My right-hand Xenon-bulb is on its way to bulb-heaven (light is reddish and weak). May I change this myself or is it imperative that this is done by the dealer? If yes - how?
I've seen some warnings on this from vendors ("high voltage"... bla-bla), but mostly believe it to be the ususal crap to keeps the customers hands out of the engine bay.
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sells them for 98 GBP. Any better?
(Got the low beam only version - which means that they are on all the time, but assisted by halogen bulb on high beam).
I had exactly the same problem a couple of months ago (see some earlier posts in this group)
You can change the bulb your self without any problems, just make sure the power is OFF and you don't actually touch the glass on the replacement bulb. Removal is fairly easy. If its the same side as the air intake you will need to remove the hose to gain access (it just pulls off) Undo the two clips holding the headlamp cover. You can then twist the connector off of the Xenon bulb (the bulb type is a Xenon D2S) The bulb has some lugs on it, so you can only fit it a certain way up. Then just reconnect and replace the cover. The bulbs are expensive (and I ended up buying from Audi as I needed it straight away as I do a lot of night driving) BUT look on ebay
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and do a search using HID D2S I now have a set of spare Xenon's that cost me £35!!!
The bad news is......5 days after replacing the bulb, the Xenon control unit failed (called an ignighter or ballast unit) not sure if this was a coincidence or the bulb failure was an indication of the control unit nearing failure. That cost me £300 to replace as the whole headlamp needs to come out the car to get to the unit (its bolted to the underneath of the headlamp housing) Dealer job.
Also have a look at
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looks a lotcheaper and they ship anywhere. If you are in the UK (near Reading) I have a brand new spare bulb I can sell you!!!
Good luck.
John. [all replies to the news group as the email is a dummy one]
should be nice and easy, to be on the safe side disconnect the battery, do not spend 100 quid on a single d2s bulb, buy them from the states, at the moment our pound is well good against the dollar
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Have a look on ebay, and do a search for d2s you can then choose the colour you require, 4100k is a whitish light, 6000k looks better imo
that d2s bulb I just gave you the link for works out at about 17 quid :) no duty normally on items under £50.00
Ebay.com is better as it has tons more, and the $ is very weak at the moment.
4100k is the standard for HID but you can right up too 8000k for a real blue look, I would reccomend 6000k as this looks more like the Lexus/Merc new cars on the roads.
4100k is the brightest colour though and will give you the most output.
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