Fellow skoda experts, I am looking to replace my low-beam headlights on a Skoda Superb MK2 Estate Diesel (registration plate 2015). I have consulted the manual and videos and they all point to what appears to be a straightforward  rubber cap that you can open and with the required twist you can remove the bulb unit and carry out an easy swap. However, when I looked under the bonnet, there is no visible rubber cover cap where it should be and instead  what I see is as pictured in the attached (this is the left side of the car). I am scratching my head to try to understand what kind of headlight arrangement this is and whether this is a longer doable DIY job with standard tools or whether this needs a trip to the garage (thinking of how much they will charge for labour as I already have my two H7 bulbs ready).

 

Grateful for any advice on this.

 

Thank you,

Dev

skoda_headlight_pic.jfif

apologies, the picture I showed is the right side of the car, i.e. the right side headlights

My computer only wants to download the file rather that viewing on the forum - and has flagged up a security warning.

 

Is it possible to post the photos directly to the forum to be viewed?

 

Are your headlights halogen bulbs or HID?  Probably the latter as it's an elegance.

My recently sold poverty spec 2014 facelift S model had easily accessible rubber caps and the H7 halogen bulbs were a simple anticlockwise twist and remove.

 

 

Edited 16 October, 20241 yr by bigjohn

Hello, I believe these are halogen bulbs fitted in there (I am referring to the low beam bulbs here). Definitely can't locate any easily accessible rubber cap  on this Elegance Skoda model.

I think that's a ballast unit on the rear so HID.  I've only done halogen H7 so I'll let someone else reply.

Edited 16 October, 20241 yr by bigjohn

Thank you, so I take it that I can't put standard H7 halogen bulbs in there. I bought a pair of the Osram Ultra Life H7...

 

Thank you for helping with this.

 

40 minutes ago, Dev46 said:

Thank you, so I take it that I can't put standard H7 halogen bulbs in there.

Correctamundo!

Hi 

Yep that is a Ballast on the rear of the headlamp unit, so it’s a Xenon or Adaptive bi- xenon headlamp 

 

easy way to confirm do you have the little thumb wheel on the dash to adjust the headlights 

 

other way at night when you start the car do the headlights move up and down side to side on their own 

then they are xenon headlights 

Thank you Gleebo. Sorry in advance for the long explanation but please bear with me so you understand what is going on here. The thumb wheel (pictured below only regulates the dashboard light brightness, it does not regulate the headlights). As per the picture below, there is only one thumbwheel so the missing one would have been for headlights adjustment. The manual says "Vehicles that are equipped with Bi-Xenon headlights do not have a manual headlight range adjustment control", so this is suggesting that these are bi-xenon headlights. I certainly did notice that at night in the dark, when I turn my lights on (this does not happen on auto-light), the headlights move up and down and side to side on their own, so this is confirming your thoughts on these being xenon headlights. Now herein lies my dilemma. I bought the car three years ago and I guess that the bulbs that came with the car were at least three years old. The bulbs have been working fine but I felt they were not bright enough at night and thought that since they were at least three years old, I should change them. I went onto a car parts website and when I put in my registration number, it recommended H7 halogen bulbs and I bought Osram Ultra Life H7 55w halogen bulbs. At the time I was not aware of the fact that my car might have different types of bulbs. I had a servicing recently and asked the garage if they could replace my low beam bulbs with the new Osram Ultra Life ones. They said if it is an easy 10 minutes job, fine and they would do it for free but if it involves a process where the whole headlamp needs removing, they would ring me and discuss a labour quote for this. I asked them to keep the old bulbs if they ended changing them. I picked up the car and they told me they had changed the bulbs. They gave me the old ones which were Osram Original H7 64210 halogen bulbs as well, so I did not think any better of them . The new low beam bulbs are working fine although as of yet, I have not yet driven on the road at night where there are no street lamps to fully appreciate if they are brighter. When I started to digest the messages on this board, I started doubting whether something was wrong with using halogen bulbs. I went back to the garage and mentioned the presence of ballasts and asked whether these should have been HID bulbs instead (I did not question to challenge them because I bought the bulbs without advice but rather was wondering if they would have picked up the mismatch bulbs when they saw the ballasts). They explained that the bulbs they removed were also halogen bulbs and the new bulbs I had provided them were better quality. They did not delve too much on the ballasts and though I asked whether these ballasts would interfere with the working of the halogen bulbs (especially if the bulbs are 55w and I think, although I am not sure, the ballasts in the car were 35w), and they assured me this was not a problem. I am clearly in doubt now about the whole thing. I understand halogen bulbs have a different fitting so would not have been able to fit into the slot if the old bulbs were hid, but the old bulbs were also halogen H7 55w. So in the end, I am confused myself as to what is going on. I read that halogen bulbs do not need ballasts so they must be hid bulbs and yet the new ones fitted into the slots just as the old halogen bulbs that were there. One thing I would also point out though is that in the recent past, I used to have an intermitten warning light about AFS bending lights not working (these came on and off if I am driving around a lot of bends) and my reading on this matter pointed to the direction of replacing the bulbs hence my purchasing new bulbs!

