Front light cluster

[DionJ]

Ok, seems like a silly question but here goes.

Got my 2010 Octavia vRS on Friday. There are two bulbs I don't know what they do, just above and to the outside of the dipped beam lights, anyone know what these are? Tested all lights and these don't come on.

[ryan-re]

On the face lift vrs the DRL's are used as side lights but the w5w bulbs were still fitted and not wired up. This is probably what you are seeing. Have fun explaining that one on your MOT. Lots of people have had to explain it to MOT testers who fail the cars for not having side lights

Edited 26 March, 2016 by ryan-re

[Stoofa]

Thankfully the MOT testers (generally) are now aware of this. As DRL's must switch off when front headlights are illuminated (or dim if they are also used as side-lights) it doesn't take any good MOT tester long to realise the DRL's are dual-usage.

I guess it'd be a real pain if your car came back as failed - you'd like to think any garage would let you just show them there and then they are mistaken.

[DionJ]

Ah that explains it, thanks guys

[wal292]

i have been trying to see if i can get this bulb wired up to the DRL,s as i would like a yellow bulb in as to look like the bmw 5 series. sure it can be done or they would not have the bulb in.

[mannyo]

The bulb is only there because the same headlights are used across the whole Octavia range regardless of model, but the vRS is the only one with DRLs mounted in the bumper.

 

There is no wiring to the bulb holders in the loom so anything you do will have to be custom and they will not behave like sidelights.

[langers2k]

The vRS is the only one with DRLs mounted in the bumper.

 

Not quite true, the FL vRS is the only one with dual purpose DRL/sidelights fitted. The FL Elegance and L&K both come with DRLs mounted in the bumper as part of the fog light cluster but still use the normal W5W sidelight in the headlight cluster.

 

i have been trying to see if i can get this bulb wired up to the DRL,s as i would like a yellow bulb in as to look like the bmw 5 series. sure it can be done or they would not have the bulb in.

 

As mannyo mentioned, there is no wiring between the headlight cluster and the car's BCM (Body Control Module, it controls most the lighting).

 

Not sure how you want the sidelights to function but the connections to the existing LED DRL/sidelights are:

- Pin 1 (C48, C49), power when either DRL or sidelights are used - effectively a permanent live unless the DRL are disabled using maxidot etc

- Pin 2, ground

- Pin 3 (C26, A44), brightness, this will be PWM'ed to either 15% or 100% for sidelight and DRL use

 

If you always want the W5W sidelights on, you might be OK tapping in to the power connection. Be warned, it might also result in a bulb warning being shown...

 

The more correct way to do this, would be to run new wires from the headlights to the BCM and connect to a couple of spare pins. I believe that pins A3 and A4 should be free on your BCM and can be programmed for the sidelights. This will give you the advantage of being able to run them as DRL only, sidelight only or both, it'll also give you bulb monitoring so if either blow the car will alert you.