I bought 68LED 501 sidelight bulbs for my Superb 1.9. I should've checked before... But are th sidelights 501?

Next question, how the hell do I get to them. I cannot get my hand down there there's no room?!

501's are the correct. You need the skilled hands of a surgeon to change them. Keep a first aid kit handy too as you'll probably cut your hands like I did lol!

The holders pull straight out of the reflectors on Hella lamps (Valeo lamps are a bayonet fitting). Use a small right angled screwdriver to hook the holders out - there's a lip on it to facilitate this.

rotodiesel.

Best not to use 501 LED sidelights as they are too close to high beam bulbs. Over time, if you use high beams at all, you will have high beam reflector fouled up with vaporised residue from the plastic base of the 501s. Even ceramic ones are not immune to this, then you get solder flux/mask residue. This is aside from many 501 LEDs failing from excessive heat after a while.

A garage recently replaced a sidelight bulb for me, but it is very dim. More like a 1 watt bulb, not a 5 w !

The handbook says I need a HW5W bulb for Xenon headlight cluster (not a W5W) and I am currently running around looking for this type. I will have to drive 20 miles round trip to my nearest Skoda Dealer. The nearby VW dealer didn't recognize the part code and Halfords tried to be helpful but only stock one generic type of 5W quartz type bulb. (Car is a 2007 2.0TD)

Or it might just be dirty contacts and I just need to open it up and clean the contacts.

Second question is that I don't see how to get the bulb holder out. There appears to be a plastic hex socket which has a cross head screw at the bottom of the hole. I will try the pulling the whole thing out, or pull and twist a bayonet socket -as the advice above,- but it seams to be very firmly stuck . I know the garage opened it up a couple of weeks ago so it must be possible.

Yes, I could take it back to the garage. (Probably will need booking in !) but it's the shame of me needing a garage to change a sidelight bulb. Amazing that the handbook says that I need to take it to a "specialist garage"

Edited 28 January, 201313 yr by gremlin

A garage recently replaced a sidelight bulb for me, but it is very dim. More like a 1 watt bulb, not a 5 w !

The handbook says I need a HW5W bulb for Xenon headlight cluster (not a W5W) and I am currently running around looking for this type. I will have to drive 20 miles round trip to my nearest Skoda Dealer. The nearby VW dealer didn't recognize the part code and Halfords tried to be helpful but only stock one generic type of 5W quartz type bulb. (Car is a 2007 2.0TD)

Or it might just be dirty contacts and I just need to open it up and clean the contacts.

Second question is that I don't see how to get the bulb holder out. There appears to be a plastic hex socket which has a cross head screw at the bottom of the hole. I will try the pulling the whole thing out, or pull and twist a bayonet socket -as the advice above,- but it seams to be very firmly stuck . I know the garage opened it up a couple of weeks ago so it must be possible.

Yes, I could take it back to the garage. (Probably will need booking in !) but it's the shame of me needing a garage to change a sidelight bulb. Amazing that the handbook says that I need to take it to a "specialist garage"

Don't buy a bulb from a dealer, just order it online. Won't cost much at all. And the bulb holder for the sidelight just twists and pulls out. Can be fiddly.

Thanks Alan. So much choice on line. I think the "H" part of the HW5W must just refer to a brighter or whiter version of the H5W

i.e a "501" in today's code, as Mr Rooney has explained.

To help with the on-line search take a look at the following link:

http://www.svetila.com/en/light-bulbs-lamps-66/automotive-12v-74/tuning-77/cbi-cool-blue-intense-1037/w5w-12v-5w-2825-hcbi-halogen-cool-3210.html

I have not purchased these bulbs yet but have used the site for its good technical data. They do ship to the UK and they price in sterling. This will give you the data you need to shop around if you want to or just place an order.

My Superb appears to have the Osram W5W 2825 Cool Blue that are shown on the site as no longer in production. I would hardly describe their output as cool blue but it is not the yellow light that the bog standard W5W will produce. I am going to give the bulbs listed above a try when I get some spare time. Having read other threads I will not be trying LED's due to the problems with heat from the other lamps.