Hi guys,

 

Does anyone retrofited front headlights from halogens to xenon with led DRL's on O3 2014.?

 

Can't find anything on forum...

 

 

Thnx!

 

 

 

 

 

Not economically viable. Never been done.

 

I think folk have certainly asked but as above, never seen it done. On here anyway. 

Hi Lux4zg,

 

Yes there was a guy on here who did it, I contacted him for the details as I was considering it.  He was very helpful and surmising all the PM's, in a nut shell:

 

2 x Xenon headlights

Halogen to Xenon adapter plugs

Front and rear levelling sensors + loom.

Only certain BCM's support Xenons (from the info I got mine does as it was MQB High), if yours doesn't then you need a new BCM. 

You need a specific CAN gateway to support Xenons, even if it does support Xenons it will need flashing by Skoda (don't believe it's possible to do any other way).

Headlight range module, some VW ones work but may need flashing)

Headlight wash (as it's now an MOT requirement).

Quite a lot of coding 

 

So possible yes, expensive yes unless you have a mate who works for VAG and you can get the relevant parts and coding cheap or get access to an accident damaged car with all the bits.

 

I had all the bits I needed and all the ore requisites other than the levelling sensors, looms and VAG technician

 

3 hours ago, ScoutCJB said:

Hi Lux4zg,

 

Yes there was a guy on here who did it, I contacted him for the details as I was considering it.  He was very helpful and surmising all the PM's, in a nut shell:

 

2 x Xenon headlights

Halogen to Xenon adapter plugs

Front and rear levelling sensors + loom.

Only certain BCM's support Xenons (from the info I got mine does as it was MQB High), if yours doesn't then you need a new BCM. 

You need a specific CAN gateway to support Xenons, even if it does support Xenons it will need flashing by Skoda (don't believe it's possible to do any other way).

Headlight range module, some VW ones work but may need flashing)

Headlight wash (as it's now an MOT requirement).

Quite a lot of coding 

 

So possible yes, expensive yes unless you have a mate who works for VAG and you can get the relevant parts and coding cheap or get access to an accident damaged car with all the bits.

 

I had all the bits I needed and all the ore requisites other than the levelling sensors, looms and VAG technician

 

 

Tnx for the info, it's a bit complicated than for Golf mk5

 

If i decide to go for that, i''ll contact you for more help

 

And at the end, did you instal them?

 

 

 

No, I needed to source the levellers and loom and wasn't prepared to pay for new and was trying to find an accident daamaged vehicle for these last few bits. 

 

I still ill keep my eyes out though.

 

 

Let me know if you need to know anything else.

Edited 31 July, 20187 yr by ScoutCJB

Why would you even think of doing this ?

 

Have you not seen/been out in a Mk3fl ?

 

LED make Xenon look crap

How’s the OP going to retrofit FL LED clusters to a pre-FL model?

1 hour ago, SC03OTT said:

How’s the OP going to retrofit FL LED clusters to a pre-FL model?

Just change the front bumper, it's the only thing they've done on facelift isn't it?

3 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

LED make Xenon look crap

But FL Mk3 look crap anyway!!!

I prefer the original look of the Xenon headlights on the pre-facelift, as they're much less fussy.

 

Not sure about how the Xenon vs LED stack up on performance at night though.

But DRL vs spotty LED's are also a winner for the pre-facelift cars.  3/4 dots of LED's look cheap IMO - remind me of jap crap/KIA Nissan Hyundai etc

 

 

I'm not suggesting the Fl fitting just the LED's inside your Mk3 fittings.

 

Having driven both the mk3 xenon & the Fl LED's I KNOW the LED's are far better hence, my questioning retrofitting xenon. 

18 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

I'm not suggesting the Fl fitting just the LED's inside your Mk3 fittings.

 

Having driven both the mk3 xenon & the Fl LED's I KNOW the LED's are far better hence, my questioning retrofitting xenon. 

 

But what would you fit where?

 

The standard Octy has reflector halogens.

Just replacing the H7 halogens with LED H7 bulb will not replicate what you have on the FL

11 minutes ago, logiclee said:

 

But what would you fit where?

 

The standard Octy has reflector halogens.

Just replacing the H7 halogens with LED H7 bulb will not replicate what you have on the FL

 

This. LEDs in the original halogen reflector units are probably worse than cheap HID kits. Has to be OE projectors to make it worthwhile.

18 minutes ago, ahenners said:

This. LEDs in the original halogen reflector units are probably worse than cheap HID kits. Has to be OE projectors to make it worthwhile.

So what about replacing the OE reflectors units with OE projectors but fitting LED bulbs instead of HID bulbs?

Just now, SWBoy said:

So what about replacing the OE reflectors units with OE projectors but fitting LED bulbs instead of HID bulbs?

 

If you go with the OE projectors they are designed for HID, I'm not sure LEDs would work as well in them as a proper Osram/Philips HID bulb.

 

The other problem is LED quality, you're at the mercy of random name Chinese stuff rather than having availability of Osram/Philips/OEM level quality bulbs.

