too, the only positive thing being that they are UK(Southampton) based and it was easy to resolve. They are still illegal though and HIDS4U have recently revised their small print to cover themselves, despite attempting to claim that the kits are E marked, even though it only technically applies to the ballast. Not in the least misleading then...
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Every forum i'm on theres always a few 'HID Police' , but the law is a grey area when it comes to them. Auto level and headlight washers are for FACTORY FITTED items and people saying they should only be used with projector units , what about honda , renault , merc ect. many of their vehicles have reflector units , even the newer mazdas glare worse that a set of chinese HIDs . Fair enough they may dazzle if there not aligned but that can be fixed , halogen bulbs glare if the headlamp itself is dirty , what about range rovers and other 4x4s they blind you when there behind you ?. I know england has some different rules to us up here but we rarely hear of people being fined for HIDs and if you do its probably because the officer is on a power trip. Also for the price of OEM xenons (new or second hand),a set of <£100 HIDs (4.3k or 6k) with a good feedback and £10 for an alignment is a much better choice hence why many people buy them :rolleye:
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1. the cars you mentioned coming out of the factory with HIDs and reflector housing. they have a reflector housing designed to give a clear cut off for the HID bulbs, and hence pass the stringent rules for beam patterns in the EU.
2. No amount of alignment for a HID kit in a halogen reflector housing will stop the glare. In my experience they will always bleed light over the halogen cut off. you can of course lower the beam pattern until the glare isnt too bad, but then the light is shining two foot off the bumper, and hence, useless.
3. halogen light isnt affected too much by dirty on a headlight because of the low intensity of the light emitted.
sorry to be a grumpy bar steward but i think HID kits are dam near ridiculous. I get pulled over and sent to court for a number plate that can easily be read via ANPR. But people with HID kits, which are pretty much guaranteed to blind every motorist they past are allowed to go free? i think the police should wise up to this obvious danger on the roads.
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All IMO off course , ones that have been aligned are ok , like i say there are manufacturers which stupidly blinding OEM xenons. Fair enough i understand what your saying , up here you either get a warning or a fine never heard of anyone going to court for a number plate. But personally i'd rather have the police out doing better things e.g. stopping unisured drivers , no tax , no MOT ect not getting their numbers up by pulling someone for a number plate or HIDs
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i know it might not happen a lot,
but how much of on a problem are HIDs when you think you could blind an oncoming driver on a dark country lane..enough for them to miss the apex on an oncoming corner? because it took a split second longer for their eyes to re-adjust?
It isnt that dramatic when you think about it. is it? or unrealistic?
just thought id run that by you. ive been blinded by a HID kit the other night and i sh*t myself because i couldnt see anything for a split second. this was on an unlit road. it was only because i was on a straight road it ended up ok.
Now would you think its a real issue for the police to pursue?
What happens to me when im sat in a wall with my golf smashed up, whilse the guy with the HID kit is speeding off in the other direction??
Im going to get accused of drink driving or something stupid. insurance wont listen to me, no proof no nothing!
sorry to prattle on, but it really isnt a blahsay small issue as you are making out
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I understand what your saying however i find that HIDs that have been aligned are no problem , bright yes but not blinding , i have also been been blinding by OEM xenons - Mazdas and range rovers both of which are supposidly 6k but IMO are not far off 8k in projector housings but are both far worse than an aftermarket kit.
What about using full beams on a dark country lanes ? these blind me even more so than xenons
I personally dont think it is a real issue for the police they should be doing their job - catching the baddies so to speak :chicken: , like i keep saying england must look at the law different to scotland . Also up here its all the rage to go about with sidelights and fog lights on :jumping: had someone tonite behind me up an unlit backroad with sidelights on , now IMO thats more dangerous
I'm no saying its a small issue , however no matter what people say , people will still buy them put them on and no get them alligned , i could go on and say about people driving with fog lites on all day and nite or people with dodgily spaced / fonted plates but it wont stop them will it. People will still space the plates illegally t#just to look cool or get all their windows tinted in limo black - all the police can do is fine them / give them a notice to get it replaced/removed , it wont stop anyone getting HIDs for the forseeable future