Change Xenon Bulb

[Erik Solvang]

Hey.

I have 2004 Galaxy, but now my lights is being bad.

Is it easy to change xenon bulbs?

Is it easyest to take off the whole lamp?

 

Sorry for my bad english.

 

Regards

Erik

[Erik Solvang]

Problem solved :angry2:

[Per O]

Problem solved :rolleyes:

 

Hello Erik!

 

How did you solve it? I have same question. There seems to be torx screws at top of the lamp housing, is it these one should remove?

[gregers]

per 0,iirc theres 3or 4 torx screws that need to be removed so the head light can slide forward,i had to use various extension bars the tape my torx bit to the socket, :rolleyes: ,be careful when you slide the lamp out put a cloth on the bumper so as not to scratch it.

[Erik Solvang]

per 0,iirc theres 3or 4 torx screws that need to be removed so the head light can slide forward,i had to use various extension bars the tape my torx bit to the socket, :rolleyes: ,be careful when you slide the lamp out put a cloth on the bumper so as not to scratch it.

 

There is 4 screws to remove. Look down where the flash light is, there`s one hidden , must use a lamp to find it.

[davewill]

per 0,iirc theres 3or 4 torx screws that need to be removed so the head light can slide forward,i had to use various extension bars the tape my torx bit to the socket, :o ,be careful when you slide the lamp out put a cloth on the bumper so as not to scratch it.

 

There is 4 screws to remove. Look down where the flash light is, there`s one hidden , must use a lamp to find it.

 

 

When i changed my bulbs i just loosened the torx screws and pulled the light unit forward. If you remove the screws it is virtually impossible to replace the one at the bottom as you cants get hands to it. By just loosening you can tighten back up after you have replaced haedlight unit

[Wez]

Even with Xenon bulbs the light is still poor. HID conversion is the only way to go. Easy to do and very effective lighting. I am considering moretta lights converted to HID but not sure how effective these lights are. Anyone out there with Moretta's fitted? what are they like?

[Saif Rehman]

Philips x-treme bulbs are very highly rated amongst Galaxy owners.

[davewill]

Philips x-treme bulbs are very highly rated amongst Galaxy owners.

 

 

I changed to the Phillips XTreme and although they are not HID, they certainly are a brighter whiter light, than the standard 40w :o yellowish colour that are standard on the Gal

[Mirez]

Ok back to the original question, and not these namby-pamby wannaby HID lamps! :o

 

You WILL need to remove the headlight to change a factory xenon lamp. 4 thorx screws in total, two top, two bottom - remove all and slide the unit forward slightly - undo the wiring connector and remove the headlight (its worth using masking tape on the bumper as there are two metal prongs (part of the retaining method) which will scratch the bumper no matter how carefull you are!

 

With the unit removed you need to undo the 3 screws that hold the ballast in place (the big silvery grey box with high voltage stickers on it) - remove and again disconnect the wiring.

 

Behind this is a cover, held in place with two more thorx screws, one into the plastic and one into a metal plate - remove both and then the cover.

 

The lamp is now accessible, handle the new one in the same way as a halogen lamp and do not touch the surface!

 

Couple of points to note is that if you remove the headlight(s) from the car then you will screw up the alignment - Use a wall and flat road surface to mark the headlights beam before you start, that way you can readjust after. The second is that if you remove the passenger side light unit, the controller for the xenon's is part of the ballast on that side - disconnecting the headlight will cause the controller to forget its "level" or "home" position and subsequently the headlights will no longer auto-level. You'll need a REGISTERED VAG-Com system to fix this, once refitted connect to the passenger headlight and you'll find an error code logged as "Headlights failed to level" which won't clear. You'll need the car on a FLAT surface, with just you in it (seats ok, no luggage or passangers) and rested without the foot brake or hand brake applied - ie as flat as flat can be :(

 

Leave the headlights off and ignition on - goto "Basic Settings", find group one and hit "Go" - the headlights will go to a "home" position (wait 20 secs to be sure, but you should hear the motors adjust) - turn the lamps on and adjust them manually using the adjustment screws on each headlight until they line up with the markings on the wall made earlier. Move to group 2 on Vagcom and the exit the controller. That'll reset the home position for level suspention - when you load the back they'll auto adjust for the added weight and you won't get flashed by oncomers!

 

If you've ever changed the main battery in a gal with xenons then its worth checking for this fault as it seems any disruption to power for the left headlight will cause it to forget the setting and log this code - shutting down the auto levelling in the process. IMO there should be a warning light for this, as if its not auto levelling then a) you'll be dazzling on coming vehicles when you have any kind of load in the back and B ) they'll probably adjust them (or fail them I'm not sure how they test) at MoT time, resulting in the beam potentially being adjusted far too close to the road and a loss of light / reach.

Edited November 18, 2009 by Mirez

[George106]

Hi guys, sorry for resurrecting this thread but for benefit to other I want to discuss problem with Xenon headlamp auto-levelling after fitting shorter springs (lowering). Mine doesn't work atm. and as I have read on the other forums it may be caused by levelling sensors out of range do to lowering. Could anyone post values of front/rear sensor which they can be read in vagcom group 29...... I can't perform basic setting because of the front sensor being out of the range.

