I'm after some recommendations for new sidelight bulbs to match the factory Xenons.

Also fog lights if they are still effective?

Rear reg plate bulbs too.

 

Any that can be a straight swap without coding will be the best route for me...

 

And finally....  Where to get a new DRL bulb?

 

Cheers

No-one?

I've been down this road before with the Passat and had a few crappy bulb failures, so if anyone can recommend a decent supplier..?

Factory xenons are roughly 4300k whereas white LED bulbs tend to be closer to 6000k and appear bluer so it's difficult to find a perfect match. I'm happy with Osram Premium LED w5w for sidelights and the match is fairly close to my xenon bulbs, but I have Osram CBI which are roughly 5000k rather than the stock bulbs. The sidelights are kinda pointless with the DRL strip anyway as this dims in sidelight setting and is still brighter than the actual sidelight bulb. The sidelight bulb only really provides some backfill into the headlamp unit.

 

Reg plate lights - swap for the proper Skoda LED units rather than replace with a led bulb.

 

DRL bulb - do you have Bi-Xenons without LED DRL strip? This isn't a common headlamp in the UK afaik, most are either halogen i.e. no xenon, or Bi-Xenon with LED DRL.

 

Rear Fogs - kept mine as halogens, not sure if LEDs are decent for this purpose.

If you go down the led route, you're more likely than going to need coding. A lot of the 'canbus friendly' bulbs unfortunately can still need throw an error up.

 

Certainly on the sidelight front, you can get a lot of xenon look halogen bulbs. Best having a butcher's on ebay. You can normally get a decent set on there. Just need to watch the diameter of the bulb, they can't be too much bigger than a standard bulb.

MTEC did a "pure white" halogen replacement @ about 4,350 K

I just coded mine to be off all the time. The LED bar then acts as the side light. 

On 02/05/2019 at 15:18, ahenners said:

Factory xenons are roughly 4300k whereas white LED bulbs tend to be closer to 6000k and appear bluer so it's difficult to find a perfect match. I'm happy with Osram Premium LED w5w for sidelights and the match is fairly close to my xenon bulbs, but I have Osram CBI which are roughly 5000k rather than the stock bulbs. The sidelights are kinda pointless with the DRL strip anyway as this dims in sidelight setting and is still brighter than the actual sidelight bulb. The sidelight bulb only really provides some backfill into the headlamp unit.

 

Reg plate lights - swap for the proper Skoda LED units rather than replace with a led bulb.

 

DRL bulb - do you have Bi-Xenons without LED DRL strip? This isn't a common headlamp in the UK afaik, most are either halogen i.e. no xenon, or Bi-Xenon with LED DRL.

 

Rear Fogs - kept mine as halogens, not sure if LEDs are decent for this purpose.

Cheers for the replies all (been sidetracked with house stuff)

 

I have the Bi-Xenon with LED DRL - this was a different question to the side lights, as the DRL is currently off and throwing a 'check bulb' message...

26 minutes ago, raystaggs said:

Cheers for the replies all (been sidetracked with house stuff)

 

I have the Bi-Xenon with LED DRL - this was a different question to the side lights, as the DRL is currently off and throwing a 'check bulb' message...

 

DRL is not user replaceable (at least easily - no bulb swap) if LED strip. I believe a few others have had issues with the LED DRL controller too, rather than the strip itself being dead, so maybe worth bearing in mind. That is external to the headlamp.

Edited 14 May, 20197 yr by ahenners