Auxiliary lights

[whizznbyu]

I am looking for ways to improve illumination without causing undue glare and would appreciate suggestions on where to mount auxiliary lights. My car has a bra and I thought of putting lights behind the air intake below the grill. Are there mounting points in this area? Thank you in advance.

 

[thundershorts]

You can easily add lights in your bumper. Use clear lens fog lights with bulbs of your choice. on ebay they are 59/pr with grills

Pair For VW Golf 7 MK7 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Front Fog Lamp Light + Grille | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Pair For VW Golf 7 MK7 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Front Fog Lamp Light + Grille at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[ticaf]

How do you connect those?

 

[Cuzoe]

These look like the OEM fog lights. I just added them to my Golf S. I ordered an OEM style harness from AliExpress for about $20. OEM Style meaning it gets wired to the BCM for control. This means I can get bulb errors if they blow out and they can also be set turn on if the steering wheel is turned a certain amount to act as auxiliary turning lights. Alternatively you can order an aftermarket style harness that uses a relay and a generic switch, which you can install wherever you want it.

The harness I ordered had the right connectors for the fogs, the right pins for the BCM, included wire that gets added from the light switch to the BCM (with proper pins), and the new light switch with fog light function. The wire colors also matched the Erwin drawings, although I always check these harnesses for continuity and to ensure they are pinned properly. I've had good luck with all my harnesses being pinned correctly, but sometimes the wire colors don't match.

Either way you're going to have run wire(s) through the firewall so my recommendation is to go with the OEM style harness. You get the additional OEM functionality and you don't have to figure out how to mount your own switch.

 

[ssffnomad]

Cuzoe, would you have part number for said harness from Aliexpress ?
ssffnomad

 

[Cuzoe]

Here's a link... if you search OEM Golf 7 fog harness there might be other results for a few bucks more/less. This is the seller I ordered from, and have ordered plenty of other things from as well. The colors on my harness, and in their pictures, match the Erwin drawings too.

25.49US $ 15% OFF|AIDUAUTO Fog Light Cable Fog Lamp Lighting harness For VW Golf 7 MK7 VII|Cables, Adapters & Sockets| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[ticaf]

The question is: is it worth it? Wouldn't it be more worthy(and simpler) to upgrade the headlights?

 

[Nuje]

The question is: is it worth it? Wouldn't it be more worthy(and simpler) to upgrade the headlights?

Depends what "worth it" means to you. If you're looking for financial return on investment....doubtful.

But for some of us fools (not naming any names...@Cuzoe ), the challenge of adding OEM+ mods to the car, provided it adds any kind of functionality at all, hell yeah, it's worth it.

 

[ticaf]

Depends what "worth it" means to you. If you're looking for financial return on investment....doubtful.

But for some of us fools (not naming any names...@Cuzoe ), the challenge of adding OEM+ mods to the car, provided it adds any kind of functionality at all, hell yeah, it's worth it.

By 'worth it', I'm referring to newer Audis that no longer have fog lights. It seems the headlights somehow also work as fog lights. I need to do some research on this, unless someone can explain to us on this forum how that works.
Therefore, my point is more: would it not be better to upgrade to Audi style headlights rather than installing plain fog lights on our base models.

 

[Nuje]

The thing there is that a typical aftermarket headlight housing is not going to be anywhere close to as good as you get on a newer Audi.
The aftermarket options at becautoparts.com are pretty good, but no one is going to mistake their output for an Audi with auto-levelling and auto-high-beams / LED-masking. And even Ed's lights (becautoparts) are in the $500 range; whereas the fog retrofit is substantially less.

 

[Cuzoe]

There are also Osram LED headlights, they look great. Light output is great, they're plug and play. But you'll have to import them, will run you somewhere around $900 last I checked. They are EU legal (which doesn't help you in the states) but is a good indicator of quality to be expected, imo. Been running them for somewhere around 2 years now, not a single issue.

 

[whizznbyu]

There are also Osram LED headlights, they look great. Light output is great, they're plug and play. But you'll have to import them, will run you somewhere around $900 last I checked. They are EU legal (which doesn't help you in the states) but is a good indicator of quality to be expected, imo. Been running them for somewhere around 2 years now, not a single issue.

LEDriving headlight for VW Golf VII | OSRAM Automotive

www.osram.com

Not for sale in the USA

 

[whizznbyu]

You had someone import it for you?

 

[Nuje]

You had someone import it for you?

