Custom Headlight LED DRL project

[Kingofskies]

I really like the new A4 and A5 style DRL's. The solid line is super clean and sharp looking to me. I rock a set of Fly's LED DRL's, and he does great work, but I am constantly looking to build something more in line with the solid line style. I tried a set of cheapo aftermarket setups, but they sucked. Mostly they sucked cuz the projectors were of course junk, but the DRL's, well they show up like a solid line to a camera, but you could see the source of each LED in person. They were really just a diffusion strip in front of the led's, and the LED's weren't really close enough to work that way. I might still do something like to Fly's kit. Probably not as i'm pretty sure his LED's are spaced to far apart.

Protuning Headlights: Sorry, don't have any with the LED's on, don't know what I did with em.



Anyways, I finally decided to just buy a broken a5 light and see how the professionals did it.



Baked it and took the lens off and discovered that it's just three super bright LED's shooting through some light tubes.

One single:



and one double: (that I unfortunately broke when I removed)



two of the tubes close up:




So clearly that whole array won't fit in a B7 headlight, no matter what. So just to prove my concept to myself, I took the long Tube out, hooked it up to the single LED, and e-taped it to the silver inlay. It's actually not far off for size, though the LED and heat sink would either be right where the turn signal is, or extend outside the housing. Probably flip the whole thing and put the LED and heat sink where the high beam was, or behind the high beam.

Tube off:


Tube ON:

Stupid bright running off a 12v AA battery pack. Stupid bright.


This is also without the black strip that is supposed to go behind the tube.

And that's as far as I have gotten tonight. But I like where it is going. The only thing is that if I were to follow the inlay with the tubes, I think it would look too much like a Lexus. My goal is to create a look that is Audi without being a rippoff of a newer model. More like a homage.

Am I crazy? What do you think? Anyone willing to try? The a5 headlight was $100 (broken housing)

[Raymonddh]

Seems worth it to me. I break everything I touch otherwise I'd probably attempt too

[sa_seahawker]

I like where this is going!

[A4 Quattro]

This is the kind of thread I like to see. Custom projects are always fun, just as long as you don't do it half assed. By this looks of this project, it has a bright future (get it? Bright. The thread is about lighting.. oh, I'm hilarious).

[dalmation53]

This is the kind of thread I like to see. Custom projects are always fun, just as long as you don't do it half assed. By this looks of this project, it has a bright future (get it? Bright. The thread is about lighting.. oh, I'm hilarious).

I think you are doing it right.maybe if it comes out legit i will even pay you big money to do mines haha =]

[sa_seahawker]

This dude figured out how to make them. He's making angel eyes but the concept is similar. Shape the acrylic rod to whatever shape you need, then make the ends bend 90 deg back into the housing to conceal the terminals.

I would recommend making a shape template then use it to create a jig to shape the rod.

This type of LED looks 50x better than the chained individual LED style.

[yeoj112689]

This dude figured out how to make them. He's making angel eyes but the concept is similar. Shape the acrylic rod to whatever shape you need, then make the ends bend 90 deg back into the housing to conceal the terminals.

I would recommend making a shape template then use it to create a jig to shape the rod.

This type of LED looks 50x better than the chained individual LED style.

THIS! I wonder how hard it would be to make something like this where you can replace the LED from the outside of the casing if it were to go out without risking it not being waterproof? Shouldn't be too hard right? Could probably do all of this for under 20 dollars....