Bright Bulbs For Ecodes??

WolfgangVW

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Location
Alberta, Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI - Manual
Hey it's me again constantly beating the light thing to death! So I have my light bar thread which I am going to install. As well as multiple best HID or ecodes etc. So I was in the market for new headlights as well, but recently I took my current ecodes and sanded the lenses with 600/1500/2000 grit wet sand paper and polished with a wheel and 3 step cleaner / polish / wax. It worked great! I thought the lights were past the point of rescue but they actually turned out incredible! So my next question is there a brand/ watt or style bulb that performs in the ecode for exceptional night driving? Like a higher watt or whatever ? Mmmmm the bulb is an H4? It's been so long I can't remember what I put in, just a basic bulb. But if there's a high output like the Osram or Silverstar or whatever that performs well please share!

Thanks in advance!!
 

WildChild80

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2001 Jetta TDI 2000 Jetta TDI 2000 New Beetle TDI ALL 5 speeds
I'll probably get flamed but I bought a set of cheap Chinese E codes and put cheap Chinese projectors in them, wired an 8 amp diode between high beam and low beam and they work great and are completely plug and play meaning I didn't have to cut a single wire in the car.

ZXE I think are the brightest but I had some bad luck with them in a Honda Ridgeline, luckily they had a 1 year warranty, went through 3 on them in less than a year...left side and right...

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WolfgangVW

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Oct 16, 2011
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Alberta, Canada
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2003 Jetta TDI - Manual
I'll probably get flamed but I bought a set of cheap Chinese E codes and put cheap Chinese projectors in them, wired an 8 amp diode between high beam and low beam and they work great and are completely plug and play meaning I didn't have to cut a single wire in the car.

ZXE I think are the brightest but I had some bad luck with them in a Honda Ridgeline, luckily they had a 1 year warranty, went through 3 on them in less than a year...left side and right...

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Ok thanks. Ya I find the problem with the high and low beam being in the same bulb is if you get the high output bulbs is the low beam burns out from lots of hours ( DRL etc) and then you need replacement. Which sucks cause for me anyway I really just want the high output for high beams. Incidentally on my old Chevy Truck i have complete separate bulbs for high and low, I've had a pair of Sylvania Ultra Silver stars or whatever in the high beams for 10 years!! Still work great. At least I have the euroswitch in my Jetta so I can run with just the little city light during the day to save bulb life if I put brighter bulbs in......
 

WildChild80

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May 30, 2016
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Nashville, AR
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2001 Jetta TDI 2000 Jetta TDI 2000 New Beetle TDI ALL 5 speeds
There are always non dot bulbs but you'll need to look at amp draw and the wiring in the car...I just got a cheap 35 watt setup and am happy enough for 50 or 60 bux investment...

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WolfgangVW

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^ ok thanks! Ya we'll see what I come up with. Went for a drive in the dark last night. Lights work really well still after cleaning the lenses. I forgot how much they lit up the road as well as the sharp ecode cutoff pattern.
 

PakProtector

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AnnArbor, MI
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Mk.4's and the Cummins
I put a $30 set of 2" HID projectors in place of the e-code's fog lights. Mori harness, and 35W Mori ballasts. Reflectors run H4 bulbs, and the H4 harness has a pigtail comming out of the driver's side housing to run the relays in the control harness. Even with those liddle projectors, there is a lot of light going on...:)

Next up is aligning and raising the pattern in a set of 3" projectors that mount in the reflectors. Those are *NUTS*. They are getting 45W ballasts.
cheers,
Douglas
 

whatnxt

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Lk Stevens, WA
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2015 Q5 TDI Premium +
I have used Hella H4 80/100 watt bulbs in my E-codes and they work well. No issues with wiring and they lasted for years. Good improvement over the standard 55/60w bulbs.
 

gforce1108

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Newburgh, NY
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04 Jetta GLS BEW, 14 Audi A7 V6 TDI, 13 Porsche Cayenne V6 TDI
I do a quick wipe of the lenses with brake cleaner and it's super clear for at least 6 months. 20 second and it's done. I have full glass lenses and HIDs retrofits in my 04 - amazon special LEDs in the stock housings on my 03. The LEDs are a major improvement, same cutoff pattern, just brighter and whiter. Not as bright as the full HIDs, but some scatter is kinda nice since the HIDs are all or nothing in the cutoff.
 

