Good bulb replacements?

[McDub]

I was thinking of getting some whiter bulbs for the golf.
while the current lights are quite nice and bright, im not a fan of the slight yellow colour.


I was looking at the ecs tuning site, and they seem to have a varitey of bulbs, and im trying to figure out what is what

H1 is the fog light?
H7 is the low beam? what about high beam?

And then what are 9006? and H3?

So bascally, i want my light cluster to look more impressive. I wouldn't mind a blue tinge to them either.
maybe a yellow bulb for the fog lights... (though then i couldn't use my fog lights around other cars if there's not fog)
can anyone reccomend any particular bulbs and where to order from?

Also, are they easy to install? i checked out the car manual, and it says to take it to your dealer/servicer. damn useless.

cheers

[goodfella]

Hi McDub,

I recently had to replace a bulb in my bora headlight, H3 for driving light, H4 for main beam.

Its very easy to do and from what I have read, its must be a lot easier than the Golfs. The main beam backing caps are held on by two clamps (just flick them back), and the indicator/fog has a rectangular cap that clips on the top edge and hinges on the bottom. Just be careful as I snapped the tongue off one of mine, so the race tape assumed fastening duties.

The drivers side is easiest as there is plenty of room to twist your wrist. The other side is slightly trickier, had to remove part of the airduct plastics, but didnt have to remove the battery.

Hope this helps.

[EVN-88G]

Ok so i have wanted to do this myself for a while and have done some research on it..

On a mk4 Golf, the High Beam is H1, the Low Beam is H7 and the Fog Light is H3.

Now Phillips make afew ranges of car bulbs of the 'euro' look. there are the 'Blue vision' ones that are 5000k and have a blueish tinge, then there are the brighter 'Crystal Vision' that have a pit of a whiter tinge and are 6000k. Autobahn sells both of these types, in all the different ones you need, and they also sell some other phillips ones. Each set of 2 also comes with a set of blue parker bulbs in the pack, so if you bought the H1's, H3's and H7's, you would end up with 6 parker bulbs.

so yer, im going to end up buying the philips crystal vision ones, but at autobahn i think they are close to $80-$100 for each set, ive also seen them alot cheaper on ebay (they are still philips, just with asian writing as they are from hong kong, same globe tho) but im going to get a special order price through bunnings to see how much i get off as employee discount

hope it helps!
Ev.

[gavs]

I have two different kinds of globes in my golf after testing some different brands.

As a starting note, I believe that some burson's stores also sell the Philips range.

When I bought my golf in July, I noticed that it had very bright globes and that in the right light, my whole headlight glowed blue. Driving at night with just the low beams on was amazing, the signs reflect so bright it's unbelievable, it took a while to realise it was my headlights lighting them up! My high beams on the other hand, well they were sh*thouse! They were totally overwhelmed by the low beam lights. I went shopping for replacements when I opened up the headlight. I found out that my car came with Philips Crystal Vision globes in it!!

Anyway, I decided on the Narva (also known as Osram) +80 blue for the high beams. Against a standard halogen, they are quite blue, but have a more yellow tinge compared to the crystal vision. Ultimately, I personally wouldn't purchase the Crystal vision, i'd go the blue vision as they have a greater light spectrum at night. Mine are great around town and in failing light, but at night they are very blue. Not a bad thing in town, but they have no light penetration on an un-lit back road or country road, which is where the Narva +80 blue's come into their own

In my opinion it's a good pairing!

[Treza360]

Have a look through my thread for the before and after pictures of my car with blue vision parking lights. Very little difference with the parking bulbs anyway. If you head towards the end you will find the shots of my car now with white LED parkers. Hope this helps a little with the parker light side of things.
Also when you change your bulbs make sure you get them aligned properly so you don't go blinding people (one of my pet peeves).
Cheers,
Trent

[McDub]

Have a look through my thread for the before and after pictures of my car with blue vision parking lights. Very little difference with the parking bulbs anyway. If you head towards the end you will find the shots of my car now with white LED parkers. Hope this helps a little with the parker light side of things.
Also when you change your bulbs make sure you get them aligned properly so you don't go blinding people (one of my pet peeves).
Cheers,
Trent

thanks, had a look > http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newf...=11516&page=21



i like!

I reckon that's exactly what i'll do. though i'll probably leave the high beams as they are.

though i'm a little confused as to what exactly you have.
the low beams are on the outside right, so what are your lowbeams? they look good.

And what are the parkers normally? H? Are the LED's a drop in mod, and where can i source them from easily.

I think i'll then put in a yellow bulb for my fog lights.

Cheers.

EVN-88G. that is exactly the info i was after, cheers. though again, what are the parkers?

so far we have:

High Beam is H1 - will keep stock atm
Low Beam is H7 - i'd like a nice white/blue light
Fog Light is H3 - i'd like a yellow bulb for fog
parker H? - probably an led, or something that looks nice and white/blue

I'll assume this is correct. can anyone recommend places to buy?