 

My original post started on the basis of whether this was a DIY job - all videos point to a simple rubber cap that you remove and twist and change the bulb. However, I could not locate these rubber caps anywhere (see original picture in original post) hence writing to this forum to try to understand more about the car. I was chat messaging with a Skoda adviser and they don't have details of my vehicle in their system and could not tell me more. I'll probably have to go into one of the shops to try to find out more. But I am wary of having to spend more money if they tell me that something is not right with the headlights.  If anyone could shed some light (no pun intended) on the above, especially using a halogen versus what should have been a hid bulb and how easy it is to do a DIY bulb fitting if in the end I have to purchase hid bulbs (which I don't mind). Grateful for any thoughts on this.

 

 

 

 

Hi no problem at all 

So you can only adjust the dash board lights and your headlights do the headlight dance so confirms they are Bi -Xenon came as standard on the Mk2 in Elegance and Lauren & Klement models 

 

So looking at the headlight the outer round dome type light is the Bi-Xenon (both dipped beam and high beam) 

 

the inner headlight is the sidelight H7 Halogen 

 

plugging my reg into Euro car parts I get options for the halogen bulb 

 

but I also get the Xenon bulb coming up 

 

in my case it’s offering me the Philips Vision D1S Xenon bulb 4300k for £62.99 per bulb 

 

So it would be £125.98 to replace both Xenon bulbs plus the H7 Halogen if I replaced them all 

 

I may be wrong but to me the garage has only replaced the Halogen bulb in the headlight, not the Bi-Xenon bulb 

On 21/10/2024 at 12:44, Gleebo said:

Hi no problem at all 

So you can only adjust the dash board lights and your headlights do the headlight dance so confirms they are Bi -Xenon came as standard on the Mk2 in Elegance and Lauren & Klement models 

 

So looking at the headlight the outer round dome type light is the Bi-Xenon (both dipped beam and high beam) 

 

the inner headlight is the sidelight H7 Halogen 

 

plugging my reg into Euro car parts I get options for the halogen bulb 

 

but I also get the Xenon bulb coming up 

 

in my case it’s offering me the Philips Vision D1S Xenon bulb 4300k for £62.99 per bulb 

 

So it would be £125.98 to replace both Xenon bulbs plus the H7 Halogen if I replaced them all 

 

I may be wrong but to me the garage has only replaced the Halogen bulb in the headlight, not the Bi-Xenon bulb 

 

 

