BI-Xenon upgrade options found vRS AFSII

[JackySi]

54 minutes ago, aki78 said:

There must be some tolerances in the system.

For example the factory coding is the same (allgemeine scheinwerfer) for the 35W H8 fog lights and the 55W H7 low beams.

By the way I did another 20k km without a single fault, so this is 80k km in total. According to my quick calculation this is about 300-400 working hours so far.

That would make sense! Is the light output better/much better after upgrading from 35w? Do you feel was it worth it? On Superb I'd also have to remove whole bumper (like on octavia) to get to the lights and then change ballasts ^^. If I may ask how much did it cost you total? How come no one here considered LED?

[aki78]

34 minutes ago, JackySi said:

That would make sense! Is the light output better/much better after upgrading from 35w? Do you feel was it worth it? On Superb I'd also have to remove whole bumper (like on octavia) to get to the lights and then change ballasts ^^. If I may ask how much did it cost you total? How come no one here considered LED?

Yep, the light output is definitely better, just check my pictures & videos on page 1.

The only thing I don't like that much is the color shifting. I would say the color temperature is now somewhere between a halogen bulb and a factory (4300K) HID bulb. Probably still closer to the HID.

I am still tempted to buy higher K bulbs...

The factory HID bulbs (Philips XenStart) are still working fine, but I have a feeling that the light output has started to fall. Or maybe my eyes got used to the brighter light.

The ballasts costed me about 50 USD at that time, the price is a little bit higher now. Just search for '45w d3s ballast' on AliExpress.

Edited 30 March, 2018 by aki78

[JackySi]

23 minutes ago, aki78 said:

Yep, the light output is definitely better, just check my pictures & videos on page 1.

The only thing I don't like that much is the color shifting. I would say the color temperature is now somewhere between a halogen bulb and a factory (4300K) HID bulb. Probably still closer to the HID.

I am still tempted to buy higher K bulbs...

The factory HID bulbs (Philips XenStart) are still working fine, but I have a feeling that the light output has started to fall. Or maybe my eyes got used to the brighter light.

I see. That's what worries me. I want to buy something to last 5 years+. Xenon light output drops which is bad =/. LED doesn't. Also LED has 20.000+ work time prediction, Xenon about 3000? But Chinese quality is questionable.  And the road legal probably too so I'm at split roads. I saw video yeah looks awesome! Though color is very yellowish? I love mine 4350K and would love little more like 4800K? maybe 5000K

[angelinajolie2123]

I have a Skoda Octavia 2013 and to change the headlight bulbs. While searching on different forums I came across an online store offering D3S Xenon HID Bulbs. They claim theses bulbs as direct replacement to my car.  Please have look on this product and suggest if I should buy it.
https://www.xenonplanet.com/d3s-xenon-hid-bulbs.html
 

[pist0nbr0ke]

3 hours ago, angelinajolie2123 said:

I have a Skoda Octavia 2013 and to change the headlight bulbs. While searching on different forums I came across an online store offering D3S Xenon HID Bulbs. They claim theses bulbs as direct replacement to my car.  Please have look on this product and suggest if I should buy it.
https://www.xenonplanet.com/d3s-xenon-hid-bulbs.html
 

 

Dunno, what does Brad say? 

[adityaw]

hi @xpower So I am well impressed by your DIY headlight boost, for the very sorry set of lights that comes from the factory. I have an O3 2014, has the OEM bi-xenon AFS II set up. I am in touch with Morimoto India, and they are suggesting D3S 35w 5500K bulbs, along with XB55 Ballast. So this ballast is going to 'boost' the 35w bulbs. Well I would rather have a 50W bulb running through the XB55 rather than a 35W bulb. So what should I do?

1) Major advantage of D3S is fitment, won't need to cut out the dust caps behind the headlight to run the igniter cable to the ballast, but risk it running at 50W. 

2) Go for D2S 50W with XB55 for a true 50W set up and longer reliability. 

 

Are both of these straight forward fittings? Does it throw up any errors on the MFD? Any coding needed if I opt for option 2? 

Have you tried option 1 ever for curiosity sakes? I know you sold the Octavia but still I know you're the right person to ask this. 

[xpower]

7 hours ago, adityaw said:

hi @xpower So I am well impressed by your DIY headlight boost, for the very sorry set of lights that comes from the factory. I have an O3 2014, has the OEM bi-xenon AFS II set up. I am in touch with Morimoto India, and they are suggesting D3S 35w 5500K bulbs, along with XB55 Ballast. So this ballast is going to 'boost' the 35w bulbs. Well I would rather have a 50W bulb running through the XB55 rather than a 35W bulb. So what should I do?

1) Major advantage of D3S is fitment, won't need to cut out the dust caps behind the headlight to run the igniter cable to the ballast, but risk it running at 50W. 

