hi guys,

I recently bought an Octavia 2 1.6 tdi and its great, except... The low beams are like bicycle lights. I changed the bulbs to Nightbreaker 200's  still pathetic. The main beams are great. The green lights on lamp on the cluster is very faint too, voltage seems ok. Im hoping you guys have encountered and fixed this problem if not Im considering spots! Thanks in advance

Edited 21 March, 20242 yr by paulkennedy
typo

Hi

Could be a bad earth connection try a separate earth to one of the bulbs see if that makes it better.

@paulkennedy @Radiogaga Or a lightly burnt connector on the dip switch.

4 hours ago, Paws4Thot said:

Or a lightly burnt connector on the dip switch.

Unlikely to be burnt as the dip switch gives only a small signal to the power electronics which actually switches on the lights.

The dipped lights are poor compared with full beam on my CR 1.6 TDi. I too fitted better bulbs, which helps. 

 

Check the earthing as said above if the light colour is not white.

Thanks guys I will try that when the missus comes back.  Would this cause the low bean warning light to be faint ? I saw h7 LED bulbs online they claim to be 250% brighter, has anyone fitted LEDs?

17 hours ago, pikpilot said:

Unlikely to be burnt as the dip switch gives only a small signal to the power electronics which actually switches on the lights.

The dipped lights are poor compared with full beam on my CR 1.6 TDi. I too fitted better bulbs, which helps. 

 

Check the earthing as said above if the light colour is not white.

What type of bulbs did you use? I put nightbreakers in now condidering LEDs, thanks

1 hour ago, paulkennedy said:

What type of bulbs did you use? I put night breakers in, now condidering LEDs, thanks

 

I bought PHILIPS RacingVision GT200. They claim up to 200% more brightness. If the "more" is correct then that means 300% in total but I suspect that is a marketing hype. Note that brigher bulbs don't last as long.

 

Don't buy LED bulbs as it has been announced in the UK that coming soon it will an MOT failure to use LEDs in lights not designed for them. I supect that your county will follow.

This makes sense as I can easily tell which cars have retrofitted LEDs by the amount of scattered light sent towards me as a halo of light and the way they light up reflective signs that are out of the envelope of normal lights..

 

1 hour ago, paulkennedy said:

Would this cause the low beam warning light to be faint ?

It is not common for dashboard light to go dim. They are usually normal or not working.

I suspect yours is a dash panel fault such as dry solder joint.

I cant really see much difference with an earth wire attached, however I'm doing it with a bit of wire in daylight.

 

Im wondering are they supposed to look like this inside almost a burnt appearance to my untrained eye. I noticed theres 2 little lugs inside both lights, like you attach spade connectors to, would these be a good place to earth both lights?

 

Thanks for all the replies

On 23/03/2024 at 10:57, paulkennedy said:

I cant really see much difference with an earth wire attached, however I'm doing it with a bit of wire in daylight.

 

Im wondering are they supposed to look like this inside almost a burnt appearance to my untrained eye. I noticed theres 2 little lugs inside both lights, like you attach spade connectors to, would these be a good place to earth both lights?

 

Thanks for all the replies

Those brown marks look like rust, and if so the reflectors in the headlamps may have deteriorated as well.  If that's the case the only answer would be replacement headlamps.  There are plenty of units available via breakers - eBay is a good starting point - and when I last checked you could pick up a pair of units for under 100 squid.  Remember you will need facelift lamps, not pre-facelift.

 

Headlights will be replaced after easter  thanks everyone

I had the same issue. I used these LED bulbs and they were better. You do get an error on the dash though but you can get inline connectors to fix that.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XDQQRHC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

On 29/03/2024 at 10:48, FatblokeVRS said:

I had the same issue. I used these LED bulbs and they were better. You do get an error on the dash though but you can get inline connectors to fix that.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XDQQRHC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Not legal in the uk

More than likely your projector reflectors have burned out. Mine had very poor light output even with LEDs, with halogens they had the same output as my fog lights. 

iirc you can replace only the projectors on facelifts very easily. Another option would be new headlights. Going with used you never know what condition the reflectors are in.