Hi Gleebo, thank you for the detailed explanation. I have been pondering over this and I have to admit that although this makes sense, I still cannot get my head round what type of bulbs I have and what was replaced when I handed the garage a pair of H7 halogen bulbs (I did not offer xenon bulbs as I thought at the time my car uses halogen bulbs and only wanted to replace both low beam bulbs hoping putting newer longer lasting ones will be better and provide a bit more brightness than the old ones). Based on your explanation, I was not sure if you were referring to a third bulb in the front. Let me explain. I have the image of my headlamp below (driver's side obviously). Please look at the image in front of you and left means on your left side and right means on your right side of the image in front of you. I have signposted with writings as well. What I can't get my head round is the fact that the leftmost bulb on the outer end of the lamp switches on when I switch on my headlight or when it is on auto and automatically switches on if the sensor detects the absence of sufficient natural light). The rightside bulb of the headlamp does not switch on. It only switches on alongside the leftside bulb if I turn on my high beam switch). That raises so many questions in my head:

(i) is there a third bulb in the headlamp assembly which uses a H7 halogen and which the garage replaced?

(ii) I understand that bi-xenon lights operate both low and high beam in one single bulb so not sure the fact that the low and high beams alternate in different bulbs means they are not bi-xenon bulbs

(iii) If they are xenon bulbs (not bi-xenon), I wonder if they both have to be HID bulbs or whether one of them is halogen (sorry for my ignorance on this matter), in which case the garage replaced the halogen one that I gave them (I did say replace the low beam bulbs). Xenon bulbs have different fitments so the fact that the halogen was successfully replaced

(iv) if they are both halogen bulbs, then one of them was replaced by the garage (I suspect the low beam one as I also noticed the round dome inside glass on the left side was a little bit foggy after the halogen light bulbs were replaced

(v) if these are actually all halogen lights, why are there ballasts behind the lamps (please see original picture when I first started the conversation). Could it be that the headlamps initially were bi-xenon lamps but were then replaced to normal halogen bulbs.

 

I went into the dealer to try to get more but they sent me somewhere else that does service and parts in a different location, and I have yet to visit them.

 

I really need to get to the bottom of this to try to understand what is going on with my lights. As I said, if it means buying replacing xenon bulbs, no problem but I need to first establish which bulbs to buy.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi 

 

I think the best thing is to find a good local independent VAG/Skoda specialist and take it to them 

 

from your picture the left hand bulb (round one is your high beam and main beam xenon bulb 

the one on the right where you can clearly see the halogen bulb is your main sidelight bulb 

 

sorry I can’t offer any more advice, seems best if you speak to a Skoda independent specialist who can advise in person and explain, will have more technical expertise than myself 

2 minutes ago, Gleebo said:

Hi 

 

I think the best thing is to find a good local independent VAG/Skoda specialist and take it to them 

 

from your picture the left hand bulb (round one is your high beam and main beam xenon bulb 

the one on the right where you can clearly see the halogen bulb is your main sidelight bulb 

 

sorry I can’t offer any more advice, seems best if you speak to a Skoda independent specialist who can advise in person and explain, will have more technical expertise than myself 

Hi,

thank you. I will do that. Thanks you very much for your time offering some insights into this. I really appreciate this.

Best.

I have a MK2 2013 Superb Elegance (facelift) with Xenon lights. Dunno if they are Bi-Xenon or Xenon.

 

I'm getting the Drivers side Dipped Headlight warning message. Plus light wasn't working. Dunno which light, but not the side light, it was still working. Anyway, left it with mechanic to replace bulb. But replacing the bulb didn't fix it. Mechanic checked the wiring but couldn't get to bottom of problem.

 

Mechanic has told me it needs new headlight but Skoda are looking £1200 for that. Mechanic is trying to source an alternative from a scrapyard.

 

But now I see this post, and the word ballast, which i have never heard before regarding headlights.

 

I'm hoping my car is a ballast problem.

 

So @Dev46..... what stage are you at now? Did you get sorted?