[Treza360]

thanks, had a look > http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newf...=11516&page=21
i like!
I reckon that's exactly what i'll do. though i'll probably leave the high beams as they are.
though i'm a little confused as to what exactly you have.
the low beams are on the outside right, so what are your lowbeams? they look good.
And what are the parkers normally? H? Are the LED's a drop in mod, and where can i source them from easily.
Cheers.

The Xenon Low Beams are the stock units on MkIV R32s (lucky me) . These units aren't cheap and Hella also do units which are similar but also cheaper (still expensive though). Give ope126 a PM about the units he has in his GTI.
I have no idea what the stock parkers are in the R, however I got leds from 42 draft designs in the USA. They're about $7 US each but are of excellent quality and they have good customer service. Have a look over in the recommended suppliers for some loving. Make sure you find what type of connection you have for the parkers too. I think all MkIVs (aside from the R) have wedge style bulbs.
Good luck.
Cheers,
Trent

Edit:
Have a look at a good selection of Hella lights here: http://www.tmtuning.com/vw/
Not sure how good/competitive TMTuning are though. I've heard they're service is a little slow and with the state of the Aussie dollar at the moment there could be better suppliers in Aus.

[McDub]

The Xenon Low Beams are the stock units on MkIV R32s (lucky me) . These units aren't cheap and Hella also do units which are similar but also cheaper (still expensive though). Give ope126 a PM about the units he has in his GTI.
I have no idea sorry what the stock parkers are in the R, however I got leds from 42 draft designs in the USA. They're about $7 US each but are of excellent quality and they have good customer service. Have a look over in the recommended suppliers for some loving. Make sure you find what type of connection you have for the parkers too. I think all MkIVs (aside from the R) have wedge style bulbs.
Good luck.

ok thanks, i'll contact them and get the right parkers.

as to the low beams, DAMN IT
Nah i don't want an expensive xenon set up, just a drop in bulb replacement.
though you can get drop in bulbs with xenon gas, so i'm always confused as to what exactly the difference is between proper xenon lights, and a xenon bulb. is it a power pack thing?

[McDub]

ok i got impatient and purchased some cheap things off ebay, hehe.
didn't want to spend $60+ on the phillips brand bulbs.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380073876796

will let you know how they go.
it actually comes with free T10 parker LEDS. would be nice if they fit!

i was looking at yellow fog lights, and they're expensive in comparison

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370014608088

probably because there's less demand for them.

[dubbed]

I like the yellow fog light idea - did they have them standard in Europe/Japan?

[EVN-88G]

EVN-88G. that is exactly the info i was after, cheers. though again, what are the parkers?

I believe they are W5W....

so the consensus here is get the philips blue vision over the crystal vision? the crystal vision have a higher kelvin rating, so that makes them a bluer light, and id prefer something whiter, so i guess blue vision is the go, although the name suggests they are blue

[fuzion]

I believe they are W5W....

so the consensus here is get the philips blue vision over the crystal vision? the crystal vision have a higher kelvin rating, so that makes them a bluer light, and id prefer something whiter, so i guess blue vision is the go, although the name suggests they are blue

if you go whiter headlight bulbs, expect your vision to drop. they may have clearer light and look brighter but whiter the light is the less you will see especially rain+night.. so just take the into account before your wanting the 'white look'

[gavs]

Where i work, we're affiliated with IPF who make off-road lights. They currently sell xenon gas-filled replacement lamps, many of which fit directly into factory lights without a full up-grade of the system. I don't know if they will plug directly into a golf tho.....

[McDub]

well i also ended up getting the plasma 2500k yellow bulbs, will let you know how they go.

so im gonna be installing low beams, parkers, and fog lights.
no-ones really given me any tips or advice on installing them, are they all straightforward? looks pretty cramped in there

[McDub]

ok i installed the eclipse "ice white" 4500k low beams today. (H7)
I'm quite impressed, considering they were about $30 off ebay.
Where the light is focused, it is quite a white light, but above where they are focused (for example the more diffused light that reflects off street signs), the light is noticeably blueish.
you'll definetly want to keep your high beams a yellow kinda light IMO.

here is what i mean:


so all lights are standard yellow halogen type, except for the low beams as mentiond above. (note: low beams are on outside of light cluster, high beam on the inside)

Eclipse low beam, and standard parker lights:


Standard high beam, eclipse low beam:


Eclipse low beam, and standard fog light:



At first i thought the parker lights are now horribly mismatched, and i didn't have time to try install the freebie LED parkers that i got, but the different colour lights sort of grew on me, and i find the parker lights now add an agressive look to the car. not sure, i'm thinking maybe try a different coloured parker, maybe a yellow LED or something, is that legal?
though if i get an LED parker, it won't light up the high beam area like you can see in the first pic, so it may not actually look as good... maybe i'll get a yellow globe for the parker... simillar to what is there now but brighter, or sorta more fluorescent...


My 2500K fog lights will get here in maybe a week, so i'll post up pics of them when i install them.

btw, the low beams weren't too hard to install. fog lights will be easy too i think. parker lights might be a bit hard, but i havn't had a good look at it.