2012 Passat HID DIY Install

Niner

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I may get them installed before month end or before some real night time driving, but being it's so close to summer, and I don't drive much at night, it could be a while until I really get motivated to install and use them. We'll see...
Edit: Well the kit I bought looks identical to the original kit by Coffeemade, sans a decal on the thinline Ballasts, and a wrapper around the bulbs, and it does come with the additional adapters, for about $116 shipped.

I bought them here. http://uspmotorsports.com/product_info.php?products_id=632{98} in the 4300K temp range. Will see if I can get around to installing them soon .
 
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Niner

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Install was a piece of cake, with a few choice moments where my large hands were doing spaghetti fingers trying to fit the adapter with the HID bulb all aligned properly with the lug where it belongs in the adapter all fitting and locked down inside the headlight housing. Quite a few #@$! and "muthah f$#@!r were leaked from my lips while doing this project, but I got it.



The Kit. It does come with the adapters. Use some super glue to set up the bulbs on the adapters beforehand.







Watch the video that comes with the lights from the place you bought the lights, they don't come with instructions at all.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/beNlGogfz3E?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


First order of business is pull the caps off then rotate the light backings about 20 degrees counter clockwise, towards fender for the left light, towards engine for the right light.


Next, pull the head light connector. I had to turn on the ignition and headlights switch and pin out which wire was hot, besides the brown ground wire. It was yellow with a blue stripe on the left headlight, and yellow with another color strip, adjacent to the brown wire, on the right headlight, numbers 5 and 6 on the fitting.





Crimp on the connectors provided, like this, for the right light. Hot is yellow with a black stripe on the right and yellow with a blue stripe on the left. Brown is universally Ground on German cars, for the most part.





Cut the black sealer donut, very carefully without nicking wires, off the HID. Do NOT TOUCH the HID bulb with your fingers, you'll destroy it, so handle wires only not the glass bulb.





Attach the ground wire provided with the screw bag to the ballast with the machine screw provided.





Install the HID's with adapters as shown in the video. It all has to be shoved in the back of the headlight very carefully keeping everything aligned with the spade lug of the HID light base staying in alignment with the adapter base.

Take the rubber covers and with dykes, cut a slit for the wires from the headlight bulb to pass through.




Pass the wires through the covers after the bulbs are installed in the housings. Press the covers back in place carefully, all the way around the edges, making sure they are seated fully.

Clean the side of your headlight housings, making sure they are dust free and spotless. Apply the double backed tape to the mini ballast, and attach to the side of the headlight housings with the wiring all facing the firewall.

Plug the male spades into the connectors you crimped on, red from ballast goes to the yellow wires with stripes, black from ballast goes to the brown (ground) wires. Plug the other connectors from the ballast to the wires from the head light.

Attach the black ground wire from the ballast housing via a self drilling /tapping tek screw into a section of the fender lip. On the right there is a ground lug already that exists, I do not know if the ground lug will fit over it.

When it's all plugged in, it should look like this.














Time to go on a Mountain Bike ride and wait for tonight to test them out on the neighbors garage door across the way for the cutoff lines. ;-)

Later on, I will go in with VCDS in the long coding section, and bump the headlight voltage up to 13.8 V to drop the start amperage required of the wiring at start up of the ballasts to arc the lights to get them going.
 
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Coffeemade

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Later on, I will go in with VCDS in the long coding section, and bump the headlight voltage up to 13.8 V to drop the start amperage required of the wiring at start up of the ballasts to arc the lights to get them going.
What? I didn't have to do this, why would you?
 

Niner

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What? I didn't have to do this, why would you?
It's not a matter of if you have to do it, it is an option.... HID lights do better with higher voltage and lower amperage, especially at start up, it keeps the start draw down if the voltage is higher. I brought it up with Veedubtdi, and he agreed, and suggested 13.8V is a good point to be at. Just trying to be ahead of the curve, ya know! That, and I've built a few lights for riding my Mtn bike at night, LED's and such with forward voltage, amperage, bucks, PWM for dimming, drivers, etc to calculate. HID's are Old School on mtn bike lights.
 
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Coffeemade

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It's not a matter of if you have to do it, it is an option.... HID lights do better with higher voltage and lower amperage, especially at start up, it keeps the start draw down if the voltage is higher. I brought it up with Veedubtdi, and he agreed, and suggested 13.8V is a good point to be at.
When you do it can you post a how to?
 

VeeDubTDI

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Yeah there's a place in the long coding for adjusting exterior light voltage. I believe it was 12.5V by default, but I don't remember. I'll have Jason post.
 

compu_85

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It's one of the options in the long coding of the body control module. I forget which bit it is, but you'll know when you have it, you get a drop down list of available voltages.

-J
 

Niner

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I believe it was labeled "head light voltage" and I was under the impression that it was turned down to make the Halogen bulbs last longer. Most headlights run on whatever voltage the voltage regulator produces after the alternator, around 13.7V, which is also favorable for charging your lead/acid battery without boiling off or overcharging the battery.

PIAA brand lights, while quite bright, do not last too long, they burn out quickly. by dropping the voltage to them a half a volt or so, they lose a bit of brightness, but will last significantly longer. PIAA bulbs are basically overdriven on voltage for the additional brightness.
 
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Niner

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These were shot with my Galaxy S2.






