What’s new? What did they do better?
First impression: sweet! They have nearly the same size as the B7 lights but appear a little smaller due to the dark design. The tabs are installed with screws by factory. No worries if one breaks. Well done audi.
Beams:
One clear lens projector for lowbeams and highbeams. One signal bulb with reflector behind the LED stripe. One LED stripe. No DRLs anymore. No citylights. Possibly a separate amber light for the US-specs. The signal bulb is obviously a new slim type which I have never seen before (pricey??).
Technic:
The LED stripe with little reflectors around are surely an eye catcher. Remembering good old B5 and B6 times the main difference between ecodes and US-specs. is back: The ecodes are clear cornered while the US-specs. come with an amber reflector installed.
The manufacturer one again is Automotive lighting (B5 and B6 was valeo) and guess what? They use a xenon ballast made by Mitsubishi. The ballast is pretty small and lightweight. What’s the reason for the third dummy ballast mount on the bottom? Possibly another ballast for curvelight housings? We’ll see.
D3S !
The headlights use D3S xenon bulbs which nearly look like D1S from the first view. You can identify D3S by the green insulator. D3S bulbs are HG-free and therefore much better to recycle. Attention: D1S and D3S are not interchangable (D1S works with 85volts and D3S with 42volts). Result: No more 6000°K aftermarket upgrade bulbs…
LED stripe
Damn! There is a second hole next to the ballast place. There are two plugs visible. One plug with 4 wires goes to the LEDs and one plug with 3 wires obviously goes into the ballast. 2 ballasts each side makes the whole headlight expensive. Thumbs down! I assume this LED ballast mainly contains resistors for the LEDs and a little circuit to power down the stripe a bit when the turnsignal is flashing. To make to confusion complete this second ballast is not made my Mitsubishi but by AL.
Bixenon retrofit?
Still possible. Once again the halogen and bixenon main plugs are different but there is an adapter availible (nearly the same one as the B7 adapter harness). Recoding the vehicle to xenon modus is surely neccessary.
Possible mods:
1. Clear corner mod. Is surely possible since the lens looks removable.
2. Eliminating the power-down function for the LED stripe when the vehicle is cornering.
I could think of using the bixenons without the second ballast by installing the correct resistors in between the wires and use a blind cover for the ballast position.
I would be in the need of another damaged housing where I can extract the Led stripe. I am very curious which voltage they need and how they are wired up internally. My actual housings were too expensive and look too good to wreck.
To be continued…
Jens
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by MontrealR
. The currency conversion bumps up and down this year and the headlights are still pretty new on the market. So there is a high demand in europe as well. Last but not least it depends on luck and the condition (any tabs broken, any scratches at the lens?). A used set of housings in decent condition should cost around $550 - $700.
. The two ones I got are mint.
Bookmarks