Xenon plus upgrade

[IT]

I'd fancied this for a while as I only have regular xenons, but the xenon plus lights are harder to come by and I though fitting was going to be tough.

Well, fate has swung my way and I have a 4 day window this bank holiday weekend to fit xenon plus to my car, and fit xenons back to the xenon plus car.

From all the research I've done so far, it actually looks like a straight swop over, which is interesting, and in fact the wiring diagrams for headlights are identical whether you have halogen, xenon or xenon plus.

With all the auto headlight levelling stuff that goes on with Xenons, I find it hard to believe but the wiring diagrams havnt let me down yet, so I'm going to give it a go.

Fortunately, Xenon plus is one of those upgrades that looks really cool when the car is just stood still, which is good because mine still wont start...

I guess i'd best look at that too then....

[Singh]

Hey you! I've been on the waiting list for them Xenons Pluses for ages
I've even contemplated buying some from Audi! Looking forward to finding out how easy/difficult this is...

[IT]

You may well be on the a8parts list, but this isnt an a8parts breaker.... If it were, then i wouldnt have to refit my lights to the donor before Tuesday now would i.....

[Singh]

I was only kidding Ian

So how'd you manage to do it? Can you sort me out as well?

[PsYcHe]

Sounds like some poor bugger is going to come back to their car and have different headlights

[B@fink]

yeah, but if they don't notice.........................

[Singh]

Well, if anyone with Xenon Pluses wants to swap for my standard Xenons plus cash their way, PM me

[IT]

Before I start, for those not understanding the point of this upgrade here we go:

Xenon headlights have a xenon bulb for the dipped beam, and a halogen bulb for the main beam and for flash. This is most common type of Xenon installation on many cars, not just the A8.

Xenon plus has a single xenon bulb that is used for both dipped beam and main beam, this is done by physically lifting the bulb housing up when main beam is turned on, which is rather cool. There is also an additional halogen bulb in there for 'flash' as a xenon cant warm up fast enough for a quick flash when required. The Halogen also illuminates when on main beam for extra light, and if dipped beam is on, then when you flash you get the halogen on and the xenon bulb lifts.....

ok, on with the install...

Here is the donor car with factory Xenon plus.



and here is my car. The bumper is off from earlier frolics I've had with the starter motor, and to be honest as its 2 bolts, 1 electrical connector and 1 headlampwash pipe I'd be tempted to remove it as it does make it easier as things progress.....



So, first we need to remove the lights... There are 2 crosshead screws at the top of each headlight under these black covers. Pop the covers off with a flatblade, then undo the crosshead screws. If you have regular xenons, note the extra cable as indicated by the arrow - This makes more sense in a short while:



and here we have the donor car with Xenon plus - Note, no extra cable, instead we have a silver box bolted to the side of the headlight unit:



and there are two crosshead screws under here too. They are a real bitch to get to if the bumper is on, and putting them back with the bumper on is nearly impossible... If you have an undertray, be prepared to go fishing for the screws plenty of times during this procedure...



And here on my car with the bumper removed, a bit easier to see:



Once all 4 screws are removed, you can disconnect the main 10 pin black wiring block, the seperate indicator connector and on the regular xenons, the 4 way connector on the side, then the headlight will come out. It will come out with the bumper in place with some careful wiggling, but again bumper off is way easier...

[IT]

Now for the fun stuff, here is a photo of the new xenon plus light directly above my existing xenon light.... the difference in appearance is quite obvious really....




And here is the back of the xenon plus headlight. The red circled black 10 way connector in the middle is the same on xenon and xenon plus and will simply plug straight in. This connector has 9 pins connected, 2 grounds, 4 connections for the stepper motor to adjust the elevation of the bulb, 1 for side light, 1 for main beam and 1 for full beam, and is the same on both types of xenons as the wiring diagrams I previously looked at suggested...

The green circled connection is a simple 2 wire connection for the indicator.

The silver box on the side of the xenon plus is the ignitor for the headlight. The ignitor works the same way as the starter in a strip light by giving it a kick of voltage to get it going.



and here is the back of a xenon headlight. black connector and indicator are identical, however we have lost the silver box and gained a 4 pin connector. This is actually simpler than you could imagine as the silver box in the xenon lights is simply remote, so the 4 wires just connect to it, and to be more specific, 2 of the wires (ground and dipped beam from the main 10 pin connector) come out of this to the ignitor and then come back in from the ignitor through this 4 pin connector and straight to the xenon bulb. Its just like they ran out of room, so put the ignitors somewhere different, which we'll come onto shortly...



So, theory is all good, but lets test it, so in goes the left hand side xenon plus and I connect the 10 pin connector and indicator. The xenon plus ignitor is self contained, so I leave the old 4 pin connector dangling for a moment....



and, headlights on:



hurrah.... - but - i still need to test the main beam and flash as this was the part that concerned me most, so I steal the mirror out of the dining room and pop it in front of the car so I can pull the stalk AND see the result...



so thats conclusive..... it works

[IT]

Time to clean up and finish up.

I need to remove the old xenons completely including the ignitor kit as I need to put the whole lot into the donor car. If you are not under this pressure then there is no real harm in securing the 4 pin connector somewhere and just leaving them there.... The ignitor for the drivers side is highlighted with the rather shaky outline I just did and is bolted in with 3 x 10mm head bolts. one bolt though is under the air box, so you'll need to pop that out to remove the bracket. The purple circle highlights the 4 pin wire that goes to that ignitor, the red circle is the main 10 pin connector and the green circle is the indicator connection:



Removing the ignitor from the other side is a bit more tricky as it is hidden under the wing. The only real way to get to it is to remove the wheel and the front half of the wheel arch liner:



Once thats removed, you can see the silver box hanging on the left here, bolted in with 2 x 10mm head bolts again:



Undo a few cable ties and it comes out easy enough, then you have a pair ready for refit (or selling!)



So, donor car back together and running Xenons:




and my car 95% back together, but no point finishing it until I sort the starter....



All in all, I'm very happy with it, and I suppose as Halogens and Xenons look visually the same, having Xenon plus is a great way of saying 'I've got xenons' even when they're off....