 

Edited 12 February, 20251 yr by lullable

Hey there, I asked about mine and was told I need DS3 bulbs, which I understand are Xenon bulbs. My vehicle has separate halogen bulbs for high beam, so I believe the D3S bulbs are Xenon (and not bi-xenon). Behind the headlamps are 35W ballasts, which I understand help with the efficient operations of these Xenon bulbs (other users might give a better explanation of what these are for, but I read about xenon ballasts from this link https://www.powerbulbs.com/blog/2016/10/what-does-a-hid-ballast-do).

 

£1200 is a lot for a headlamp replacement - if the car value is around 6k or so, that's around 20%! If you have to go for a new headlamp, I would perhaps check on ebay and then work out if the cost + labour from your own mechanic amounts to the quoted £1200.

 

Dev

 

 

Thanks for responding. I'll maybe put my own post up.  

Bi-xenon headlights also have halogen full beam bulbs, housed in a reflector alongside the xenons. So the presence of the halogens doesn’t mean you don’t have bi-xenons.

 

The xenons do both full and dipped beam, with the halogens duplicating the full beam. The reason for the duplication is so that the halogens can provide the quick response needed for flashing your lights when the headlights are switched off:  the xenons would take too long to light up.

 

The xenon bulbs are D1S on pre-facelift cars (up to about 2013) and D3S on later cars.

 

If lullable’s car is a 2013 then it could be either facelift or pre-facelift. If the DRLs are a strip of LEDs integrated with the headlight clusters that is a facelift; pre-facelift cars have the DRLs alongside the fogs at the bottom of the bumper.

Edited 12 February, 20251 yr by Dr_Mike_Oxgreen

Thank you for the clarification Mike - I was under the (wrong belief) that if you have halogen bulbs, these are the high beams lights and therefore you would need Xenon (single bulb for the low beam) and not bi-xenon (are these dual bulbs that do both low and high beams or a clever use of shutters on just one bulb?), but I think you have clarified that is not necessarily the case. Thank you - this is very helpful. I could not get a clear answer searching this up but I take it that D3S are Xenon bulbs rather than bi-xenon bulbs (I have been advised I need D3S for my vehicle, which you have also pointed to in your post).

 

Thank you for contributing to this post.

 

best,

Dev

Edited 12 February, 20251 yr by Dev46
editing post

I believe the xenon bulbs are just one thing, and bi-xenons use shutters to control the light and flip between dipped and full beam. We’re reaching the edge of my knowledge now though! 🙂

The bi-xenon setup uses a single xenon bulb with a mechanism that repositions the bulb relative to the projector lense to switch between low and high beam. As noted there's a separate halogen high beam bulb too. The xenon bulb is part of the AFS and if there's any problem in that system it will automatically aim the headlights as low as possible. This is one of the main reasons for having the fixed halogen units - it's a usable backup if the xenon system fails.

 

The ballast is the power source for the xenon bulb. These bulbs work by passing a very large voltage through a gas capsule to create an arc. The ballast's job is to take the 12 V from the car's electrical system and step it up to the ~20000 V needed to drive the xenon bulb.

On 12/02/2025 at 14:06, Dev46 said:

Thank you for the clarification Mike - I was under the (wrong belief) that if you have halogen bulbs, these are the high beams lights and therefore you would need Xenon (single bulb for the low beam) and not bi-xenon (are these dual bulbs that do both low and high beams or a clever use of shutters on just one bulb?), but I think you have clarified that is not necessarily the case. Thank you - this is very helpful. I could not get a clear answer searching this up but I take it that D3S are Xenon bulbs rather than bi-xenon bulbs (I have been advised I need D3S for my vehicle, which you have also pointed to in your post).

 

Thank you for contributing to this post.

 

best,

Dev

Have you managed to sort this yet?

I have the same car and can confirm that you need HID D3S bulbs, the H7 halogens are for main beam.

Removing the ballasts is easy enough but the plastic light covers are very tricky. One had a missing screw when I bought the car and I managed to break the equivalent screw mount on the other side - perhaps you're supposed to remove the front wheels and wheel arch covers and maybe the front bumper too, you know how it is with modern cars!

