Switching Xenon Adaptive lights for the Contenent
Discussion
Got an A4 Cab with adaptive Xenons. I'm off to Europe later in the year, and the handbook says that they can be swapped over, but at a dealer. Anyone done this, or know how to do it? Seems a bit daft to get them swapped over, then have to drive around over here for a bit before going abroad, and the same when I get back.
Cheers
Cheers
I think its changed by Vag Com, so if you can find someone with a laptop and a Vag Com cable for your car, they might do it for beer money? Maybe start a new thread asking for this?
Alternatively, if its anything like our Mini Cooper S with xenons, we had to just stick the stickers on the lights as no-one at Mini had a clue what i was talking about!!!
BTW the stickers are £7 from Halfords and are designed as a universal fit to all cars.
ETA not sure that the stickers will work with adaptive xenons....
Alternatively, if its anything like our Mini Cooper S with xenons, we had to just stick the stickers on the lights as no-one at Mini had a clue what i was talking about!!!
BTW the stickers are £7 from Halfords and are designed as a universal fit to all cars.
ETA not sure that the stickers will work with adaptive xenons....
Edited by pbarlow0032 on Tuesday 1st April 16:22
On our old '99 A6 we just pulled apart everything form inside the eng9ine bay and broke our fingers flicking the lever, anyone think it's a bit stupid that they no longer do this (granted it'd be tricky on teh new A6 with all that plastic and the wings covering the lights) our new A6 (halogens) we don't really bother, we carry some stickers just incase but we never have any trouble.
pbarlow0032 said:
ETA not sure that the stickers will work with adaptive xenons....
Yep - that's my problem. It's OK sticking the stickers on when the car is stationary, but I'll probably get flashed when I go around the first left-hander! Edited by pbarlow0032 on Tuesday 1st April 16:22
I'll go and have a chat to the local dealer, and see what's involved, and whether they're willing to tell me.
Waugh-terfall said:
On our old '99 A6 we just pulled apart everything form inside the eng9ine bay and broke our fingers flicking the lever, anyone think it's a bit stupid that they no longer do this (granted it'd be tricky on teh new A6 with all that plastic and the wings covering the lights) our new A6 (halogens) we don't really bother, we carry some stickers just incase but we never have any trouble.
Had a good look the other day without removing too much plastic, and there were no obvious levers. Being adaptive, I don't think it'll be easy.Ok bad news.
I have an RS4 with adaptive lights and foolishly thought there would be levers like on my S8 xenons, i only discovered this on the overnight ferry to denmark.
Basically they need to be changed using VAGCOM, there is a setting called "tourist", the problem is they don't do what the old ones did and shift the beams from RHD to LHD mode they simply point the beams lower and stop the adaptive trickery, this makes them less than useless especially on the autobahn at speed and to add insult to injury the dealer charges 100 quid for this scandal to set them on the outbound and back on return.
I went the stickers option, even with the adaptives they do stop you dazzling the oncoming drivers as they sit on the side of the beam that points at them, even with teh adaptive trickery it blocks out the most direct beam that causes the problem, although they do cut a fair range off your headlamps.
the real stinker of this audi fiasco is there is no solution - the LHD headlamps are completely different parts to the RHD headlamp units and there is no way to switch them short of removing the entire headlamp unit. how audi got past type approval with this kind of nonsense is beyond me, given you would expect they know how many audi drivers either do a lot of continental touring or own homes abroad i cannot believe they got away with it.
I have an RS4 with adaptive lights and foolishly thought there would be levers like on my S8 xenons, i only discovered this on the overnight ferry to denmark.
Basically they need to be changed using VAGCOM, there is a setting called "tourist", the problem is they don't do what the old ones did and shift the beams from RHD to LHD mode they simply point the beams lower and stop the adaptive trickery, this makes them less than useless especially on the autobahn at speed and to add insult to injury the dealer charges 100 quid for this scandal to set them on the outbound and back on return.
I went the stickers option, even with the adaptives they do stop you dazzling the oncoming drivers as they sit on the side of the beam that points at them, even with teh adaptive trickery it blocks out the most direct beam that causes the problem, although they do cut a fair range off your headlamps.
the real stinker of this audi fiasco is there is no solution - the LHD headlamps are completely different parts to the RHD headlamp units and there is no way to switch them short of removing the entire headlamp unit. how audi got past type approval with this kind of nonsense is beyond me, given you would expect they know how many audi drivers either do a lot of continental touring or own homes abroad i cannot believe they got away with it.
fatboy b said:
Wow - cheers for that lambogenie. You're right though, how the f
k did that get through the type approval??
i presume they type-approved the non adaptive lights variant of the car.k did that get through the type approval??I think its a pure scam for dealers to extract 200 quid a year for doing the fiddle, but given the fact they can make the adaptive lights do a "show off" mexican wave on startup and they are engineered to be electronically directionally pointed exactly why couldnt they do a simple "point left" or "Point right" settings, the tourist mode is such a hash it makes me thing of only one possible reason why they would do it and it is to increase the cost of making a parallel import, so if you buy a RHD car on the continent registered on export plates they can legitimately sell you a car with LHD config'd headlamps and force you to spend an extra 1000 odd quid to change them over to RHD ones.
maybe thats just speculation, but im sure its to make sure LHD imports cost more in the UK to protect the UK dealers.
Gassing Station | Audi, Seat, Skoda & VW | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff