Headlight upgrade options?

[hockeyman474]

Hi all, I used the search function and didn't find what I was looking for.

So before pulling my headlights to clean and reseal, I wanted to explore potential upgrades you guys have done on your C5s.

Should I keep the OEM housing and upgrade the HID low beam bulb?
Go with a different headlight housing?
Swap out the entire HID unit?

Foglight upgrades:
Upgrade to a new halogen bulb and leave it?
Upgrade to yellow or white LED bulbs?

Any input you guys could provide would be great! I am too new to the C5 world.

[Grainreaper]

Swapping the lenses in your housings seems to be a common upgrade from what I've read, I cleaned, clear cornered and resealed mine, then just swapped in a fresh pair of 6000k hid bulbs, I swapped the amber marker bulbs for switchback bulbs and wired the resistors into the body side of the harnesses.
This greatly improved the appearance and I have more usable light now, I'm going to be swapping in a pair of brighter led bulbs for the fogs, I got the ones with the loops of braided heatsink to cool em as I was having a hard time finding other bulbs that would fit. The new led bulbs ought to give me a fair bit more light than my stockers, I think they are about as bright as candles and don't really throw any useful light

[Grainreaper]

Im also going to get a pair of the same type of leds for the high beams as well, I've read they work well and fit under the covers with no issues

[julex]

The fastest and cheapest upgrade with good results is a swap to clear lens (stock is a fresnel lens which is no doubt also very dirty after so many years in there) and new CBI/whatever is the newest model lightbulbs. This will dramatically improve light output.

I don't think that using LED inside a housing without external heatsink is a good idea. These lights get real hot inside and LED element's light output drops dramatically the hotter it gets to the point where it basically fails...

The best upgrade you can do to your lights would be a swap of the whole HID projector to bixenon (there are plug and play options out there, see theretrofitsource.com) and hooking up the high beam solenoid of new projector to your high beam wire leaving the halogen high as is. But that's a project not everyone can tackle.

[hockeyman474]

Swapping the lenses in your housings seems to be a common upgrade from what I've read, I cleaned, clear cornered and resealed mine, then just swapped in a fresh pair of 6000k hid bulbs, I swapped the amber marker bulbs for switchback bulbs and wired the resistors into the body side of the harnesses.
This greatly improved the appearance and I have more usable light now, I'm going to be swapping in a pair of brighter led bulbs for the fogs, I got the ones with the loops of braided heatsink to cool em as I was having a hard time finding other bulbs that would fit. The new led bulbs ought to give me a fair bit more light than my stockers, I think they are about as bright as candles and don't really throw any useful light

Do you have a link to the LED foglight bulbs you picked up? And any write-up or tutorial on your swap?

[hockeyman474]

The fastest and cheapest upgrade with good results is a swap to clear lens (stock is a fresnel lens which is no doubt also very dirty after so many years in there) and new CBI/whatever is the newest model lightbulbs. This will dramatically improve light output.

I don't think that using LED inside a housing without external heatsink is a good idea. These lights get real hot inside and LED element's light output drops dramatically the hotter it gets to the point where it basically fails...

The best upgrade you can do to your lights would be a swap of the whole HID projector to bixenon (there are plug and play options out there, see theretrofitsource.com) and hooking up the high beam solenoid of new projector to your high beam wire leaving the halogen high as is. But that's a project not everyone can tackle.

I was just talking about LEDs for foglights, not considering them for headlights.

I do agree, doing a retrofitsource complete bixenon swap would be intimidating. I saw one thread on here and it looked like there is more that could go wrong with me doing it than could go right.

[chris86vw]

If you are opening them and you want a legit upgrade then I would replace the projectors. Depending in what lights you have there may be drop it off or there may be some work required.

Phillips extreme vision 2 is the current highest ouput bulb that fits. But bluer doesn't mean brighter so some people prefer the slighlty less bright (still much more than stock especially old stock) but bluer osram CBB. Neither are cheap though and a brighter/bluer than stock replacement people use for cheap are the morimotos.


As for LEDs fogs. Plug in led bulbs are still not all that great they can have good hot spots to test showing insane output in small spots but they aren't necessarily brighter over the whole aera, as in they can put less useable light down while looking brighter. I'm not sold on them yet. I am a yellow fog guy so never been concerned with matching headlight and fog light color which seems to be the reason many upgrade fogs.

[hockeyman474]

If you are opening them and you want a legit upgrade then I would replace the projectors. Depending in what lights you have there may be drop it off or there may be some work required.

Phillips extreme vision 2 is the current highest ouput bulb that fits. But bluer doesn't mean brighter so some people prefer the slighlty less bright (still much more than stock especially old stock) but bluer osram CBB. Neither are cheap though and a brighter/bluer than stock replacement people use for cheap are the morimotos.