WolfgangVW

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Oct 16, 2011
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Alberta, Canada
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2003 Jetta TDI - Manual
I put a $30 set of 2" HID projectors in place of the e-code's fog lights. Mori harness, and 35W Mori ballasts. Reflectors run H4 bulbs, and the H4 harness has a pigtail comming out of the driver's side housing to run the relays in the control harness. Even with those liddle projectors, there is a lot of light going on...:)

Next up is aligning and raising the pattern in a set of 3" projectors that mount in the reflectors. Those are *NUTS*. They are getting 45W ballasts.
cheers,
Douglas
That is a lot of light going on! Pretty sweet setup.
 

WolfgangVW

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2003 Jetta TDI - Manual
I do a quick wipe of the lenses with brake cleaner and it's super clear for at least 6 months. 20 second and it's done. I have full glass lenses and HIDs retrofits in my 04 - amazon special LEDs in the stock housings on my 03. The LEDs are a major improvement, same cutoff pattern, just brighter and whiter. Not as bright as the full HIDs, but some scatter is kinda nice since the HIDs are all or nothing in the cutoff.
That was my other question was if just a LED bulb in the ecode housing would work better than a higher watt halogen. I've never looked but are those LED bulbs just plug and play?
 

WolfgangVW

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I have used Hella H4 80/100 watt bulbs in my E-codes and they work well. No issues with wiring and they lasted for years. Good improvement over the standard 55/60w bulbs.
Also with the higher wattage did you ever have issues with the wiring harness or anything heating up too much?? Like was there any signs of melting or excess heat?
 

gforce1108

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04 Jetta GLS BEW, 14 Audi A7 V6 TDI, 13 Porsche Cayenne V6 TDI
That was my other question was if just a LED bulb in the ecode housing would work better than a higher watt halogen. I've never looked but are those LED bulbs just plug and play?
Yes - they are a little odd to install but direct plug in. Some are a bit large and won't fit in under the cover.

Stock bulbs are 9007 and these are what I used:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LDZCNPK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Guessing you have 9004/H4?
 

whatnxt

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Last edited:

gforce1108

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04 Jetta GLS BEW, 14 Audi A7 V6 TDI, 13 Porsche Cayenne V6 TDI
I wish I had taken a picture of what the stock bulbs looked like - I never tried high output halogens in it. Here is the current low/high beam pattern of the LEDs. It was dangerous to drive prior!

 

gforce1108

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04 Jetta GLS BEW, 14 Audi A7 V6 TDI, 13 Porsche Cayenne V6 TDI
Gforce thanks for the pics!! Looks good!! Looks fairly white or whitish blue?
More white. They are listed as 6000k. My Nissan Frontier happens to use the exact same 9007 bulbs as the Jetta so at first I installed one bulb in each vehicle. Here is a shot of the Frontier with one original and one LED. Factory headlights were pretty poor in the truck too. For $40 - I bought a second pair to finish both. Ran through the winter and the hottest part of summer without any issues. Time will tell how robust they are, but so far so good.

 

CameraJack

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Oct 29, 2013
Location
Somerset
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mk4 PD130 Golf Estate
I'm surprised that the US headlights are that bad. UK spec glass headlights are some of the best stock halogen headlights I've driven with.

They blow my current C5 Audi A6 halogen projectors out of the water, along with my old B5.5 Passat halogen projectors.

Unfortunately current MOT/VOSA regulations make HID/LED bulbs in factory headlights that were supplied with halogens originally (even if projector) illegal and they're quite easy to spot since our cars are all age-dated by the number plates.
 

gforce1108

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I'm surprised that the US headlights are that bad. UK spec glass headlights are some of the best stock halogen headlights I've driven with.
They blow my current C5 Audi A6 halogen projectors out of the water, along with my old B5.5 Passat halogen projectors.
Unfortunately current MOT/VOSA regulations make HID/LED bulbs in factory headlights that were supplied with halogens originally (even if projector) illegal and they're quite easy to spot since our cars are all age-dated by the number plates.
Nobody checks that things are DOT (department of transportation) approved here. Tons of people with LED light bars screwed to car/truck hoods blinding people. But DOT has had some really stupid regulations on automotive lighting. I didn't realize just how bad some of my cars were until I drove our new at the time 2012 Mazda3 with the bixenon moving headlights. I couldn't drive my Jetta at night any more (that's what drove me to a full set of HID retros). The Nissan is 3 years newer with 15 year older lighting technology!
 

