Been trying to research what is required to do a Xenon Headlight retrofit to a FL Octavia VRS. Had mine a couple of months now and after coming from a car with Xenons, the standard halogens just seem so poor. Has anyone attempted to retrofit Xenon Headlights to their Octavia II and can confirm what is required?

 

From what I've gathered, it should be possible to swap out the existing halogen units for complete Xenon units with ballasts etc. and use a Kufatec wiring adapter to attach the Xenon units to the existing halogen headlamp wiring. It will then need some coding in VCDS to tell the car it has Xenons, does this seem correct? I know factory xenons also come with the washers and auto-levelling, but I can't find any requirement to have these; the MOT regs simply say that where fitted they must work. So would it all work without the levelling and washers?

 

Quite a few of the guys with Mk5 GTIs seem to have managed, but can't seem to find anyone with an Octavia that has attempted this. Probably due to the rarity of finding complete Xenon units 2nd hand and the cost of sourcing new.

 

Thanks

On a pre-fl car, it's dead easy as you can fit a quality non-canbus HID kit, code the car and away you go. On facelift cars, this seems to be damaging to the BCM.

 

Maybe fitting the OEM ballasts with an adapter is the way to go.

 

Are you planning on working the cornering function too?

Get onto ebay.

 

Search for a seller called londoncolor and buy a set of their 4300k non-canbus HIDs with mini ballasts.

 

Fit them into the headlights (everything fits inside) and code the car for xenons.

 

Sorted!

 

The only worry is that certain models of 2010-ish don't seem to like HID kits and it can damage them.

Legally you will need the level sensors and headlight washer system as the stock system would have had them to gain EU type approval and therefore be legal on UK roads.  Dimmer (2000lm or less) HID systems do not require level sensors or washers if I remember correctly, but just fitting dimmer HID bulbs will not make it legal as it still won't match the type approval.

 

Whether a MOT test will pick up on this or not is a different matter so you might get away with it.

 

I think you'll hit the following issues without the level sensors and AFS module:

 

- The internal level dial probably won't work, this will cause you to dazzle other drivers unless you're able to find someway to lower the beams to counteract heavy loads

- AFS won't work so the headlamps won't turn into a bend as they would on a stock system

 

Either of the above might cause fault codes and possible dash warnings.

 

There are a couple of us who are hoping to do this but I think we are all waiting on the headlamps

The headlights themselves are a straight swap, assuming you can source a pair of right hand drive ones with the ballasts and igniters included. The xenon bulbs are around £60 each if these don't come with the headlights.

 

As you mention the wiring / connectors are a little different but it sounds like the Kufatec adapter will fix that.

 

After that you'll need some VCDS coding and away you go.

 

The MOT regs around the washers and self-leveling do cause a few hot collars on here, the reality is the car will pass an MOT just fine, as has mine with HID's for several years. The courteousness of potential discomfort to others will no doubt be mentioned as you crest hills and navigate speed humps etc.

 

One question I'm not sure on as langers2k mentions is if the manual headlight adjustment will work on the xenon headlights when retrofitted to a halogen equipped car? If so then this will allow you to lower the beam when carrying people in the back or have heavy stuff in the boot etc.

 

I know they did when I retrofitted OEM xenon's to my E46 BMW 3-Series but I reckon the Octavia will be a little different 

 

The quickest option is a HID kit but as already mentioned there have been a worryingly high number of failures where the kits have fried the BCM's on some FL Octavia's.

Do the aftermarket ones need to be coded/ switches on with vcds MIke ? I had a b6 Passat with them in before and not had a problem and can't remember coding them

Matt

If you go using a hid kit MOT is a lottery. You might pass, on the other hand you might have a tester who knows they are not supposed to be there and fail it.

 

As mentioned above there is quite a list needed to do it properly, headlights with bulbs, ballasts, ignighters, washers, coding, link to the suspension. Its not just a matter of swapping headlight units thats for sure

I don't think coding has any effect on the survival rate of CECM's with HID kits, all the coding does is to change the parameters used for bulb warnings and disable any halogen specific settings such as dimming. From what I understand, depending on the quality and type of the ballast's used damage can still occur to the components providing power to the headlamps resulting in a fried CECM.

Personally, I wouldn't risk anything apart from OEM ballasts with a FL O2 even if you intend to fudge the rest of the install.

Thanks for the replies all! With it being a facelift and the horror stories I've read about the BCM etc, HIDS are a definite no go. I had a set of 4300k HIDS in halogen projectors years ago and whilst they worked quite well, the OEM xenons on my previous car were awesome.

I hadn't considered the AFS functionality of the OEM xenons, so it might actually be more complex than initially thought. I'd actually wanted to buy one with Xenons, but was hard enough finding a decent TSI VRS in the first place, never mind one with xenons! And I wasn't really in a position to be able to wait until one came up.