Hi all, 

Just bought my first Skoda Superb (Mk2, 2.0ltr, 140hp, PD engine, 2010, Elegance model).

Only paid small money for the car as there are a few things to tidy up for NCT test....but I couldn't pass over all the extras this car has, plus it's in excellent condition too. 


I'm ok with basic DIY repairs, do all general servicing on the family cars and work vans, however the headlights issue with this Superb has me at an impasse; 

The car came with xenon headlights from factory . 

From what I can gather, there must have been a problem with one or both xenon's (no idea as I have zero information from previous owners) and someone's 'solution' was to run some copper cabling from the front fog lights to a pair of H8 12v bulbs and put them where the xenon bulbs should be! 

Hard to explain, I know....but in order for me to get dimmed head lights, I must turn on the front fog lights. The front fog lights no longer come on by the way either.

The xenon headlight units are still in place as per normal.  Also, the headlight washers are still working correctly too.

I need to firstly undo whatever some cowboy has done but secondly figure out exactly what's wrong with the xenon's.

What I need here is advice on how to proceed....

- Do I go buy some xenon bulbs and/or new ballasts? 

- Is there a possibility a change was made to ECU to accommodate this mess?

- Are there any other components that I need to check when trying to restore xenon capabilities?

Striping down the front bumper, removing headlights to investigate is not a problem but I don't have any where to work under cover therefore need to have to hand items that will may be needed to repair. 

Also, I'm in the west of Ireland and finding a competent mechanic to do this work is like rocking horse ****e in a unicorn stable.

Buying 2 x new xenon headlight units would cost more than double what I paid for the car so I would rather exhaust other possibilities before sourcing these.

I have attached a few pictures of the headlights and the improvised wiring.

Any help greatly appreciated. Thank you. 

Edited 17 February17 Feb by KeithOD

Could be the headlights have failed and to keep cost down they botched something up or perhaps the switch failed and they again botched a bypass. Not sure how to check headlight units without buying new bulbs and possibly ballast. I would first make sure the headlight high/low beam switch is good an then take it from there.

Alasdair