 

Thanks guys

George

[Mirez]

I wil do tonight, how much did you lower it by then? Not had anny issues after my drop albeit it was only a 30

[George106]

I wil do tonight, how much did you lower it by then? Not had anny issues after my drop albeit it was only a 30

 

Thanks Mark,

 

I tried to set it again this evening and for some reason it was successful. Till yesterday I had two errors logged in vagcom:

 

01042 - Control module: not coded

55-00- Adaptation Not Successful

 

01539 - Headlights Not Adjusted

35-00- -

 

Mine control box has not been coded (one of previous owners had some small collision on passenger side and replaced whole headlight but not coded @ dealers) and it was sorted yesterday however I still got:

 

01539 - Headlights Not Adjusted

35-00- -

 

I have been told yesterday I need to set some dealer code (e.g 00123)in vagcom setup to enable "advanced" functions.

 

When I checked values in measuring blocks>group 2> sender (G78) was around 1.95V and sender (G76) around 1.03V. Do you think any of these sensors is working on the edge of specification range?

 

BTW I have lowered with G-max springs which claimed drop up to 50mm front/rear but in reality it is much less.

 

George

[Mirez]

2.34V and 2.62V are mine... might need to look into that as its reading an 80% load...

[George106]

2.34V and 2.62V are mine... might need to look into that as its reading an 80% load...

 

When I checked sensors voltage there was in the 3rd field Status: ADP.OK and in 4th field Actuation motor: 80%.

I have logged short period when I was on/off the car and G78 changed from 1.91V to 1.99V and G76 from 1.05V to 0.98V. It shows it is changing voltage according to the weight shift. I am curious why are my readings so much different to yours :)

 

Headlight beam was set (manually as the levelling didn't work for some time) for the load which I carry all the time in the boot and during this adaptation I left everything in the boot as well. I may need to go to the garage to have beam set/checked with empty boot instead as I don't know what happened with the beam during adaptation be honest...

 

George

Edited December 8, 2010 by George106

[Mirez]

Well your suspention setup is lower then mine which could account for some deviation - I don't drive it daily and I've only just realised she's taken all the rear seats out for some reason so those figures will again be slightly different as its unladen! If ADP (Adaption) is coming back as OK then yours is reporting its happy but I find it quite weird that both our readings are 80% though...<BR><BR>I'm not 100% sure what adjusting the lights manually achieves, I believe when you do it the motors set the headlights to the default (or central) position and you then manually adjust them to suit - all further adjustments are done by the motors based on the sensors. To that effect if the default load position isn't setup correctly they'll never level correctly!

[George106]

Just to clarify, I have lowered more than you did but if I put some "extra" weight in the car, voltage arise a bit and never comes close to your values. I have set central(default) position with the load atm. and need to get in the garage to do it properly as my beams were adjusted manually before (when I remove everything from the boot, lights aim more to the ground)to get the car through MOT with full boot :). Also I have not checked the light alignment after I removed lights from the car for "black" mod.

 

Should I remove everything from the boot(don't have seats fitted as I don't use them) before I perform accurate basic setting and have headlight beams set manually in the garage during adaptation?

 

George

[George106]

Just to clarify, I have lowered more than you did but if I put some "extra" weight in the car, voltage arise a bit and never comes close to your values. I have set central(default) position with the load atm. and need to get in the garage to do it properly as my beams were adjusted manually before (when I remove everything from the boot, lights aim more to the ground)to get the car through MOT with full boot :). Also I have not checked the light alignment after I removed lights from the car for "black" mod.

 

Should I remove everything from the boot(don't have seats fitted as I don't use them) before I perform accurate basic setting and have headlight beams set manually in the garage during adaptation?

 

George

 

To update, I have been in the garage and performed basic settings through VCDS without load and settings wasn't possible as the rear sensor voltage was to low (around 0.68V). However when the boot was full, sensor voltage rose to 1.07V. I have discussed this problem with Mirez and in comparison with his sensor position I found out my sensor was disturbed during fitting new springs and sensor arm was moved to the other direction (pointing towards the back of the car) hence I got such a low voltage values. I have undone low lever mount and moved sensor arm the other way and voltage values are around 2.89V when empty and 3.59V full. I have tried adaptation again and headlamp motors are buzzing.

 

George

[George106]

Update, I have found time to remove driver side lamp to investigate if the levelling motor is working(was just noisy but no movement). I removed back cover and run output test for left light and motor shaft didn't move at all - just clicking. As I bought spare light units from ebay recently. I swapped whole motor unit and surprisingly headlamp is levelling atm. Also found passenger side lamp is working fine during output tests however couple of times failed to move when the load change was minimal (I sat in the car or on the bonnet) and I could hear the same clicking noise as the faulty driver side motor. I may swap motor in this lamp as well in the future.

 

George