It's an odd question, admittedly, but bear with me!

 

My old vRS (mk3 '63 plate) had bi-xenons as standard. When starting the car, the xenons used to do a leveling-up dance. I'm not quite sure what the purpose was, but they did nonetheless.

 

Fast forward to now; I'm in a mk3 '13 plate elegance with bi-xenons added as an optional extra. They don't do the dance though!

 

Can anyone shed some (bi-xenon) light on this?

• Is something wrong?
• Is it a feature added after the initial models were made?
• Is it something that can be changed in VCDS?

 

Thanks in advance

Bi-xenons do the dance to check the motors are working correctly.

 

When you say as an optional extra, do you mean it's factory fitted or someone has added the after it was built?

26 minutes ago, langers2k said:

Bi-xenons do the dance to check the motors are working correctly.

 

When you say as an optional extra, do you mean it's factory fitted or someone has added the after it was built?

Factory fitted.

Something is wrong. It should do the "dance" every time to check if all motors are working correctly. Do you have any warning on dashboard?

Then yes, they should dance and there isn't any coding to prevent it.

 

Generally speaking, the AFS system is pretty good at reporting errors to the driver so if there are no warnings, it's almost certainly working perfectly. A VCDS autoscan is always useful to confirm there are no error codes though

 

It's also possible to miss the dance as the headlights don't need to be on for it to happen. Just as a recent example:

 

 

1 hour ago, Milentije said:

Something is wrong. It should do the "dance" every time to check if all motors are working correctly. Do you have any warning on dashboard?

No, there's no warning on the dash at all and the lights work well.

 

1 hour ago, langers2k said:

Then yes, they should dance and there isn't any coding to prevent it.

 

Generally speaking, the AFS system is pretty good at reporting errors to the driver so if there are no warnings, it's almost certainly working perfectly. A VCDS autoscan is always useful to confirm there are no error codes though

 

It's also possible to miss the dance as the headlights don't need to be on for it to happen. Just as a recent example:

 

 

 

I am wondering if I have missed the dance somehow. I'll take lights off auto and try it tonight with ignition on.

 

Cheers!

Assuming it's dark, the light switch is on auto (so 'leaving home' works) and you get in and start it pretty quickly, I'd expect to see the dance.

They only do the dance when the engine is started.

 

So lights on (or are on as it's dark), then start the engine and then they do the dance.

Someone might have used vcds or obdeleven before you purchased the car to deactivate it. It might be worth doing a headlight realign procedure. Did mine and it raised them slightly higher than before.

Do you have any levelling adjustment by the light switch? 
 

You shouldn’t but it’s worth checking.

Same goes for headlight washers in the bumper.

 

The lights definitely should dance around when the engine is running.

Etka lists for mk3 Octavia also ordinary bi-xenon HID light without AFS (page 941-010).   

I imagine these would not dance, as they only need levelling motors. So first thing to check is do you really have AFS lamps? 

 

They would still do a pure up down “dance” just without the left right movement.

I'm still to check this out, but looking at the options in the 2013 brochure it seems as though all bi-xenons have AFS.

Is AFS activated on the MK3?

 

On the MK2 they were also listed as AFSII xenons but stupidly the AFSII functionality was never activated from the factory. They only did the self adjusting and turning as standard. The other features had to be activated with VCDS.

1 hour ago, Phil-E said:

On the MK2 they were also listed as AFSII xenons but stupidly the AFSII functionality was never activated from the factory. They only did the self adjusting and turning as standard. The other features had to be activated with VCDS.

 

The bending lights class as AFS so the MK2 did have AFS from factory. It was the AFSII features (city, motorway, rain mode etc) that weren't enabled

 

As far as I know all MK3's with bi-xenons have AFSII enabled. Still, any VAG xenon system should still do the startup dance regardless of xenon/bi-xenon/AFS/AFSII

Copied directly from the VIN information for my car (German spec of course):

 

"Leuchtweitenregulierung,autom.dynamisch mit AFS II"

 

So it apparently had AFS II but only AFS was enabled and not the "II" 😂🤣

 

I had to change the coding to enable the city mode etc.

OK, I finally had a chance to observe how the xenons behave. 

 

They don't seem to dance, fully. If my eyes are right, they take it in turns to move up and down, but I couldn't see any L-R movement.

 

Is there a VCDS setting I can manipulate for the full dance?

 

Cheers all

1 hour ago, nutters_uclan said:

OK, I finally had a chance to observe how the xenons behave. 

 

They don't seem to dance, fully. If my eyes are right, they take it in turns to move up and down, but I couldn't see any L-R movement.

If they're only moving up & down then it looks like AFS is disabled.

Are you testing them on "auto" setting or on the "on" setting, best to test at "auto" when it's dark as "on" disables AFS, or at least most of it.

 

I have a 67Plate SEL with LED headlights.

 

Mine dance up and down only on startup and the lights are on Auto. Have never noticed any left and right movement. 

36 minutes ago, FrankNicklin said:

I have a 67Plate SEL with LED headlights.

 

Mine dance up and down only on startup and the lights are on Auto. Have never noticed any left and right movement. 

The facelift LEDs don’t move left and right like the pre-facelift xenons.  

9 hours ago, dieselV6 said:

Are you testing them on "auto" setting or on the "on" setting, best to test at "auto" when it's dark as "on" disables AFS, or at least most of it.

 

Auto. It's looking like a trip to VCDS owner to enable AFS

On 06/03/2021 at 18:57, Phil-E said:

Copied directly from the VIN information for my car (German spec of course):

 

"Leuchtweitenregulierung,autom.dynamisch mit AFS II"

 

So it apparently had AFS II but only AFS was enabled and not the "II" 😂🤣

 

I had to change the coding to enable the city mode etc.

 

Out of interest, Phil, what website did you use to get the info based on your VIN?  Cheers

On 09/03/2021 at 11:25, FrankNicklin said:

I have a 67Plate SEL with LED headlights.

 

Mine dance up and down only on startup and the lights are on Auto. Have never noticed any left and right movement. 

LEDs do not do left-right. Bi-Xenons do. I had BiXenon on the old car and LEDs on this one and the difference is distinctive. 

MySkoda should do vehicle information based on VIN. Elsewhere (Sweden, for example) you can get it based on numberplate.

 

Edited 21 March, 20215 yr by brettikivi

9 hours ago, brettikivi said:

LEDs do not do left-right. Bi-Xenons do. I had BiXenon on the old car and LEDs on this one and the difference is distinctive. 

MySkoda should do vehicle information based on VIN. Elsewhere (Sweden, for example) you can get it based on numberplate.

 

 

Unfortunately the MySkoda app says nothing about my car, other than it's a 6-speed manual with a 2.0L TDI engine!