Portait shot. Very happy with these plug and play with the sharp cutoff of the lights with these HID 4300K temp bulbs. Now if we can just mod this old drivers bad habits... I just might be tempted to try 75MPH at night with my old eyes while wide awake. :eek:




 

r11

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Niner,

so how do you like dem 4300K bulbs, vs bluish Boy Racer 6000K look ? Toldya the install was a piece of cake :)
 

Niner

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Very impressed with how pure ,crisp, the white light is out the front. Like Psychelidelic Xenon tubed strobe light white from the early 1970's when I had electric shop in Junior High School in 8th grade. Just don't start drinking the beer in the garage/shop until after you have the lights and adapters seated in the headlight housing. That would be too soon to celebrate. This is a good weekday, after work project.
 
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MN_TDI12

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I'm curious as to how will the bulbs last w/ these. In my experience, the light output decreases significantly after 3-4 months.
 

Niner

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I'm curious as to how will the bulbs last w/ these. In my experience, the light output decreases significantly after 3-4 months.
Source of your HID kit, where and what company did you buy it from?
 

VeeDubTDI

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6000K is far from "bluish boy racer" blue... you must be confusing that with 8000K and up.

 
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Niner

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Damn VeeDub! There goes the end of HID WARS! Back to 505.01 wars for you!
 

Niner

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Wow! Complete with fingerprints! J/K!

Dale Earnhardt or Richard Childress?
 
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compu_85

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Got this done on our car tonight.



I did the install a little bit differently. I decided to remove the fixtures from the car and splice into the wiring going to the low beam bulb. This means there are no cuts / splices on the car harness.

3 screws hold the bracket / contact assembly to the reflector:



Warning: Removing these screws releases some white plastic dust. Be careful not to get it all over inside the fixture!

To get more slack in the wires you can unclip them from a post on the bottom of the fixture. If you remove the access panel you can find it, the post is way back in there. I broke one of them off, but they really just keep the wires out of the way when you change the DRL lamp.




I then stripped the wires and soldered on the harness from the HID kit. The contact closer to the reflector is positive. The one closer to you when you look into the back is ground. This is easy to verify with a meter.



I'm very happy with the final result!



I also noticed there is a ton of room below the headlights. Possibly space enough for train horns...

-Jason
 
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Niner

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Got this done on our car tonight.


I

I then stripped the wires and soldered on the harness from the HID kit. The contact closer to the reflector is positive. The one closer to you when you look into the back is ground. This is easy to verify with a meter.



I'm very happy with the final result!


-Jason
I am curious how you will change a bulb out when it wears out and won't arc /start anymore? Complete headlight assembly pull and resolder, like the first time? That was one of the considerations in wiring mine the way I did.
 

r11

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compu_85

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Won't need to unsolder to replace the bulb, just have to figure out how to get those single connectors through the rubber gromet.

Noticed a problem with these... they will not stay lit of you turn them on when the engine running. Turn on the lights with the engine off and they start first time. I'll have to do some more testing on this...

-J
 

VeeDubTDI

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You checked them again this morning and they did the same thing?
 

compu_85

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Yes. I ran them on the way in to work, we'll see if the pattern repeats. Same issue with the bulb monitor coming on as well.

With the lights on before starting there were no error codes.

-J
 

Coffeemade

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Yes. I ran them on the way in to work, we'll see if the pattern repeats. Same issue with the bulb monitor coming on as well.

With the lights on before starting there were no error codes.

-J
Why make this install harder than you need? Per side connect 2 wires, drop HID kit in. Done. I didn't use VCDS or do anything fancy. Even Niner did it without an issue other than his old age complaining :D
 

compu_85

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I didn't want to make any modifications to the car harness :) Plus I found it much easier to seat the HID lamps with the fixture removed from the car.

-J
 

Niner

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Won't need to unsolder to replace the bulb, just have to figure out how to get those single connectors through the rubber gromet.

Noticed a problem with these... they will not stay lit of you turn them on when the engine running. Turn on the lights with the engine off and they start first time. I'll have to do some more testing on this...

-J
Did you ground out your ballasts? do not turn them on with the motor off, you are not supposed to reignite HID's for 10 seconds or more after turning them off. I believe it has something to do with the capacitors need time to charge up fully before striking ignition on the bulb to start the arc again, which sucks a huge pulse of electricity out of the capacitors/ballasts.

Mine fire up fine with the motor running, but I don't think they like me switching past the middle position on the light siwtch, for sensed night time operation. No dash lights or idiot lights showing on mine, yet... hope I don't jinx myself.

I ordered 2 spare cheeeeeeeeeeeeeep Chinese Replacment Auto Parts HID bulbs here yesterday off of ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-HID-bulbs...es&vxp=mtr&hash=item5acfd9d700#ht_3329wt_1009


Damn!, the spare bulbs already arrived this morning in the mail! That was quick!
 
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Niner

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Why make this install harder than you need? Per side connect 2 wires, drop HID kit in. Done. I didn't use VCDS or do anything fancy. Even Niner did it without an issue other than his old age complaining :D
Aww Coffeemade, thanks for the compliment! That deserves a wraparound bear hug from behind next time I see ya! ;)
 

VeeDubTDI

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Not modifying the car harness FTW. :)

I don't think the ballasts are grounded. Maybe that's the next step!
 

Niner

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Not modifying the car harness FTW. :)

I don't think the ballasts are grounded. Maybe that's the next step!
To each his /her own... not modifying the bulb holder FTW.

The spade plug ins can be pulled, HID bulbs and adapters can be pulled, and I'll always be able to put my Halogen bulbs back in, if need be, with the factory bulb holders. Plug and Play for me.

As long as one is happy with the results, salted roads are a non issue where I drive, snow is most of the time also, rain is my worry, we have flash floods and monsoon rains that are real gullywashers here in the deserts of CA, NV, UT, AZ and CO, where I drive on trips in the summer.
 
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