As for LEDs fogs. Plug in led bulbs are still not all that great they can have good hot spots to test showing insane output in small spots but they aren't necessarily brighter over the whole aera, as in they can put less useable light down while looking brighter. I'm not sold on them yet. I am a yellow fog guy so never been concerned with matching headlight and fog light color which seems to be the reason many upgrade fogs.

The thing that scared me from the yellow halogen fogs I wanted was Hella stating, "Note: Due to high voltage, bulb can generate overheating in the wiring of the headlight."

[chris86vw]

Stick with a standard 55 watt ( I think) and it should be fine.

Or get lamin-x, I had knock off on ones of my TDI wagons and it was crap compared to the genuine stuff I have on my allroad, I'll never waste time and money on non lamin-x stuff again. I know some people don't like the always yellow look so that doesn't work for them, I have yellow bulbs not film on my a3 for that reason. But C5s can pull it off I think. I also like knowing i can walk into any parts store and get a genuine white bulb, too many game with fakes when trying to find something like a yellow fog bulb.



Not that you can tell but the projectors are replaced with Morimoto FX-R 3.0, not a drop in.. Lens were sanded and polished then treated with opti lens.


I may do these in the highbeam: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/bi...high-beam.html

[hockeyman474]

Stick with a standard 55 watt ( I think) and it should be fine.

Or get lamin-x, I had knock off on ones of my TDI wagons and it was crap compared to the genuine stuff I have on my allroad, I'll never waste time and money on non lamin-x stuff again. I know some people don't like the always yellow look so that doesn't work for them, I have yellow bulbs not film on my a3 for that reason. But C5s can pull it off I think. I also like knowing i can walk into any parts store and get a genuine white bulb, too many game with fakes when trying to find something like a yellow fog bulb.



Not that you can tell but the projectors are replaced with Morimoto FX-R 3.0, not a drop in.. Lens were sanded and polished then treated with opti lens.


I may do these in the highbeam: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/bi...high-beam.html

I'll order some 55w yellow foglight halogen bulbs and swap them in. That should help.

Still unsure on exactly what I should do with my headlights.

[chris86vw]

Whatever you do don't plug the ballast power into a halogen bulb then carve the halogen bulb base down enough so it jams into the d2s bulb holder and call it a day.

Seriously have a car in right now like that..

[m_haiser]

Whatever you do don't plug the ballast power into a halogen bulb then carve the halogen bulb base down enough so it jams into the d2s bulb holder and call it a day.

Seriously have a car in right now like that..

how is that even possible? pictures? in a different thread maybe

[chris86vw]

how is that even possible? pictures? in a different thread maybe

Well ballast is just 12v in so it makes sense, even if I also didn't believe it at first and had to test the lights to see if it worked or was a failed experiment. Cracked my camera phone lens but I'll try to get one, it's funny.

[hockeyman474]

Bump. Just noticed my passenger side is looking pretty dull compared to my driver side.

[chris86vw]

I took a neat comparison photo of the fxr-3.0 vs stock projector a few weeks back I'll put it up later. Pretty obvious difference in beam pattern/cutoff. Makes stock look like a joke.

Finally got some spare lights with good wires so I can rebuild my passenger light in the next few weeks. Driving lots at night lately so good timing.

[chris86vw]

left is updated FXR 3.0 projector and the right is stock, can't wait to rebuild the right one and get some good bulbs in!

As far as I'm aware the bulbs are the same age and type when I took this pic a few weeks ago. I threw in a near new morimoto bulb I had out of my TT to see how aged my "stock" bulbs were but they are fairly equal.

[hockeyman474]

Any way to tell if I need to just swap the bulb or the ballast, or should I just do it all at once? Below is a picture of the visual difference I am experiencing.

[chris86vw]

A very low output is a bulb at the end of it's life.some turn pinkish before failing but never personally experienced that mine have always just put out no usuable light.

[hockeyman474]

A very low output is a bulb at the end of it's life.some turn pinkish before failing but never personally experienced that mine have always just put out no usuable light.

Thanks Chris. I have a bunch of stuff in my shopping cart on The Retrofit Source: Morimoto XB35 5500k, some butyl glue and the 3" : ZKW-R projector lens.

I am just apprehensive about taking the headlights apart. It needs to be done (I assume) because I had condensation in my passenger side light. It seems easy enough but I want to make sure I remove everything that needs to be removed before I bake them.

[chris86vw]

Certain versions of the c5 lights and certain aftermarket projector swaps can be done without taking light apart. You need to separate the halves of the projector but then it pulls out the back. I was taking mine apart to fit the new projectors but I tested that method for kicks and it worked. Could save you from buying the butyl.

[chris86vw]

Oh and I've got some of the morimoto bulbs forget what color temp. They are no different than. My unknown age stock ones even with only about 20 hours on the Xb bulbs. Not entirely impressed although for the money not unimpressed either.

