Just wondering if this is possible? My car has bi xenon with afs. Wondering could I just change the bulbs and retain function.

The xenons will perform better than drop in LED conversions and are also road legal...

 

If you do fit LED's, you'll probably need to modify the wiring as I doubt they'll want to connect to the original xenon ballasts. This may cause a bulb out warning 😕

 

 

I've seen a few people in here saying LED are significantly better.

I really struggle at night with lights especially as the roads are full of other xenon / led users. I guess I'll see how I get on, I loved the xenon's on my Volvo and missed them after switching.

 

 

The bi xenons on the Octy are great but the beam cutoff is a bit short. In comparison to my old Volvo C30 though, Skoda were very generous indeed!! A lot of people rave about the LED’s and they are indeed very good however the AFS function is much more pronounced and fluid with the xenons. If you really want to improve light output, a D2S conversion with 55w ballasts would do the trick. If you were committed to LED you would need to modify a pair of bi LED projectors from something like a MINI to fit.

There is a significant difference between using a LED conversion kit in place of xenons and a headlight with optics designed to use an LED light source. The latter certainly could outperform xenons but the former is unlikely to.

 

Making your lights better won't help reduce the glare from other road uses I'm afraid and using a drop in conversion will just make other people suffer 😕

 

Might be worth having the headlight aim checked and made higher if possible and checking the headlight lens and projector are in good condition?

The Bi Xenon pattern in mine was projecting woefully short. Once it was adjusted up a bit, more of the road and hedges have now become visible and overall forward illumination improved.

 

I'd probably put Philips Xtreme Vision bulbs in once the OEM parts have burnt out. They were really good in my 09 Saab 93, a step up for sure and better than the Skoda OEM bits.

RRP £175.......................for a bulb..................a bulb (singular).

 

Good job everything's half price nowadays, innit.

 

Glad I never had to buy one for the Audi......

Edited 2 July, 20197 yr by Tilt

as @BigEjit says, I found the projection distance on mine to be far to short as well. Allen key out and raised them a few degrees and the result is brilliant. Took me a few goes to get it spot on, as on the first attempt the headlights were spotting planes. I thought they might still be a bit too high, but they passed the MOT.

 

I appreciate the xenons do self levelling and what not, but I still feel there should be an adjustment switch like a standard halogen setup.

I was hoping there was just a bulb change possible using the existing ballasts. Long shot I know but  would be nice to have longer lasting bulbs.

How often are you changing the xenons? They should last for years... For example, the Xenarc ultra life come with a 10 year guarantee and claim a lifespan of 300,000 km (with an average annual mileage of 14,259 km and 60% light on) which is allegedly 4x longer than a normal xenon bulb.

 

Drop in LED's tend to use 12v compared to xenons at 42v or 48v. You've also got the startup voltage for xenons which can be 1000's of volts. You'd definitely need to remove the xenon ballast...

Edited 3 July, 20197 yr by langers2k

@Nikonite your profile shows you have a 1.9pd mk2. If that is the case you are asking in the wrong part of the forum and the answers from mk3 owners might not be as relevant as those from mk2 owners. I thought the two versions had different xenons fitted? Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

 

Of course if you have updated to a mk3 fine, but might like to update your profile information.

 

Edited 3 July, 20197 yr by Gerrycan

That's from years ago, I have a MK3 now

Edited 3 July, 20197 yr by Nikonite

The D3S bulbs are all in one bulb and ballasts for reference. Hence a D2S conversion if you want more powerful ballasts.

34 minutes ago, SashaGrace said:

The D3S bulbs are all in one bulb and ballasts for reference. Hence a D2S conversion if you want more powerful ballasts.

 

You mean bulb and ignitor?

 

The ballast is separate for d1s, d2s, d3s and d4s. The d1s and d3s have a built in ignitor which looks like a little silver box. The d2s and d4s use a separate ignitor.

 

The d1s and d2s use mercury and higher voltages whereas the d3s and d4s are mercury free and lower voltages.

That’s it, ignitor. Couldn’t think of the word. There is a thread on this forum about D3S to D2S conversions somewhere. I am very satisfied with the OEM D3S bulbs so I have not changed them. When one dies I may consider it.

I'll have a look for it Sasha, I think I'm reading too much as I read somewhere the Xenon's dont last. I have a bad case of Googleitus I think!

Mine are the original bulbs, nearly 5 years and 110k miles in they are still going strong.

You'll fail your MOT with LED's in and your insurance will be invalid too technically and it would certainly be a "get out" for them if you crashed at night as they would say your non-legal, non-type approved LED's were a contributing factor.

 

If you have xenons, learn to live with it until you swap cars. Look for a brighter bulb and live with the shorter life, but don't put LED's in.

 

Nick

Xenons are plenty bright enough. 

They must require a slight adjustment.

On 03/07/2019 at 19:24, Nikonite said:

I'll have a look for it Sasha, I think I'm reading too much as I read somewhere the Xenon's dont last. I have a bad case of Googleitus I think!

 

Xenon bulbs go through A colour shift and lumen output can decrease as the bulb gets older ..... saying that my Oct 2 with 125k on and was 8 years old had really good light output.  I've also used non genuine D2 bulbs in my old Vectra (genuine Xenons) and the bulbs got dimmer literally within weeks.

 

Maybe treat yourself to some new bulbs Xenarc are good.  Can you drop an LED bulb into your Xenon housing, no not that I'm aware of.

One of my (presumably original) Philips XenStart, OEM Xenons just failed. I didn’t fancy my Skoda dealers offer of £220 inc VAT fitted for ONE bulb!. Bought a pair of D3S Osram Xenarc Night Breaker Lasers for £144.99 on Amazon. I’m pleased to say that they were easy to fit, unlike my old A3, which was a pig of a job!