Headlight / DRL / Foglight / Park light bulb replacement

[laggster]

Factory Bulb vs Osram Night Breaker Plus

Hi Guys,
Sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place and or revived an ancient thread.
Just thought I'd share my experience with changing my low beam bulbs.

I grabbed a pair of H7 Osram Night Breakers from PowerBulbs.
They arried in a little cardboard box with a big red FRAGILE sticker on it.

I thought I'd try a practise run of getting the bulb holders out of the head lamp assemblies to see how I'd go.
Just to get familiar with the procedure.

Driver's side, pretty hard to unlock the first time, now it locks and unlocks without much force.

Passengers side ... seemed impossible to unlock the first time. There was so little room, I had to remove the fuse box cover to get my unco hands in a workable position. Even still, I struggled to get it unlocked.

After it popped open, I tried locking it back in ... it's so cramped, I couldn't get enough rotational force on it to lock it into place. A good 10 minutes and a shredded and bruised right arm later, I managed to lock it into place.

I can see why people are removing the headlight assemblies from the car.
I'm not even going to attempt the parkers

And so I tried swapping the bulbs out, making sure I didn't get my grubby fingers on the glass.

Driver's side was nice and quick. Passenger's side involved more mangling and further struggles to lock into place.

But now they're in! and they turn on!

Last night, I tried taking photos of the beam they threw compared to the stock bulbs, but I only had my phone on me at the time and the pictures came out absolutely rubbish. The phone couldn't even see the difference in colour. To the human eye, they're a little more white compared to the factory bulb.

[Nerd Hat On]

Having a closer look at the bulbs, you can see the Night Breaker Plus bulb filament has more windings than the factory bulb. The windings also look smoother, the factory bulbs looks rather rough in comparasion. The glass is also tinted in the areas not directly next to the filament.



Even the print on the back of the bulbs is different. With the Night Breaker looking scruffier.
Main differences I can see is the model numbers, 64210L vs 64210NBP and the lack of "DOT" on the Night Breaker Bulb.



[Nerd hat off]

Tonight will be the first night behind the wheel with the new bulbs in.
I'll wonder how much of a difference over the factory bulbs there will be.

Thanks for reading

[Diesel_vert]

Having a closer look at the bulbs, you can see the Night Breaker Plus bulb filament has more windings than the factory bulb.

The upside is that the beam is more focused and intense, but this can adversely affect durability. There's no free lunch in physics!

The windings also look smoother, the factory bulbs looks rather rough in comparison.

That's normal as the bulb wears out.

The glass is also tinted in the areas not directly next to the filament.

Any sort of tint (e.g. blue tint) will reduce total light output. By leaving a gap, this ensures light output is not reduced whilst making the light appear whiter.

Main differences I can see is the model numbers, 64210L vs 64210NBP and the lack of "DOT" on the Night Breaker Bulb.

As long as the bulb has an E-mark (European approval based on ECE regulations), it can be used on public roads in Australia.

The U.S. Department of Transport (DOT) marking is not relevant here (or in Europe), but given the amount of vehicles sold in the U.S. it would make less sense for VW to use different bulbs for each market (adds inventory costs at the factory).

[shaguar]

Mk6 tsi bulb sizes

Hey everyone,

Was looking to upgrade my lights to something whiter.

Any reccomendations?

What are the bulb sizes to get for drl, main and cornering lights? Also from where?

Thanks for your help

[Aoife]

Hey Everyone,

Looking at changing low beam and side lights on my golf GTI and considering X-treme vision or Nightbreakers globes.

1) Given there is no aftermarket H15's, which of the 2 would be the closest match to stock H15?

2) If I went for the X-treme vision or Nightbreakers, what would be a good match for the park lights?

Cheers

[Aoife]

Ended up going the x-treme vision but have hit a bit of a hurdle.

The side lights are H8's on the golf MK VI not the HB4's that are shown on powerbulbs website. It appears the HB4's are used on the MK V.

Kinda my own fault, should have checked the globes before I ordered

Anyone want some cheap HB4's for their MK V ROFL.

[GTD Dubber]

Help with GTD foglights

I have been searching for over an hour for a post I saw regarding swapping the OEM bulbs that come on the car with ones that look the same 'colour' as the bi xenon 'white'. I would like to change the yellow colour light from the bulb, in the foglights, with a more matching white colour of the xenon. Purely for looks. I dislike the look of the yellow light when I have the headlights on. I am not that techo with the brightness rating and all that stuff just would like some help with what type of bulb, if in fact it is a bulb to get please. Thanks in advance. While I'm at it, is there an orange LED that can replace the blinker bulb? Will it require recoding, if there is one. Thanks again. PS. I wasn't too sure if this was the right place to post.

[vdubmotorworx]

check out BOLD SPORT mate...

[GTD Dubber]

Terrific, thanks VDUB

[vdubmotorworx]

All good... I was going to buy some for my Jetta but decided I would rather buy a GTD! Lol..... just need another 10 grand....

[GTD Dubber]

Thanks again, VDUB. Found website and ordered fogs and then, front and rear blinkers while I was there. Good choice and luck with the GTD. I haven't regretted it. (I did own a Mk VI TDI manual before the GTD). PS. Thanks for moving this to the correct thread, admin.

[GTD Dubber]

I recently ordered and have had delivered LED blinkers for the front and rear as well as LED foglights. (See the previous few posts for more background). I also have changed my taillights to LED tails about a year ago and had the car recoded to avoid the dashlight coming on. Today, I changed the front blinkers and foglights with no problem at all and no error codes. Now for the issue. I replaced one of the rear blinkers and turned it on and nothing happened, no blinker light. I swapped the LED for the other one and tried again, still no light. Has anyone had the same problem or know what could be the problem, please?

[Aoife]

Assume you tried the globe both ways around? I didnt know this about LED's before I read about it.

[GTD Dubber]

Yeah, I tried it both ways. This is the type of LEDs I bought. NEW Osram Series - LED Turn Signals - Pair (No Error) BSO-T20-11LOC 1 from Bold Sport.

[AdamD]

I replaced one of the rear blinkers and turned it on and nothing happened, no blinker light. I swapped the LED for the other one and tried again, still no light. Has anyone had the same problem or know what could be the problem, please?

Faulty LEDs? Did you put the original incandescent bulb back and it works fine (eliminating the possibility of a fuse)?

[Lucas_R]

Yeah, I tried it both ways. This is the type of LEDs I bought. NEW Osram Series - LED Turn Signals - Pair (No Error) BSO-T20-11LOC 1 from Bold Sport.

Ive got the same ones from Bold Sport in my car and they work fine. I love the instant on/off of the LED light. Perhaps the bulbs you received are faulty? Email them as i had a fitment issue with my front LED indicators and they sent me another set at no cost. So now i have 2x front sets

Are you by chance in Newcastle any time soon? You could try my bulbs in your car?