2) Go for D2S 50W with XB55 for a true 50W set up and longer reliability. 

 

Are both of these straight forward fittings? Does it throw up any errors on the MFD? Any coding needed if I opt for option 2? 

Have you tried option 1 ever for curiosity sakes? I know you sold the Octavia but still I know you're the right person to ask this. 

 

Hi

 

I don't think that boosting the 35w bulbs will be an issue, they will go down in colour temperature slightly but not that much.

5500k @35w will probably be 4500k - 5000k at 50w.

 

It is easier to do option 1, rather than the option I chose :-)

There was no coding on the Morimoto ballasts, as they practically are the same as the OE ballasts.

 

If I was doing this again I would probably get another set of headlights and fit in a set of BI-LED projectors :-)

[adityaw]

12 hours ago, xpower said:

 

Hi

 

I don't think that boosting the 35w bulbs will be an issue, they will go down in colour temperature slightly but not that much.

5500k @35w will probably be 4500k - 5000k at 50w.

 

 

 

Thank you for the comment @xpower appreciate your feedback. So if I go with option 1, do you know if Morimoto makes D3s compatible 55W ballasts? 

[xpower]

 

4 hours ago, adityaw said:

 

Thank you for the comment @xpower appreciate your feedback. So if I go with option 1, do you know if Morimoto makes D3s compatible 55W ballasts? 

 

Not that I'm aware of, or at least not at the time I did it.

There were some sellers on AliExpress if I remember right, there is a member on here who brought a set of boosted D3S ballasts and they were a straight swap.

 

I'll have a search for the post

 

Here are the type of thing (please check fitment)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32926208372.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.1ad45c28aMbKqN&algo_pvid=6385550d-c64d-4a8c-b23f-926b3de66035&algo_expid=6385550d-c64d-4a8c-b23f-926b3de66035-2&btsid=0ab6f82c15893642407613939e6b58&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

Edited 13 May, 2020 by xpower

[adityaw]

4 hours ago, xpower said:

 

 

Not that I'm aware of, or at least not at the time I did it.

There were some sellers on AliExpress if I remember right, there is a member on here who brought a set of boosted D3S ballasts and they were a straight swap.

Hey @xpower I found that Morimoto does make the 50W ballasts compatible with D3S output 😃 I think it’s the same ballast XB55 But with a different output cable. https://www.theretrofitsource.com/morimoto-xb35-d1s-d3s-hid-xenon-ballasts-BL-XB35D1D3?quantity=1
 

 

[adityaw]

@xpower sorry for the back to back posts, but I just need to be doubly sure, the kit I am ordering comes with the XB55 Ballasts, XB 5500K D3S bulbs, and the connecting cables as above, but they also come with Canbus Controllers. The dealer in my area said I will have to get it updated in the VCDS to output 55W ballasts. In all my research I never cam across this issue or coding with VCDS. Did you end up coding the 55W ballasts or it ran error free? Any one else who upgraded the ballasts and needed coding to be done? Thanks in advance for the inputs. 

[xpower]

1 hour ago, adityaw said:

@xpower sorry for the back to back posts, but I just need to be doubly sure, the kit I am ordering comes with the XB55 Ballasts, XB 5500K D3S bulbs, and the connecting cables as above, but they also come with Canbus Controllers. The dealer in my area said I will have to get it updated in the VCDS to output 55W ballasts. In all my research I never cam across this issue or coding with VCDS. Did you end up coding the 55W ballasts or it ran error free? Any one else who upgraded the ballasts and needed coding to be done? Thanks in advance for the inputs. 

 

There is no coding required, since the BCM was never designed to work with 55w ballasts there is nothing to code to.  The only thing which may be changed is the dimmerwert channel to 127% but it should be set at that from the factory for the OE ballasts anyway.

You shouldn't need the canbus controllers either, not with morimoto ballasts, the cheaper ones you do due to flickering but your BCM is already coded to accept ballasts.

 

As I haven't fitted the D3S ballasts I don't know what the connections will be like but it should be straight forward.  The original ballasts are bolted to the underside of the headlight, the morimoto ones cant go there as the OE ballasts form a water tight seal.  You will have to find somewhere else to mount them.  Just don't mount them to a metal surface (via a bracket etc.)

[SkodaAsh]

Thanks xpower for all of this information.

 

I too have the standard Philips XenStart D3S and found them okay, until I saw the difference others have experienced with their comparison studies. Being less inclined to switch ballasts (which doesn't sound onerous, just too risky for me), would any other Xenon bulbs be significantly better than the standard edition?

 

I've looked at the OSRAM Xenarc Night Breaker and Philips Extreme Vision Gen 2, and would like to get the best bang for buck. I haven't ventured into LED as yet since I'd rather keep the lights street legal.