I really appreciate this video. It explained a lot of problems I had and answered some questions. I had no idea that the center lights were flash to pass. It boggled my mind as to why they only ever came on when the stalk was pulled. I also had one light stuck in high beam even after replacing the whole headlamp assembly, and now I understand the ballast is also the range adjuster. Again, thanks so much!
My driver side headlight just burnt out after 11+ years. Not to terrible in my opinion. I’m just glad it wasn’t the ballast, igniter, or wiring. I got lucky. Thanks for the video.
Glad you posted this. I have the 2006.5. Tornado red GTI, stage 1, looks alot like yours when it was stock, came with skirts and all from Wolfsburg; our bragging rights! Anyway, my lights are stock and I've only replaced one bulb. But I think I'm gonna save up, like you said, for a new set of bi-xenons, so that when one or both start to go, I'll be ready. Although I appreciate the new GTI, especially the MkVII, l like the V because standard stuff on ours, became options later on other models, and I love the curves on our cars, not so angular like the newbies. Especially love our intimidating front grill!
Hey gitman67, props to you for pointing this out. My passenger side light went out and I replaced the bulb, retaining ring and ignitor, with still no light. I ordered an aftermarket ballast from ebay for $59, installed and success! I did all the work myself and still spent nearly $200 in parts. But, if it were not for your video I probably would have ordered a new set of headlamps. Saved mucho dinero! My recommendation is to go aftermarket and save $$. Now on to the next upgrade, lol!
FYI you don’t have to take off your entire bumper to remove your head lamp assembly, there’s 3 bolts in total, 2 up top and 1 underneath that you can reach from under the bumper and the assembly can then be wiggled out.
gtiman67 there should be about a palm sized opening just enough for your arm to fit through, it’s a pain and hard to see the bolt but it is doable and much preferred over removing the bumper in my opinion, that is if you can get under it!
Yes I have the front valance which is really an air splitter or some people call it a front spoiler was called the ground effects kit goes underneath all the way and then there's a black cover that covers up the engine too
Hello mate, I have no idea where you are from, but the lever you pull/hold towards you to light up the one you call FTP, here in my country at least if you push it away from you it will stay there (instead of push/hold its only push) and keep them on. By our "Street Code" (here in Greece) you use these lights when you are out of town (highways,villages, etc) and when you want to signal someone.
You can code your MKV to have FTP come on w/ your Xenon highs. I have mine coded for it. Xenon highs, FTP, and fogs are called the 6 light f* u salute haha.
Brother, I was just watching this video by humble mechanic on RU-vid , glad we have the FSI engine, the TSI apparently has a litany of problems unique to it. What's your opinion? I mean other than the new club polo, and the MK 7, and those have TSI, I think the 5 is n the sweet spot.
If you are mechanically inclined it’s better to just take the ballast off a parts car or from the junk yard . And swap them out . Saves you lots of money . Paid $30 from my local junk yard for both ballast and haven’t had any problems . Only down side is having to pull the parts yourself but better than paying $400 a piece .. good video though
No good in my opinion because mine lasted 7 years and getting an old one it may only last a year or 2 possibly a week? Whereas the brand new one i have may last another 7 years🤓
gtiman67 better than forking out what you did. Plus it’s a learning experience rather than letting a stealership or garage rape you . Honestly sounds like a lazy excuse but to each his own I guess. Good luck in the future 👍🏽
@@chillyE30 Not against doing it yourself I'm just against putting old parts with older parts I always replace old parts with new parts I've been doing since I have had my car and from all people that I've talked to you don't wanna put old parts on a new car you don't want to replace parts Are just inheriting trouble... Each part has the Normal lifespan and you just replace it with a new one...