These are what I requested for Christmas, fingers crossed I can do my passenger rebuild next week and install them :)


https://www.theretrofitsource.com/d2...ker-laser.html


I like that they are less blue, especially since they are quite bright that should make them look more stock and prevent people from assuming their overly bright/misaimed just based on color. But not cheap.

[hockeyman474]

Oh and I've got some of the morimoto bulbs forget what color temp. They are no different than. My unknown age stock ones even with only about 20 hours on the Xb bulbs. Not entirely impressed although for the money not unimpressed either.

These are what I requested for Christmas, fingers crossed I can do my passenger rebuild next week and install them :)


https://www.theretrofitsource.com/d2...ker-laser.html


I like that they are less blue, especially since they are quite bright that should make them look more stock and prevent people from assuming their overly bright/misaimed just based on color. But not cheap.

I am going to have to bake regardless because right now I assume the condensation is coming from a poor seal from the 15 year old glue. I am hoping it's not a crack in the housing or anything worse. Those are definitely nice bulbs you are asking for. I am going to try the cheaper ones out first and if I am not impressed after a years time, I can always upgrade.

[chris86vw]

Osram night breaker laser bulbs aquired! I'm almost 40 but I have a Christmas loving mom who's into cars so this was an easy get ;)

If I get fed up with the GFs nieces in the next 48 hours I'll swap them out and post up some comparison photos.

The last time I had an issue with condensation ( I accidentally sprayed water in it) I just drove around a few days with the back cover off and it dried out.

[chris86vw]

Holy hell!!

Photo I posted above was driverside FXR 3.0 and passengerside stock projector with some random bulbs (genuine osram) of unknown age.

I've been running around with a low hours morimoto xb35 (35xb?) in the passenger side and on the wall didn't seem to make a difference but driving at night for a while over the holidays has now seemed to be "brighter" than the driverside, even though the driverside had a much better pattern.

I downloaded a free lux app that uses the light sensor in the phone, I'm sure it is in no way calibrated but it should show at least a reasonable change light to light on a back to back test.

So I did the FXR with unknown bulb first and it was like 5-6k lux
Then I tested the stock projector with the morimoto bulb and it was like 10-12k
That test was during the day.

Swapped out the morimoto bulb to the new osram night breaker laser 20k LUX!!!
retested the FXR with unknown bulb and still 5-6k lux
tested during the day and just went back out and retested at night but didn't go drive it since I've been drinking on and off all night.

color temp was about the same as the 35 xb bulbs which I am 99% sure I bought the 4500s of those.


I might buy a real meter and do some better comparison testing as I rebuild the lights.

[hockeyman474]

I went ahead and did a refurb on my lights. I never want to do that again.

I did find the source of my condensation. It was obvious that the passenger side was worked on before. How obvious you ask? Well, it had 2 ballasts....the original, still in it's original mounting position, but with all cords unplugged, and a second that was zip-tied near the bottom of the headlight and was the actual working one. Also the seal on mine was sloppy and horrible.

Anyways, the source of the condensation was most likely caused by one of the metal retainer clips being gone on the passenger headlight, leaving a poor seal. The right side metal retainer clip is missing. Many idea where I can find one?

[Racin2redline]

4TL-r projectors are far superior to what’s in there

[V1nny]

https://www.authenticclassics.com/He...uth-004668.htm
totally unnecessary, but if you really like to replace the clip, these would need to be bent slightly, but they better than VAG clips
Condensation has nothing to do with lenses or clips, butyl compound seals around lens very reliably, moisture gets in through either 3 breathers on the back of the headlight, or through deteriorated gasket on the back cover.

upgrade:
https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/for...-s6-headlights

[Grainreaper]

I've never found a source for the rear seal, I've poked around, made a couple calls. Anyone have a source?

[hockeyman474]

https://www.authenticclassics.com/He...uth-004668.htm
totally unnecessary, but if you really like to replace the clip, these would need to be bent slightly, but they better than VAG clips
Condensation has nothing to do with lenses or clips, butyl compound seals around lens very reliably, moisture gets in through either 3 breathers on the back of the headlight, or through deteriorated gasket on the back cover.

upgrade:
https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/for...-s6-headlights

The butyl was rough on the headlight but the fact that with minimal to no effort, I could peel back the side without the clip leads me to believe it could very likely be a source.

Anyone have OEM clips laying around?

[hockeyman474]

So my passenger side still seems a little dull. I took the light apart, cleaned the lens and reflector, replace the bulb, etc. Is it possible now that it is still dull due to a ballast on its last legs?

[chris86vw]

As far as I"m aware/experienced ballasts work or don't work, but maybe some others experienced different? Low voltage to the ballast usually would cause it to not fire, but it could possibly reduce output even if its enough to fire it compared to the other one.

What does your reflector look like?

