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Side lights to compliment Xenons

GeorgeL
in Skoda Octavia Mk2 (2004 - 2013)

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Fairly straight forward question really. I know lots of people run xenons, has anyone bothered to replace the side light bulbs with a whiter option to match the Xenons?

I'm not sure I fancy a single LED bulb so can anyone recommend a good replacement?

Cheers

What about Philips BlueVision sidelights

  • Author

What about Philips BlueVision sidelights

I've never tried them. I did try "white" side light bulbs about 5 years ago or so and they were definitely yellow. lol

i,ve just replaced my capless sidelight bulbs with xenon, very bright white light mini circuit boards.......... best mod i,ve done yet, really looks quality and ony cost £11 and dont interfere with the dash display...........

  • Author

i,ve just replaced my capless sidelight bulbs with xenon, very bright white light mini circuit boards.......... best mod i,ve done yet, really looks quality and ony cost £11 and dont interfere with the dash display...........

Sounds complicated? Any pics of them in action? :yes:

  • Author

I didn't spot those ones. I've bought the two LED varient. I guess at least with the 2 LED you won't see the front LED to obviously like the 3 bulb?

Any pics of them installed and working?

The FL vRS xenon lights dont have sidelights due to LED DRL's

  • Author

Photos as requested, one of LED white sidelights alone, the other being LED white sidelights and HID xenons

Mike

They look very bright actually, if a little blue though. Are you running standard 4300k Xenon bulbs?

  • Author

The sidelights are described as white rather than blue, and the xenon bulbs are 4300k. The colour match of the side and head lights now match perfectly.

Mike

Excellent Mike! The picture has distorted the colour slightly. If they match the Xenons then they will be bang on.

  • Author

Well Mike it looks like you were more fortunate than me. These LED sidelights that I got from Ebay don't work. I'll be getting the ones your ordered instead now. Cheers

  • Author

Not being funny George, but have you tried putting the bulbs in the holders the opposite way round? LED circuit boards are polarized, and will only work one way round.

If you've had them in the wrong way, you need to take them out, switch lights off, switch ignition on and off, presumably to reset the canbus, and then try them the other way. Sounds daft, but this is exactly what I had to do to get mine working when I first put them in the wrong way.

Putting them in the wrong way round also throws up errors that there is a circuit fault in the particular bulb, that will need clearing with VAGCOM

Mike

Hi Mike

Thanks for the info. It wasn't myself that fitted them, it was another memeber on here. I did watch though and neither side worked. I would be surprised if they were both stuck in the wrong way. We checked the LED's and they had no markings on them, they were completely symetrical. They work wired direct off the battery though. The VAGCOM software threw up a fault with them, so they must have been taking the wrong amount of power? I might see if the company I bought them off with swap them for these. The ones I tried did look very blue though?

Thanks Mike!

George

I have been in touch with a friend of mine who has LED sidelights in his Mk5 Golf (same electrics as the Octavia). He has the same ones as MikeHolroyd (3 LED) and he reports that they DO work OK, although he says they have a slight blue colouration to them.

Mike - I tried the LED's in George's car. They didn't work in the sidelight circuit but DID work when connected directly to the battery (connection with the same polarity) so I suspect the current draw is too high or too low and the ECU detects this and disables the circuit.

  • Author

George

I have been in touch with a friend of mine who has LED sidelights in his Mk5 Golf (same electrics as the Octavia). He has the same ones as MikeHolroyd (3 LED) and he reports that they DO work OK, although he says they have a slight blue colouration to them.

Mike - I tried the LED's in George's car. They didn't work in the sidelight circuit but DID work when connected directly to the battery (connection with the same polarity) so I suspect the current draw is too high or too low and the ECU detects this and disables the circuit.

Thanks again for all your help yesterday Eric. I have yet to drive the car at night, but I will let you know.

I am a bit wary of fitting blue coloured bulbs, ice white is the affect I am after. I'll wait to see what happens with the return of the other ones. If the company give a refund i'll go for the tried and tested. If they offer to replace them with the with the other vairent they sell then I may have to go down that route.

  • Author

Excellent Info Mike. I've sent a refund request to the ebay seller so I am hoping to hear back from them today. If they are quick to refund i'll be purchasing the same set as you. They will look great with the xenons I am sure.

  • Author

Result! Good luck with the refund -- these aren't mega money, so get them ordered now - these ones I've got have come from Guernsey, and were here within 48 hours of ordering.

Mike

They are out of stock now for over a week.

  • 1 month later...

Guys

I've posted on the forums previously about LED sidelights etc and I'm wondering when its going to start sinking in that they are simply not worth the trouble. I have tried numerous "CANBUS Led's" and every single set I've tried has had something wrong - too blue, too dim compared to a standard incandescent buld, triggering bulb failure warnings, failing alltogether, strobing............you name it, they've done it!

You've got the remember that you are replacing a simple filament bulb with a circuit board containing multiple SMD's and LED's and its a recipie for unreliability. In order to stop LED's triggering the bulb warning circuit you need to load them up with resistors to dissipate power. This means they are not a "green" solution, they get hot - hotter than a standard bulb sometimes, and as these are generally cobbled together by some 5yr old in a back street in the far east, they eventually fail, invariably sooner rather than later. This means you end up having to remove the headlights yet again and change to something else. I'm not even going to go on about all the hassle with returns and refuunds........

Give it up. Its a waste of time, money and effort!!

Edited by wardth

  • Author

Well I'm sorry to hear of your troubles Mike! I have to say I have been emailing that company on a weekly basis regarding those bulbs and they keep telling me they are out of stock. Just as well I guess.

Has anyone got a answer to the yellow side light issue then? Obviously an LED setup designed well must work because they are plenty of new VAG motors as daylight running lights.

HIDS4U are out of stock at the minute as well. Bummer.

BS, that's not a xenon filled bulb.

It's an ordinary bulb with a blue colored glass.

Cheers,

d.

Yeah theyr cr*p and after a couple of months the glass goes all discoloured and they end up looking grey and very dull :thumbdown:

http://www.powerbulbs.com/product_detail.asp?prod=31

These are the cheapest option,I have them fitted to my Mk1 octavia that has xenons,and the look good and you get some relection from the reflector,unlike an LED which only has a small beam of light forwards.Another thing is if you are a member on here you get a discount from Powerbulbs.com.

Edited by kenny rsell

BS, that's not a xenon filled bulb.

It's an ordinary bulb with a blue colored glass.

Cheers,

d.

Hmm, according to their website these are Xenon-filled... I think the ebay picture showing a blue-coloured bulb is just a generic image.

  • Author

Yea, I'm not sure about those either?

There are plenty of LED one's out there that have the bulbs side mounted to utilise the reflector. I'm sure I have the philips ones from powerbulbs in the past and they were just the same as standard yellow ones?

I might take a punt on another set of CANBUS friendly LED ones off Ebay? Not sure I want to replace them after a month though!...

Another question for you. For high beam can you use higher rated wattages or will they throw up errors on the ECU? If they do I might have to opt for the expensive standard wattage units from powerbulbs?..

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