I just got a 93 Passat Wagon. Love the car, hate the headlights. What are my options??
Howard Berman
I just got a 93 Passat Wagon. Love the car, hate the headlights. What are my options??
Howard Berman
Why do you hate them?
You could install driving lights. Or different bulbs for the headlights.
just thinking out loud. ;-) later, dave later, dave Reminder........ Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes. Frieda Norris
Because they suck. When the drivers side light of mine ate a rock I was grateful because it gave me the excuse to upgrade.
I went through these guys
Good idea, but potentially very glaring for oncoming drivers.
*Bad* idea. DOT headlamps provide a lot of glare already, so upping the wattage is horrible for oncoming drivers and likely won't help you much at all.
Howard, You have three main options that I am aware of. First, Hella makes a set of drop in projector beam dual round headlights for this car for about $550. That's your best bet. Second, Hella also made the European original equipment lights for this car, so called "E-codes." These are also available, for about $400. Lastly a company called Depo makes reproductions of the Hella E-codes. Lesser quality, but they can be had from the seller "importvision" on ebay for about $140. With either of the e-code options you'll also have to replace your side markers, as your DOT amber ones connect to the main lamp with a different clip than on the e-code ones. With any of these three, you should also replace your stock wiring with heavy gauge wire and relays. I'd recommend you go and search vwvortex.com's archives. Also feel free to ask me if you have any more questions. I just made this swap on my 92 wagon.
Jed
Depo stuff AFAIK isn't that bad. I bought their Euro reproduction front corner lamps for my Eurovan as well as 1/2 tinted 1/2 red tails for the Eurovan and the quality was about 95% as good as OEM. Other folks that have bought their Eurospec reproduction lamps for the Eurovan haven't had anything bad to say either.
Over on vwvortex you'll hear a lot of negative things about them, people will try to steer you away from them. I neglected to mention that I personally went for the depos. I wanted better lighting, but was having a hard time justifying spending the $700 or so it would cost for the Hella's and wiring on a 12 year old car with 200k. Build quality is okay, but not great. The lenses are glass, the reflectors plastic. I had to use silicone to re-seal one of the lenses to the reflector body after some water got in there, but they've been fine since.
Jed
Hmmm...interesting. I've been tossing around the idea for my Eurovan's (late long-nose style) headlamps. OEM Valeo units are about $400 but DEPO units are about $140. If the Valeos weren't that pricey I'd be all over them instead of considering the DEPO units, but seeing as the DEPOs are less than half the price it sure makes them very very tempting.
I've used Depos for the last 2 years on my MkII. No complaints or build problems, way better than the "original", just got round to adding relays and the output is excellent. I'm using stock wattage, but +15% bulbs. Very happy and would definitely recommend, they were only $115 a pair!
Where on their website do I find these? I'm actually looking for this type of thing for a 96 Ford Escort but could not find that or the Eurovan on the maxzone/depo site thx Tom
I haven't found them on their site directly.
I've found the Eurovan (might be listed as any combination of "Caravelle/Multivan/Transporter/T4") lamps at
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