Hi folks 
I was wondering how straightforward it is to upgrade the headlights on my 2015 Octavia Scout from the standard halogens to the Xenon units?

Can I simply buy the whole assembly from a breaker/eBay etc or are there any additional wiring/motor/power requirements?

Many thanks
Rob

To be legal Xenon headlamps have to have headlamp washers and self levelling too - so you need to add the headlamp washers, and replace the manual levelling switch with the height sensors and the module to interface to them.

Hi Dave

Thanks for the reply. Much appreciated.

That sounds considerably more complicated and very likely much more expensive than I imagined. 

I have a dealership just round the corner so I may enquire as to exactly what is required and how much it’ll cost. 

Thanks

rob

Imo, and I'm not saying it's not a possible with some thought, but I would doubt they would even consider pricing this work. Dealers are not interested in upgrades/retrofits as they make their money on servicing and faults which this sort of work does not fall under. 

 

As @PetrolDave has stated, there is a lot of work involved in this "mod". 

 

Unfortunately cars with halogen headlamps have cannot be improved much other than fitting brighter bulbs. I've used combinations of Phillips extremes and osram nightbreakers and they are whiter and do improve them  buts it's not a "night and day" change.  

 

Regards. 

Edited 24 April, 20224 yr by paulski

I found keeping the glass clean helped. You'd be surprised how much a bit of dirt impacts the light transmission.

16 hours ago, paulski said:

Imo, and I'm not saying it's not a possible with some thought, but I would doubt they would even consider pricing this work. Dealers are not interested in upgrades/retrofits as they make their money on servicing and faults which this sort of work does not fall under. 

 

Unfortunately cars with halogen headlamps have cannot be improved much other than fitting brighter bulbs. I've used combinations of Phillips extremes and osram nightbreakers and they are whiter and do improve them  buts it's not a "night and day" change.  

+1 to both of those comments.

 

Dealers will usually only retrofit where the factory offer a complete kit with instructions - and no such kit exists for the halogen to Xenon upgrade.

 

My best experience with uprated (and road legal) halogen bulbs is with Osram Night Breaker Laser bulbs.

 

P.S. Don't go the LED retrofit route as they will be an MOT fail as the halogen headlamps are not marked for approval with any bulb type except halogen.

Edited 25 April, 20224 yr by PetrolDave

I just assumed this would be a relatively simple upgrade. In which case I will opt for the improved bulb option as per your reply. Having driven the car for the first time in the dark last night, I was quite surprised by how poor the lights were. I guess I was spoiled by the very impressive xenons on our old XC90.

Thanks for the reply.

Regards

Rob

 

Hi Rob,

I had exactly the same issue on my 2016 scout and opted for the bulb upgrade but it really wasn't worth it in my view.

 

They bulbs all claim a certain percentage increase over a standard headlamp but.i have a feel g that the standard H7 bulb is already much better than what the original standard is based on.

 

For my money if I was spending it again I would go for the standard H7 or stretch to the Osram Nightbreaker Silver which aren't that dear. You can get 200% bulbs etc but the lifespan is much less and for not much benefit. I too wanted LED or Xenon brightness but sadly I thin the Halogen I  whatever for can never match them.

 

Here's a thread I did with some before and after pics.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

Thank you for the reply. I shall have a read through when I get home this evening. 

Kind regards

Rob