[hockeyman474]

As far as I"m aware/experienced ballasts work or don't work, but maybe some others experienced different? Low voltage to the ballast usually would cause it to not fire, but it could possibly reduce output even if its enough to fire it compared to the other one.

What does your reflector look like?

I guess that is good to know it is likely not the ballasts. Here is a picture from this morning. I just cleaned the reflector when I refurbed the headlights and it looked fine to me.

[hockeyman474]

Here is the passenger side before I took it apart (covered in road grime from good old Michigan). Sorry Audizine flipped the image.

56780032728__069D9273-9B8C-4C83-B176-411F83D86974.jpg

[hockeyman474]

No one?

[V1nny]

No sure what do you expect to hear, but reduced light output is definitely not related to ballast. If you really like to confirm, swap ballast left to right, they are identical.
Your lens is in rough shape, it could use good 5 step sandpaper polish or replacement (I bought a pair of new lenses from ebay for about $80 last year)
not sure how you cleaned projector lens, but I saw them with a whitish cloudy deposit that is hard to remove, took some effort after completely disassembling projector and removing lens.
Depending on a year, projector reflector could be plastic or metal, bur both occasionally develop dull spots, and diminish reflecting ability and overall output, so you may check for that as well.
Lastly, one might look brighter than another due to misalignment.
There is not much else, this is not a rocket science.

[hockeyman474]

No sure what do you expect to hear, but reduced light output is definitely not related to ballast. If you really like to confirm, swap ballast left to right, they are identical.
Your lens is in rough shape, it could use good 5 step sandpaper polish or replacement (I bought a pair of new lenses from ebay for about $80 last year)
not sure how you cleaned projector lens, but I saw them with a whitish cloudy deposit that is hard to remove, took some effort after completely disassembling projector and removing lens.
Depending on a year, projector reflector could be plastic or metal, bur both occasionally develop dull spots, and diminish reflecting ability and overall output, so you may check for that as well.
Lastly, one might look brighter than another due to misalignment.
There is not much else, this is not a rocket science.

The lens are actually in good shape, when clean. I plan on wet sanding and polishing them later this winter. Looks like I will be taking them out again to inspect the projector reflector/replace and might as well get 2 new ballasts while I am in there, and check the bulb to make sure it works properly and is aligned. I bet based on the fact that the pattern seemed to die and is still off now, it is likely the projector.

Screen Shot 2019-01-23 at 8.14.57 AM.jpg

[chris86vw]

There is no bulb alignment it is either in or not unless it was forced into place incorrectly.

Do you have a current pick of the light against the wall like the one you took previously?

Current lights are stock projectors with clear lens and the upgraded morimoto bulbs? (can you just updated us on exactly what you have for hardware. )

You found aftermarket ballasts did you confirm they were the same? The output in the old pick was huge, but that could have been different age bulbs but also it is possible that the weird aftermarket ballasts one was a 35watt and one was 55 watt.

[hockeyman474]

There is no bulb alignment it is either in or not unless it was forced into place incorrectly.

Do you have a current pick of the light against the wall like the one you took previously?

Current lights are stock projectors with clear lens and the upgraded morimoto bulbs? (can you just updated us on exactly what you have for hardware. )

You found aftermarket ballasts did you confirm they were the same? The output in the old pick was huge, but that could have been different age bulbs but also it is possible that the weird aftermarket ballasts one was a 35watt and one was 55 watt.

Sure, I can get a pic on the garage again tonight or tomorrow morning. The other ballast was the Hella OEM ballast not aftermarket but here is what I dide.

Got condensation in the passenger headlight last fall (not sure if it is related to anything)
December the passenger headlight took a crap ^pic above, light basically went amber.
I opened up both headlights, cleaned the lenses and reflectors.
Swapped the old bulbs for Morimoto XB35 5500k bulbs. I didn't force anything so alignment should be proper.
Resealed the headlights
Did not end up swapping the projector glass for the clear lenses,
Did not take out and inspect the projector.

Now the driver side appears to be working fantastic while the passenger side pattern is weird/off.

Here is an edited version of the pic above showing the difference.

[chris86vw]

The other ballast was the Hella OEM ballast not aftermarket but here is what I dide.

Are both ballasts the same? Sorry still not clear on this.

If they are not I would make them the same asap, I had an issue with the euro xenons in my mk4 jetta and one side would not fire, I often didn't notice and it created a huge imbalance in the light output because the bulbs were aged very differently by the time I finally addressed it.

[hockeyman474]

Are both ballasts the same? Sorry still not clear on this.

If they are not I would make them the same asap, I had an issue with the euro xenons in my mk4 jetta and one side would not fire, I often didn't notice and it created a huge imbalance in the light output because the bulbs were aged very differently by the time I finally addressed it.

Yes both ballasts are OEM. Unsure on age of them individually but they are both OEM ballasts.