Yeah the way the bi-Xenon one's work there's actually just a little lens lid that "lifts up" so the bulbs actually don't shine brighter they're just supposed to shine FARTHER I would check your amount of Kelvin IN YOUR BULBS people think that higher Kelvin is cool I did too I used have 8,000 Kelvin I think and it looks almost purple or blue but they have less VISIBLE LIGHT THE WARMER THE COLOR TEMPERATURE get back to 6000 it's a little better go with Porsche which is about I think it's around 4300 K If I'm not mistaken Porsche stock Bi-Xenon headlights are bright enough that you can see really good and when you flick flick up the high beam the lens lifts up and you see farther down the road but the bulb itself does not shine any brighter. FTP Flash To Pass only work in the daytime when you pull back stalk 😏 with lights off if you disable Daytime Running Lights yours may start working... it's a European thing
www.ECStuning.com sells a lil kit that comes with a black semi circle and super glue😛 you can use your touch up paint to cover it and it works well I just had to use Gorilla Glue to really secure it but it's lasted for years👍
This video is 7 years old lol. I don't like cold weather either and in Southern California we're having rare miserable cold weather. Anyway, is that digital climate control on the left of your steering wheel OEM? Or is it a mod? I have a 07 GTI.
European GTI OE headlight array use Sylvania around 4700 Kelvin or the same used in Porsches ballast enables them to run and there's one on each side and they're not cheap that's the price we pay for having the great Bi xenon headlamps😎
Question for you, when your headlight completely went out, did you get a notification on the mini display in your dash saying "Front right dipped beam not working!" Or any other notification?
400? Is that with install? I’ve seen those headlights for 250 on ecs. You just have to look around on the website. I’ve notice they will sometimes show the same product 2 or 3 times all different prices. One headlight set I’m looking at has a 250 tag and I’ve also seen another tag that was around 5. Same thing goes for the rims and some other products.
The difference being whether it's genuine Volkswagen Audi or a very close replica like aftermarket that follows the same guidelines I go with official Volkswagen Audi on stuff like that. There's European ones that look even better than the American spec do european-spec has black on the inside it's awesome but it is a different wiring than American spec so you have to redo the whole front headlight wiring harness which I didn't want to do.
+gtiman67 sweet thanks I have an '08, the right projector lense is just flopping around in the housing. Don't know how it broke, guess I'm just gonna pull the trigger and buy two new headlights. Thanks, keeping making videos.
I believe it still was ECStuning.com They are stock in Europe or just an option but they simply pop right in BUT be very careful removing the original ones so as not to damage the housing inside... Best thing is your VW TECH at the dealer... IT shouldn't even cost you anything. Just let THEM do a service or something😛 BUILT-IN blind-spot mirrors also the blue tint cuts down on headlight glare at night
They are Bi-xenon gas filled bulbs ignited by about 110,000 volts or something like that😛 The ballast is what takes the 12 to 14 volts DC from the battery AND turns it into AC CURRENT... which means they are about $164 for the pair... but they last a very long time. You can use any amount of KELVIN you DESIRE - I ONCE HAD 8,000 & even 10,000 KELVIN BULBS AND THEY LOOKED BLUER AND VERY COOL BUT the visible light is less to your eyes👀! I do believe VW uses 2,800 Kelvin bulbs STOCK however Fabian at FS TUNING SAID THE BEST ones are the ones Porsche uses stock which are about a 4,200 Kelvin SYLVANIA BULB and I LOVE them. YOU WANT visible light to see not necessarily a prettier bulb that just looks cooler😎! BUT IT'S UP TO YOU👍 EXPERIMENT🤳
No the ballast is separate and it's very very expensive and you don't want to buy a used one because they last about 5 to 10 years so it's kind of like if you You put in an old one & it's already been in there for 5 years... then it lasts for a week 😑 so I don't believe in replacing broken parts with old used parts, the ballasts DO LAST a good TIME & would've lasted longer if I didn't keep original headlamp assembly FOR so long... the wires GOT BRITTLE OLD & wiring harness shorted out the ballast...it all comes in one package the headlight assembly comes with the entire headlight wiring harness👍 Better to put a brand new part in THAT'LL last another 10 years or another 5 to 10 years but they're about 500 bucks a piece believe it or not. The BALLAST creates a crazy amount of voltage like 75,000 VOLTS AC to power those headlights which are bi xenon beauties [usually found in high end cars like Porsche's] GTI MkV used to put everything into their car now you gotta pay more for them mine came STOCK with these😛
@@gtiman67 I just purchased my 06 gti not to long ago. And I'm trying to fix the flickering low beam issue. I believe the ballast is located under the headlight. May you upload a video showing what its looks like? I'm looking for a new ballast and like you said those fuckers ain't cheap. Ecs is showing pricing for $338 bucks. There call it the headlight range control module. Does sound right?