It's doable but very, very fiddly.

Then, you can get to the back of the bulb and it's secured with a circular clip (like traditional halogens) which is quite easy to remove.

Refitting is another matter entirely, make a note of the bulb alignment as the tags are nowhere near as positive as normal halogens which are almost impossible to fit wrong, the HID bulbs by comparison feel sloppy and it's extremely tricky to get the clip to engage.

If you're lucky, it might all go together first time but don't be surprised if the lights wobble on uneven road surfaces because what you thought was correct, isn't quite seated right.

I swear these things are designed to be as awkward as possible in order to discourage DIY mechanics.........but after several attempts, I did manage it successfully.

 

As with halogens, be very careful handling the bulbs a) they're fragile and b) are likely to blow if contaminated with grease from your fingers.

 

Unusual set up and different to my (sold in 2016) 2005 Audi A4 with Adaptive Bi Xenon's........ (So VAG group, but earlier)

 

These DID NOT have an additional Halogen bulb for the Main / High beam.

Xenon bulb (middle) alongside Turn bulb (outside) and switchable DRL (inside)

 

You could hear the flap 'flip' when you flashed the high beam, and it was just a solenoid that pushes the flap up and a tiny return spring on it.

 

Adaptive = left to right movement  and Bi Xenon = lighting both the Dipped and Main / High beam.

 

I know this for sure as mine failed it's mot due to a very tiny connector inside the light coming loose from an equally tiny PCB.

I was annoyed as this only affected the high beam, which I never used or needed. The Dipped beam was fine.

 

I managed to mend it but it was a bumper off job to get the headlight out, to work on. It passed it's mot but due to the movement of the bulb holder mechanism (Adaptive), it came loose again a few years later iirc.

I think I mended it 3 or 4 times as it was very tricky trying to mend it with the only access through the hole for inserting the bulb. 

I did take photos ........ That tiny little blue connector.

 

The other option was circa £1000 new headlight unit......... bugger that.

I did need to 'fashion'  a long screwdriver socket to insert down through the wing to unscrew a fixing at the bottom of the wing, holding the bumper on, oh yes, including wheel off and all wheel arch covers and undertray......... etc all just to get the headlight out.

 

iirc you had to take the bumper off if you just needed to change the bulb. It may have been due to access at the back, with only access to the turn bulb IIRC.

Edited 10 March, 20251 yr by Tilt

I do miss working on my Cortina, I distinctly remember removing the heater hoses and heater matrix from under the bonnet, giving it a good clean and flushing it through under the tap.

Refitting and bleeding the system was a doddle and you didn't have to remove any plastic boxes, pipes or any of the weird and wonderful contraptions that hide modern engines.

Then Ford moved the heater matrix to underneath the dash, behind the central console in the Sierra (even with the same Pinto engine as the Cortina) - making it awkward and impossible to remove without soaking the carpets.

All companies have similarly made their cars increasingly difficult to work on but I guess they are more sophisticated and reliable......just frustrating for us tinkerers!

 

On 21/02/2025 at 17:21, Tilt said:

I managed to mend it but it was a bumper off job to get the headlight out, to work on.

 

The other option was circa £1000 new headlight unit......... bugger that.

I did need to 'fashion'  a long screwdriver socket to insert down through the wing to unscrew a fixing at the bottom of the wing, holding the bumper on, oh yes, including wheel off and all wheel arch covers and undertray......... etc all just to get the headlight out.

 

iirc you had to take the bumper off if you just needed to change the bulb. It may have been due to access at the back, with only access to the turn bulb IIRC.

Yep, OP is really lucky that the ballast is just mounted to the rear of the light unit.
On the Mk2 non-facelift, it's mounted under the housing.. so the only way to get to it is a bumper off job, as I found out one winter's morning when the 'bulb out' warning lit up.