13 hours ago, ahenners said:

 

If you go with the OE projectors they are designed for HID, I'm not sure LEDs would work as well in them as a proper Osram/Philips HID bulb.

 

The other problem is LED quality, you're at the mercy of random name Chinese stuff rather than having availability of Osram/Philips/OEM level quality bulbs.

 

Completely right, also you would need a D2 /D3 (whichever the Octavia uses) LED bulb - I don't think there is such a thing.

 

The markets been flooded with LED bulbs but in reality there are only a few good ones.  Autobulbs did an interesting article called 'Are LED headlights the brightest' and it goes to show just what poor quality bulbs are out there.  They do a kit for £70 which looks reasonable but not sure if it would work in a reflector lamp - also packaging says not for road use.

 

Im still not convinced by LED for headlights, the handful of cars I have driven with Factory LED I thought were actually quite poor (the last one being a new X-Trail that I had for 3 weeks in December last Year).

Yes, first plan was to retrofit oem projectors instead of halogen heads, but it seems to be much more expensive and complicated then i thought...

 

As i know, led bulbs are not made for projector lens, only for halogen headlight but a lot of stuff is crap, i tried the cheap one from aliexpress and the beam was terrible so i throw them away... 

 

BUT!! Few days ago, friend of mine put Erfolg LED h7 bulbs in his golf mk6 halogen headlight, here are the link and pictures... http://erfolgled.com/en/homepage/

 

 

 

 

 

Beam pattern is great as you can see, and he says that light output and visibility is great...

 

The price is around 100€/pair of H7 and may be a little expensive for "two bulbs" but i think i'll give it a try... I know that projector headlight look much better on the car but at least no more yellow light with these LED's  

 

 

 

Edited 3 August, 20187 yr by lux4zg

Hmm. Fairly sure my beam pattern on OEM LEDs looks more defined than that at the edges.  I’m wiling to bet that’s scattering light everywhere when looking head on. 

7 hours ago, SC03OTT said:

Hmm. Fairly sure my beam pattern on OEM LEDs looks more defined than that at the edges.  I’m wiling to bet that’s scattering light everywhere when looking head on. 

 

Yeah they will be as they’re behind projectors. Always annoys the hell out of me when you see some idiot with badly retrofitted bulbs - it’s like someone driving towards you with floodlights on the front of the car!

 

Regarding TMWNA’s point about LED performance, I agree to a point in all but poor / wet weather conditions. The colour temp of Xenons make them better on wet roads (to my eyes anyway) and that’s coming from having an O3 with Xenons, going into a 2 series for a brief period with Xenons, and now in a 5 with LED’s. There may be a marked improvement in the Octavia however (not driven a FL with LED) as the OEM Xenon performance wasn’t great compared with other cars. Still, either are miles better than a halogen setup which is now archaic!

@lux4zg that beam pattern of the LEDs on the MK6 halogen doesn't look great to me. It's not even and it looks like there's a fair bit of scatter.

 

An F30 LCI 3 series has factory LEDs behind reflectors and the beam pattern looks far better than the images above. Reflectors don't have that lovely sharp cut off that projectors have, but dedicated LED reflector units do a much better job than halogen ones with LED light sources.

Of course the beam pattern can't be like one form projectors... Look at the beam from standard halogen headlight with standard halogen bulb... pattern is pretty much same as pictures above

11 hours ago, lux4zg said:

Of course the beam pattern can't be like one form projectors... Look at the beam from standard halogen headlight with standard halogen bulb... pattern is pretty much same as pictures above

 

That is true but the reflectors are designed to be fitted with low output halogen lights with a warm colour temperature. So light is scattered but glare is minimal to other road users.

 

Fit high output HID or LED to halogen reflectors and the light scatter is usually a major distraction to other road users.

 

That's why there are strict laws for high output lighting such as different hard cutoffs, auto-leveling and headlamp wash.

Hi,

 

I got from insurance a pair of brand new headlights, and I got left a pair of old Xenon headlights that can be easily repaired from 2015 with xenon bulbs and xenon ballasts (AFS and DRL modules are missing).

 

I was thinking at installing them at my other octavia with halogen lights.

Does somebody have schematics for this type of job or can tell me where can I look up?

 

How can I tell if my BCM supports AFS?

 

 

 

I looked into this but never did it so good luck if you decide to proceed

 

From someone on here who did do the conversion i was told that 'you need to have a bcm (or similar): PQ37BOSCH (5Q0-937-086-AK), a can gateway (or similar): 5Q0-907-530-F, and you will also need a headlight range module (or similar): 7P6-907-357-A'

 

 

On 03/08/2018 at 08:43, SC03OTT said:

Hmm. Fairly sure my beam pattern on OEM LEDs looks more defined than that at the edges.  I’m wiling to bet that’s scattering light everywhere when looking head on. 

 

It will be - but like so many drivers on the road, they don't care, so long as they can see miles ahead and perceive that it "looks good".

Thankfully the roads aren't full of them, but when you are faced with someone who has just "slammed in some different bulbs or lighting styles - because the rules apply to everyone else but them" it's just so damn annoying.

 

I'd have their cars off the road and crushed if I was in charge.