Hey can you help me out? It sounds like I'm having the exact same problem as you EXCEPT that the entire driver side headlight does not seem to be having ANY power. The lowbeam/highbeam, turn signal, flash to pass, nothing turns on! Do you think the ballast can still be the culprit?? Passenger headlight works fine, fuses are all fine.
the engineers who designed this thing needs to be jailed for what they put us through not given a crap that we are already over taxed to the death. This is the last thing we need is a car that designed to break in less than 1000,000 miles which lead to costly repair bills around $1,000 just to change a light. We the people need to hold better standards to the engineers who build these thing to fail. You think they would put up with this on the space shuttle?
+TheRonmaio the Bi-xenon headlights generally last longer than any other light, it's just very expensive to replace mine lasted since 2007 that's 9 years. The ballast is expensive as it produces like 175,000 Volts AC current from DC current
I know this very late but my Jetta Gli has the same initial problem with Harness gone bad I’m looking for headlights can’t find the ones you got if there is any way you can still get them and reply that be amazing man. I looked at ecu and nothing 😭
late reply but it is 'bi-xenon' with only one xenon bulb because it uses a motorised shutter behind the projector to obstruct the top part of the beam to switch between low beam and full beam. The halogen lamp is often referred to as "flash to pass" and if you flash your headlights with the xenons turned off, it will use the halogen for the flash instead of lighting up the xenons and prematurely wearing out your xenon bulbs. On UK models we have quad high beams as standard where it both opens the shutter to give high-beam xenon and high beam halogen at the same time. You can enable/disable quad high beams with VCDS, Carista etc.
To show your FTP .... Turn on your lights and switch to high beam by pushing the stick forward ..... As a car enthusiast im surprised you didnt know that .... DOH!
Question for you, I'm trying to decide whether I should get the unitronic stage 1 or the apr stage 1? I have a 2008 gti with fsi motor. is there really any difference between the tunes? thank you!
I am biased as I love the way APR does things, you still have the factory like precision at stage 1 but way more performance, can get a clone of your stock program for warranty's sake and gain 4 mpg better! Stage one is simple just upgrade to the piston style revision D Dv by Pierburg and you're good to go!👍 the numbers at stage are: 252 hp/303TQ
APR SOFTWARE STAGE KO4 KIT WHICH INCLUDES AT MINIMUM: 1. APR STAGE 2 PLUS UPGRADES AS A PREREQUISITE °AUDI HPFP FSI UPGRADE FROM APR °FULL PERFORMANCE EXHAUST SYSTEM °FMIC OR UPGRADED APR intercooler °COLD AIR INTAKE °VW PISTON STYLE DV "REVISION D" ADDITIONAL UPGRADES: H&R SUPER SPORT SPRINGS VF ENGINEERING ENGINE PENDULUM MOUNT CATCH CAN SYSTEM LED EURO STYLE VW GTI TAILLIGHTS BLACKED OUT SIDE MARKERS R LINE FRONT GRILL & Wolfsburg EDITION LOWER CENTER GRILL Pirelli p zero Nero GT summer performance tires Using model Motul synthetic oil specific for VW gti mkv
+DOHCCordia The ballast is separate it's like a metal can that powers the lights that's about $500 itself that is separate from the headlight but the wiring Harness is part of the headlight assembly
