SEL Lighting Package

[Mass. Wine Guy]

My recently bought 2015 Golf SW came with the upgraded lighting. I’d only had halogens before. The Xenon lights seem bright enough for me. But the brights just look like a big, wide spotlight, and I’m not sure how much it adds to seeing down the road.

Just curious to hear what others think of their Xenons. Decent? Good? Great? Could use improvement? (Sounds like how my wife rates me each day.)

 

[Ragdude]

I have them on both my '15 Golf and '16 CC, they are fantastic especially out on the open highway with no one around.

 

[Nuje]

I think the lighting on the Mk7 is excellent.

I think that's kinda the point with good nightime lighting - you don't want blinding light output so that when you go back to dipped beams your iris is all constricted and can't make out anything in the shadows.

On my Mk4, I have bi-xenons PLUS the high-beam (and LED fogs as DRLs) and when I switch back to dipped beams.....it almost feels like I'm running with only parking lights (not quite, but you get my point).

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

What are dipped beams?

 

[mayday_soc]

I changed my bulbs but I always loved mine. I did some non NAR region coding to mine which really woke them up but that would not help with them projecting higher as I believe NAR region DOT beam pattern is the higher, less wide beam. There is a level sensor on the rear torsion beam. Make sure its not broken. You can also park on level ground and realign using VCDS (the dealer can do this as well).

6E660FB7-90C6-428F-A156-B5A1C0DD2ABE.jpeg

• mayday_soc
• Nov 11, 2020

LP xenon

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

NAR coding?

 

[mayday_soc]

In VCDS I unchecked NAR (North American Region) which turns off the higher DOT beam pattern. This provides the ROW European (Not DOT approved) beam pattern. Theres an 18 page thread covering this on the Golf MK7 forum. I also enabled city, rain, all weather driving. I believe the lights dim when fogs are on to not reflect light back off the fog. The beam narrows when slowing in city traffic to not blind people across from you at the light. They widen as soon as you start driving. They also raise with speed on the highway as illustrated in the above picture. Before coding my xenon’s were great but there was no movement other than the cornering lights coming on. The coding brought them to life.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

In VCDS I unchecked NAR (North American Region) which turns off the higher DOT beam pattern. This provides the ROW European (Not DOT approved) beam pattern. Theres an 18 page thread covering this on the Golf MK7 forum. I also enabled city, rain, all weather driving. I believe the lights dim when fogs are on to not reflect light back off the fog. The beam narrows when slowing in city traffic to not blind people across from you at the light. They widen as soon as you start driving. They also raise with speed on the highway as illustrated in the above picture. Before coding my xenon’s were great but there was no movement other than the cornering lights coming on. The coding brought them to life.

OMFG!!?! Is there anyone in Massachusetts or New Hampshire with VCDS who could help do this for my car?

 

[Nuje]

What are dipped beams?

High-beam = brights (wide open)
Dipped beam = pointed downward (1.2° as described on the mounting tabs of Mk4 headlights)

On your bi-xenon headlights, there's one bulb that's lit full brightness all the time. But when you're not on "high beams", a shutter comes up and blocks some part of the light output so that it's not blinding. And (as @mayday_soc points out), there are also levelling motors that can move the main bulb housing up/down to create the effects he outlines.

 

[mayday_soc]

Most VAG tuners or speed shops will have VCDS. Seeing as how they’re lowering cars all the time which changes the angle of the rear leveling sensor they should be recalibrating the xenon’s. Should only take 15 minutes to do the coding and the recalibration (on LEVEL ground). Call around to some shops around you. The 18 page thread I mentioned above has step by step procedures. It’s really easy.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

If it’s not too much trouble, do you know the link?

 

[Nuje]

I changed my bulbs but I always loved mine

You kept the OE housings, but changed the bulbs? What bulbs did you put in?

 

[mayday_soc]

@Nuje Osram D3S CBB 7k Xenon’s. DeAuto LED corner bulbs. DeAuto LED blinkers.
(This was back in 2020, not sure if they still make them.)

I also replaced other lights with LED for a better match:
DeAuto Hyper Yellow Fog lights H11 3k. DeAuto LED license plate light. DeAuto LED Hatch light. Osram Dynamic LED tinted side mirror turn signals. And before I switched to the German MK7.5 Golf R Dynamic taillights I had DeAuto LED Rear Taillight bulbs. I also installed the European light switch on the dash for the rear fog light.

Havent checked prices in a very long time but DeAuto has been great and they were a decent price at the time. Wish I could say the same about OSRAM prices. Front bumper needs to be removed to swap bulbs. Crazy I know but it only takes a few minutes. I would also recalibrate the Xenon’s on level ground after swapping bulbs.

@Mass. Wine Guy …Good read if you have time.

https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/inde...advanced-bi-xenon-lighting-mk7-golf-r.340987/

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Wish that I had the gear and knowledge to do this.

 

[mayday_soc]

@Mass. Wine Guy You say your xenon’s are a white Blob. I don’t remember the VAG factory xenon’s being that white. White isn’t ideal for all driving conditions or for the average drivers vision. The Osram Night Breaker Lasers are a favorite of many people as they're some of the brightest Xenon’s you can buy while maintaining a natural color but they will not match your DRLs. I went with the CBB (cool blue blast) to better match my DRLs as i’m not worried about rain/fog/snow due to having installed 3k LED yellow fog lights. Osrams newest xenon is the CBI (cool blue intense) Next gen which are about as bright as the Night breakers with a 62k color. I’d probably try those next when I need to switch out xenons. They do have a shelf life. The tubes darken over time with use resulting in less light.

Anyone with YouTube can do this. I believe you only need a T25 to remove the bumper (don’t quote me, it’s been a while). Pop out the headlight housings, switch out bulbs (I’d switch out fogs at the same time but you should be able to switch them with the bumper on). Then throw the housing back in. You can stop by the dealer to recalibrate the xenons but I’d go elsewhere as they’ll probably charge you $100 for the five minutes it takes.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

I don’t recall ever calling my lights “white blobs.” Given the ridiculous amount of labor to get to the headlights, I’m leaving the hardware as is.

 

[mayday_soc]

I just reread your first post. My fault, sorry about that. You said wide spotlight. Just wanted to give you some info on the xenon’s. They really are great lights and a step up from the halogens. I’d leave them as is until a bulb replacement is needed.

 

[Mass. Wine Guy]

My hope and understanding is that they have very long lives.

 

[Nuje]

@Nuje Osram D3S CBB 7k Xenon’s. DeAuto LED corner bulbs. DeAuto LED blinkers.
(This was back in 2020, not sure if they still make them.)

Thanks for the info. 7000K light is way too blue for me around here; black pavement + rain makes anything above much above 5000K nearly useless at night, even with yellow fogs (which don't project very far down the road; light up the ditches nicely, though, which makes me aware of all the deer I didn't know about that are chillin' there.)

Everything else has already been swapped over to LEDs (mostly KaTur or Oxilam from Amazon or AliX; they make some cheap ones, but the $25/pair red LED (tail) and Bay9S (signal) are really bright and have held up for years, even with rear taillights coded as DRLs. I got some $40 mirror dynamic turn signals from AliX a few years back when I put in the folding mirrors - now THAT one (mirror's dynamic turn signal) is a quick/easy retrofit. Maybe we can get @Mass. Wine Guy started down the retrofit lighting path on those.

Just realized that I have some heat-sink (fanless) H7 LEDs sitting in the garage; gonna have to give those a test fit as the cornering bulbs.