Just find a seller in Europe - some will ship to North America.

Thread where someone did just that, it looks like.

 

[whizznbyu]

Just find a seller in Europe - some will ship to North America.

Thread where someone did just that, it looks like.

Oops. Sorry about that.

 

[Nuje]

e.g. This ebay listing.
(Be warned, not for the fiscally faint of wallet)

 

[whizznbyu]

Thank you for sharing. That warranty is a deal breaker for me. I cannot possibly be replacing entire units whenever a bulb burns out.

 

[Nuje]

LEDs, so no bulbs to worry about. Personally, if I could stomach the cost, the lack of warranty wouldn't be an issue for me.
It's probably only one-year anyway, and if it works out of the box, the chances of it failing in that warranty period are typically very small.

 

[Cuzoe]

I'll find the link to the vendor I ordered from... came out to around $1000 (around $1100 after customs) shipped DHL from Germany to Los Angeles in less than a week. The lights themselves were 850 euro I think, 2 years ago... that seller is doubling the price and no returns, unacceptable.

Edit, found my post from another forum...

myTuning24 Onlinehandel - myTuning24 Onlinehandel

myTuning24 - Ihr Felgen und Komplettrad Profi und offizieller Reseller für Osram Automotive Produkte!

www.mytuning24.de

Right now the price converts to around $800 after excluding VAT but I don't think that includes shipping. When I ordered (March 2019) I paid just under $1,100 shipped. Came DHL from Germany to Los Angeles, in less than a week. No regrets still. They are plug & play, and you can code out the parking light fault (which is present with BEC/Ed headlights as well I think). The fault only shows up in scans, not as a dash fault.

Their website won't let you order but I emailed their support, told them what I want and they sent a Paypal invoice.

 

[RIP TDI]

I got mine from these guys 1 1/2 years ago. I had the same warranty concern prior to purchase, but the build quality is so good (at least as good as, if not better than the OEMs they replaced) that I don't worry about it. Besides, if anything went wrong with the electronics or optics, it would be my excuse to convert them to an HID configuration! I bought these for improved lighting performance but value them now more for the unexpected aesthetic improvement to the front of the car; a complete transformation IMHO. Way better looking lights than any MK 7 or 7.5, OE or aftermarket.

 

[Cuzoe]

I agree with the quality, they are better than my halogens. They also seem to fit better but that's probably down to adjustments that I was too lazy to make with my factory lights. I think they are the best looking Mk7 lights, and the dynamic turn indicators can match your mirrors and tail lights if you choose, haha.

 

[RIP TDI]

and the dynamic turn indicators can match your mirrors and tail lights if you choose, haha.

Yeah, I got the Osram mirror strips. It bugged me that the headlight turn signals were now dynamic and not timed in sync with the static OE mirror strips, so I had to fix that!. I did the full set of deAutokey LEDs in the rear, converting to the amber turns, but didn't think those can be converted somehow to dynamic (its a GSW). I would love it if its possible.

 

[Nuje]

Those are, by far, the best-looking lights I've seen on a Mk7; even better than the HIDs on the facelift Mk7.5.

 

[Nuje]

but didn't think those can be converted somehow to dynamic (its a GSW). I would love it if its possible.

Oh - it's possible.

How I got there in this thread.

 

[RIP TDI]

Oh - it's possible.

How I got there in this thread.

Yes, I know that can be done, but I'm using the outer wrap-around strip as the only turn (now amber) and would need that to be dynamic.

 

[Nuje]

Oh wow - I always thought those were too subtle on their own as good signal lights. Being amber would certainly help, though.
Given that there's just the one bulb in there, pretty tough to make one bulb "sequential".

 

[RIP TDI]

Oh wow - I always thought those were too subtle on their own as good signal lights. Being amber would certainly help, though.

That's what I thought, too, when I ordered the deAutokey LED set. If it wasn't sufficiently visible with just the amber LED, I was prepared to reluctantly go back to the stock configuration, but I really wanted the amber to work. And thanks to deAutokey, it did: those things are BRIGHT! And, for me, having the amber turn is a higher priority than having a (red) dynamic turn (unless deAutokey could do one of their switchble dual-color LEDs for the tail/stop/turn like they have for the front fogs/cornering lights.

 

[Nuje]

Yeah - I don't think I've ever seen a red/amber "switchback" LED. But even then, you'd have the amber LED going through the red lens, which would look like...orangy-red (?). Ugh.