WolfgangVW

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Alberta, Canada
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2003 Jetta TDI - Manual
Ok thanks Gforce and thanks for the pic! You can see the difference. I have a light bar too which I'll get on. A little overkill but I would only use it on back roads in the middle of the night etc
 

WolfgangVW

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Oct 16, 2011
Location
Alberta, Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI - Manual
I'm surprised that the US headlights are that bad. UK spec glass headlights are some of the best stock halogen headlights I've driven with.
They blow my current C5 Audi A6 halogen projectors out of the water, along with my old B5.5 Passat halogen projectors.
Unfortunately current MOT/VOSA regulations make HID/LED bulbs in factory headlights that were supplied with halogens originally (even if projector) illegal and they're quite easy to spot since our cars are all age-dated by the number plates.
I was surprised at the difference years ago when I put my E-codes in. And I have cheap knock off ones, I can only imagine how great the real deal with glass are. For the $150 or whatever I paid definitely worth it. Like there's a few things that are cheap and you can tell like a clip broke and the one wiring harness actually melted a bit like 4 years in, but I soldered new heavy duty ones in. But as far as performance it's quite a huge difference.
 

turbocharged798

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May 21, 2009
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Ellenville, NY
TDI
99.5 black ALH Jetta;09 Gasser Jetta
I put in cheap Kunsun 55W HIDs and cheap H4 projectors in my knock off E-codes and the results were amazing. Amount of light you get from a 55W HID is ridiculous. Its actually too much light as it reflects off the road during rain and blinds you. I think I spend less than $200 for everything including new lenses for the E-codes. Well worth the money. The beam patterns on the knock off e-codes was pretty much crap so the projector alone made a huge difference.
 

PakProtector

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Jan 5, 2014
Location
AnnArbor, MI
TDI
Mk.4's and the Cummins
My beam pattern seems not too bad. Where did you get your projectors?
It takes some patience, and careful shopping on Aliexpress. Or pay the markup and deal with Lightwerkz or The Retrofit Source( which also nets you a solid bit of support ).
cheers,
Douglas
 

WolfgangVW

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Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Location
Alberta, Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI - Manual
Ah ok. At this point I’ll probably just throw decent halogens in my encodes and couple it with my lightbar! Thanks for the info tho!
 

Intech

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
Location
S. Central Pa USA
TDI
2003 Jetta GLS, 1999.5 Golf 2 dr
Hey it's me again constantly beating the light thing to death! So I have my light bar thread which I am going to install. As well as multiple best HID or ecodes etc. So I was in the market for new headlights as well, but recently I took my current ecodes and sanded the lenses with 600/1500/2000 grit wet sand paper and polished with a wheel and 3 step cleaner / polish / wax. It worked great! I thought the lights were past the point of rescue but they actually turned out incredible! So my next question is there a brand/ watt or style bulb that performs in the ecode for exceptional night driving? Like a higher watt or whatever ? Mmmmm the bulb is an H4? It's been so long I can't remember what I put in, just a basic bulb. But if there's a high output like the Osram or Silverstar or whatever that performs well please share!

Thanks in advance!!

I suggest you talk to Kenny Franklin at Candlepower in Rockville, Md. I, personally, use Narva bulbs in all my light set ups. I use the 'plus' version for stock wiring
 

Intech

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
Location
S. Central Pa USA
TDI
2003 Jetta GLS, 1999.5 Golf 2 dr
Nobody checks that things are DOT (department of transportation) approved here. Tons of people with LED light bars screwed to car/truck hoods blinding people. But DOT has had some really stupid regulations on automotive lighting. I didn't realize just how bad some of my cars were until I drove our new at the time 2012 Mazda3 with the bixenon moving headlights. I couldn't drive my Jetta at night any more (that's what drove me to a full set of HID retros). The Nissan is 3 years newer with 15 year older lighting technology!

I totally agree with your post, and I long ago decided to go with with Cibie' lighting as much as possible. It took me almost three years, but I managed to get what I was looking for from Italy, Germany, France and Sweden. In fact, I think I got the last Oscar 200 on the planet from a warehouse in Sweden. It had been sitting on the shelf since 2005. My theory and practice, has always been to "replace the sun after dark, WITHOUT blinding on-coming drivers"!!! With my set up, I accomplished that. In fact, I had to remove the Oscar 200 and replace it with a 175, because the Oscar, with its 9600 ft range, was way too much for the East Coast. Good luck with your efforts
 
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