OK, car hasn't been driven for almost a month due to my visit to hospital and being told not to drive for a little while.

Have been running the engine once a week, last night I also switched on the lights and low & behold I've got a full headlight out on one side.

Not the end of the world and to be honest might be a good opportunity to replace the OEM bulbs with something a little more powerful.

Anyway - is it hassle changing the full headlight bulbs on a FL vRS with the OEM Xenon's fitted?

On my old vRS you remove the whole headlight using the small plastic "screw" and then the lever under the unit.

Is it the same procedure with the Xenon's fitted? It just looks like there is more to the lights when looking under the bonnet.

Last confirmation - it's H1 bulbs for full beam isn't it?

Ta

Are you replacing the H1's with Xenon's.

If you are, beware, factory fitted Xenon lights come with factory fitted headlight washers.

I understand it's because the lens needs to be kept clean otherwise you'll be blinding other cars.

the whole lamp removes out of bumper.

The procedure for removing the headlight on the FL is the same as the pre-FL.

On Octavia's with the xenon's there is even less room behind the headlights so it is recommended to remove them in order to make life easier.

For some reason the owners manual for xenon equipped cars recommends that both the xenon bulb and halogen main beam bulb should only be changed by a dealer, not quite sure why especially as the main beam bulb is the same as on non-xenon equipped Octavia's.

This technical guide is for pre-FL non-xenon cars but the principle on the FL is the same...

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/64315-new-octavia-headlight-bulb-change/

I did the same on mine last week. Took me about 15 mins.

It is extremely straight forward and, if you don't mind losing a bit of skin off the knuckles, you can do it without removing the headlight unit.

There is a separate cover housing the H1 bulb just on the inner side of the main Xenon unit.

Take off the cover, remove the connector and then there are a couple of clips holding the bulb in place. As I say, a bit fiddly but it saves taking the unit off.

Chris

Thanks for the replies.

I wasn't going to be replacing the high beam with xenon's - although I guess in theory with the OEM auto-levellers and washers it would be legal.

So just wanted to replace the standard bulbs with new ones - I was just worried that as there are xenon's there the replacement of bulbs would be more awkward.

I'll try first not removing the units - I've got quite small "girly hands" LOL

Any recommendation on which H1 bulbs to use?

Are these any good?

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/H1-Ring-XENON-Ultima-120-Halogen-Headlamp-55W-pair.html

For some reason the owners manual for xenon equipped cars recommends that both the xenon bulb and halogen main beam bulb should only be changed by a dealer, not quite sure why especially as the main beam bulb is the same as on non-xenon equipped Octavia's.

It's because of the 20'000 volts used to create the arc in the bulb and the risk that some retard will kill them selves while changing the bulb.

It's because of the 20'000 volts used to create the arc in the bulb and the risk that some retard will kill them selves while changing the bulb.

That's shocking.

I like the way you change the bulbs by removing the whole head light, very neat and easy to do especially compared with my old civic. Fitting new lights to that meant taking off the bumper

I like the way you change the bulbs by removing the whole head light, very neat and easy to do especially compared with my old civic. Fitting new lights to that meant taking off the bumper

It is sooooo easy, it's the easiest ever. I changed my main beam bulbs in 10 minutes & no errors showing :sun: