Mini Bixenons in my New Beetle!

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
Well my HID OEM E-codes have been installed. Now I understand the hype about the HID. Dang...and there was light! Now i can see to the right and to the left and now i will be able to see the deer that is about to run into me haha. The cut off is well defined. Took pics of the install process and the wiring I had to chance and the harness i had to fabricate to make it work on my 01 bug. All splices were soldered. When I fired them up, they worked perfectly. Then I hit the brights. Great, they worked. Then I switched to low. The left went to low but the right stayed on high. Then I remembered others making the comment that the right high beam line has a slight current on it and that it is enough to keep the solenoid active. I used a 25ohm 10watt wire wound ceramic resistor from the high beam line to ground. Yeah I know it's over kill but it was what I had on hand...besides, that one will never burn out. Now works perfectly. Even connected the city lights by tapping into the side marker lights. Also created the line to hook up the leveler motors at some future date.
Now that my halogens are freed up, we can pop them into my buddy's 02 bug and retro fit the FX-R into his. Then we will take pics of before, after and FX-R vs OEM bixenon lights.
Should be interesting.
 
Last edited:

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
Oh boy, you know it.
Btw, when are you going to have that how to finished? Sure looking forward to it for our next project.
 
Last edited:

schwarze Käfer

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Location
Texas (panhandle)
TDI
2003 New Beetle GLS 5spd
Oh boy, you know it.
Btw, when are you going to have that how to finished? Sure looking forward to it for our next project.
Getting there as fast as I can! :) Gotta a few things left to do before I start on the how to, but it's looking good.

BTW, I wanted to ask you, were your leveling motors just 2 wire, or 3?
 

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
They are 3 wire. One ground, one for power, one to the rheostat as near as I can tell.
I have a problem though...my wife has to use a crow bar to pry me out of that thing now!
 

schwarze Käfer

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Location
Texas (panhandle)
TDI
2003 New Beetle GLS 5spd
They are 3 wire. One ground, one for power, one to the rheostat as near as I can tell.
I have a problem though...my wife has to use a crow bar to pry me out of that thing now!
Yeah, I was curious about that before plunking down $40 for the rheostat.

Ha-ha. My bug wasn't any fun at night either, till HIDs!
 

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
Got my rheostats coming used with pig tails. Ordered other misc parts so my cost on them was 17 bux.

Anyway here are some pics of my OEM HID install. They are made by automotive lighting, a VW supplier.

Here is the ebay OEM HID kit with my harness already attached. I used a trailer wiring kit from NAPA that had 14ga wire with plugs on them. The little red and white pig tail I made is NAPA part number 784640 (one for each side) and is called flat trailer connector and the 4 wire loom is NAPA part number 784647 (one for each side) and is called trailer connector kit. The wire appears to be the same gauge as what is used in the lighting adapter.


Relay box and ballast cover. I took the small white/blue wire and cut it away from the black plug and also cut away the small yellow wire and connected them so that I could attach a rheostat to the leveler motors. I spent a number of hours mapping out the wiring of the ballast/relay assembly, headlight, and the wire harness adapters so by the time I began to cut into the wiring, I understood what went where.
All wire splices are soldered and heat shrink used where I could.


The finished harness converting the 5 wire stock adapter to my 4 wire harness. On the kit adapter, pin 3 and 5 are ground, pin 1 high, pin 2 city lights, and pin 4 low beam. My adapter has 1 ground, high, low and city lights. The small red and white wired pig tail is for future leveler motor operation.


Both ballasts ready to go.


My left side headlight 3 wire plug. Pin 1 is high, pin 2 is low and pin 3 is ground.

Testing before I tear the front end off.


My front end off.


Another front endless car pic.


One more frontless pic.


As I was testing the headlights I too discovered that the right side headlight would not go back to low beam from high. I connected a 194 bulb to see what would happen and saw that it operated normally with the bulb between the high beam wire and ground. I noticed that after the high beams had been on and switched off that the bulb still glowed faintly. There is enough current in the high beam circuit on the right to keep the high beam relay on even when the high beam switch is off. Someone elsewhere explained why but that escapes me at the moment. I removed the bulb and added this over kill sized resistor in the mix. Its what I had on hand. It is 25 ohm 10 watt wire wound ceramic. A 5 watt should be fine but I figure with this resistor, it will last forever.
 
Last edited:

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
Ballast mounted and wiring harness attached along with the resistor on the right side. The city lights have been added by tapping into the side marker parking light.


Another pic of the right side ballast.


The left side ballast mounted and wired in place.


Lights in the buckets ready for testing.


Lights on!


Another exposure so you can see the city light on.


The finished product.


And with them on.


Haven't had a chance to take a pic at night, but you guys know what HID looks like. Its like WOW! Took my wife for a ride last night and she marveled!

Now that I have my old headlights out, we are going to use them in my friends bug so we can FX-R retro fit his.

My forte isn't CAD so this is rather crude but here is what the diagram looks like with the OEM kit. It is Shenendoah's diagram altered to show the connections.

On the kit adapter, pin 3 and 5 are ground, pin 1 high, pin 2 city lights, and pin 4 low beam.


Description of the pin numbers on the headlight plugs:

Pin 1, 2, 3: to the igniter from Bosch/AL Ballast
Pin 4: 12V power for leveling motor
Pin 5: wire from leveling control switch
Pin 7: to the Bi-Xenon e46 solenoid (mine is two wire version instead of three)
Pin 6, 8: Ground for city light, leveling motor, and bi-xenon solenoid
Pin 10: City light power
 
Last edited:

jptbay

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2007
Location
Thunder Bay
TDI
2003 Beetle, 2006 Jetta Wagon
Well my HID OEM E-codes have been installed. Now I understand the hype about the HID. Dang...and there was light! Now i can see to the right and to the left and now i will be able to see the deer that is about to run into me haha. The cut off is well defined. Took pics of the install process and the wiring I had to chance and the harness i had to fabricate to make it work on my 01 bug. All splices were soldered. When I fired them up, they worked perfectly. Then I hit the brights. Great, they worked. Then I switched to low. The left went to low but the right stayed on high. Then I remembered others making the comment that the right high beam line has a slight current on it and that it is enough to keep the solenoid active. I used a 25ohm 10watt wire wound ceramic resistor from the high beam line to ground. Yeah I know it's over kill but it was what I had on hand...besides, that one will never burn out. Now works perfectly. Even connected the city lights by tapping into the side marker lights. Also created the line to hook up the leveler motors at some future date.
Now that my halogens are freed up, we can pop them into my buddy's 02 bug and retro fit the FX-R into his. Then we will take pics of before, after and FX-R vs OEM bixenon lights.
Should be interesting.
Thanks so much for posting that!

I have the same OEM bixenon kit to install in my 03 beetle. Got them for Christmas last year, and still haven't taken the time to put them in.

John.
 

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
Can you see if yours is a 3 wire or 5 wire connector to the stock headlights? Not sure whether or if there was a change.
BTW, you do not need the leveler control if you don't want it. You can adjust these just like the stock halogens are.
 

speedkillz

Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2005
Location
Dacula
TDI
None anymore unfortunatly.. may change soon
Well done. glad you figured it out. now make some plug and play adapters..:D
 

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
Haha, I have a better idea. The little red and white pig tail I made is NAPA part number 784640 (one for each side) and is called flat trailer connector and the 4 wire loom is NAPA part number 784647 (one for each side) and is called trailer connector kit. The wire appears to be the same gauge as what is used in the lighting adapter.
 
Last edited:

jptbay

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2007
Location
Thunder Bay
TDI
2003 Beetle, 2006 Jetta Wagon
Just went out to the carport with a flashlight and pulled the left side headlight. 3 wire connector plug.

I don't think I will bother with an in car level control, or the city lights.

This is a Canadian car, so it also has daytime running lights, which I'm pretty sure are just the low beam circuit.

Should be pretty straightforward, just splice the stock 3 wire plug into the adapter harness.

To clarify: Does the resistor on the right high beam side get wired into the right high beam circuit?

Also, the automotive lighting manual makes reference in the individual parts list to an "SAE 3 pin connector adapter cable". Sure would be nice to figure out if there is an OEM part number for that. I have ETKA on the garage laptop. I will have to poke around and see what I can find. If others are ETKA capable, some help would be great.

John.
 

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
You won't find it. I looked. Don't think you want to run DRL with these but don't quote me on it. Most disable the DRL with HID because the DRL circuit runs at 80% power?. How about using the city lights as DRL? Run a wire from the headlight switch and substitute it for the wire going to the DRL terminal. Would that work for canadian compliance?
 

jptbay

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2007
Location
Thunder Bay
TDI
2003 Beetle, 2006 Jetta Wagon
The city light should be fine for DRL use. I will look into that.

Resistor question in my previous post?

Thanks, John.
 

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
I got it for 400 plus shipping. I offered less but no go. I probably drove him mad with all my questions but they took the time and answered them all.
I know it's more than the retro fit kits but I was a little lazy in doing the retro fit work at this time.
 
Last edited:

schwarze Käfer

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Location
Texas (panhandle)
TDI
2003 New Beetle GLS 5spd
$400 isn't bad at all, considering you've got new assemblies. I just saw them on ebay for $700, so you did well! Hell, I know a few people who've spent more on replacement halogen headlights from the dealer!

Heck, best price I've found for new OEM leveling motors was $46 each! (that's one of the reasons I chose to go with servos)
 
Last edited:

hpc

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2004
Location
indiana
TDI
2002 NB TDI, 2013 GLK 250 BlueTec
excellent! bated breath (aka 'baited' breath..haha) subsiding.

Matt Whitbread is installing the Rigid Industries D2 (amber) driving lights
where the fogs resided. Picked driving lights for distant deer spotting versus
having fogs attempt to do the same.

Once the FX-R's are in - LET THERE BE LIGHT! Can't wait to try them on my
treks from IN <-> MD - which is typically done after working all day - meaning,
I travel/go deer spotting at night.

Cheers!
 

schwarze Käfer

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Location
Texas (panhandle)
TDI
2003 New Beetle GLS 5spd
excellent! bated breath (aka 'baited' breath..haha) subsiding.

Matt Whitbread is installing the Rigid Industries D2 (amber) driving lights
where the fogs resided. Picked driving lights for distant deer spotting versus
having fogs attempt to do the same.

Once the FX-R's are in - LET THERE BE LIGHT! Can't wait to try them on my
treks from IN <-> MD - which is typically done after working all day - meaning,
I travel/go deer spotting at night.

Cheers!
I'm going to order the ECS range switch tomorrow to see if I can integrate it with the system.
 

wiltech

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2007
Location
Lafayette, IN
TDI
01 Beetle
excellent! bated breath (aka 'baited' breath..haha) subsiding.

Matt Whitbread is installing the Rigid Industries D2 (amber) driving lights
where the fogs resided. Picked driving lights for distant deer spotting versus
having fogs attempt to do the same.

Once the FX-R's are in - LET THERE BE LIGHT! Can't wait to try them on my
treks from IN <-> MD - which is typically done after working all day - meaning,
I travel/go deer spotting at night.

Cheers!
I'm interested to see how these look, i.e. square peg/round hole.
 

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
I'm going to order the ECS range switch tomorrow to see if I can integrate it with the system.
Found out that ryanp, our resident 6 speed vendor in the UK, can get this stuff cheap. It's used but clean and functional. Switch and pigtail under 20 bux and headlight switch with front and rear fog under 10 bux plus a few bucks for shipping. I hope I have my conversions right. I ordered enough to do 3 cars. Might be worth it to give him a shot. If he handles this like he does his other stuff, it should be good.
 
Last edited:

schwarze Käfer

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Location
Texas (panhandle)
TDI
2003 New Beetle GLS 5spd
Found out that ryanp, our resident 6 speed vendor in the UK, can get this stuff cheap. It's used but clean and functional. Switch and pigtail under 20 bux and headlight switch with front and rear fog under 10 bux plus a few bucks for shipping. I ordered enough to do 3 cars. Might be worth it to give him a shot. If he handles this like he does his other stuff, it should be good.
Thanks, may give him a shot. The ECS option is ridiculously expensive.
 

MrMark

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Location
Richmond, TX
TDI
1998 New Beetle TDI
Thanks to your inspiration James, I ordered these parts last Friday:

1 x Bi-xenon FX-R Stage III Kit (FXRStageIII)
Re-sealing Glue No Thanks
Projectors LHD (North American Standard)
CCFL Angel Eyes No
Bulbs New Philips 85122+ D2S
Ballasts Morimoto 5Five (50w)
Wire Harness Relay: H1
Shrouds MC-R

Tracking indicates that I should get them tomorrow...very exciting. I just hope I ordered the right stuff!
 
Top