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Xenon retrofit help needed please


akash84
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Hi all,

Posting this around the forums because I really am getting fedup with retrofits!

Basically, got original A6 xenon headlights from Germany for about £450-500 (cant remember the exact figure).

Finally got delivered, fit them in only to find the cable from the halogens do not fit - well they do with pressure but lets not go there :)

Looked around/asked around and came across KUFATEC GmbH - Adapter Xenon - Scheinwerfer Audi A6 4F 33912 which is what I needed.

Ok, reputable place, and it makes sense, cable doesnt fit and this adapter is the saviour.

Finally got it delivered only to find I didn't look at the picture properly and so I did not ask questions. The cable while self-explanatory has also two wires coming out of it. Suddenly this was sounding like it was not just "plug and play" as the various ebay threads selling the same thing suggest!

I fit the lights anyway without connecting those two wires while still asking both ebay sellers and kufatec what those two wires were for.

Fit the lights, cables (apart from the two wires), tested it out and voila, I had xenon lighting/hids whatever its called - and very bright!

At this point, I didnt think they were auto-levelling though - maybe because vagcom needs to tell the car its xenons

While I thought of the above, beep after beep came out from inside to suggest the main (both) and dipped (both) had gone.

Tested the main beam out by pulling the lever and none work

Though the dipped lights work fine.

Again, I assume this is down to vagcom change needing to tell the car its now got xenons.

In the whole process which only took 15mins this time as the last time I pulled the bumper out gave me some experience.

But not without further issues: This time, I managed to catch the corner of the toolbox on the rear bumper taking a chunk out of it.

I also managed to pull the bumper a bit more this time breaking the hose clip to the headlamp washers. This meant the floor was soaked with washer liquid which emptied out from the bottle This has been ordered and is luckily cheaper than a bottle of water.

Ok the whole point of this thread is to give some background to help answer my questions.

1. what are those wires for?

2. Do I need them?

3. If yes, where do I connect it?

4. Will vag-com sort out this bulb out?

5. If yes (I hope it is!) do you know what code/controller it is under?

6. Will vag-com sort out the main beam?

7. As point 5.

A guy on ebay did send me this link:

KUFATEC GmbH - Adapter Xenon - Scheinwerfer Audi A6 4F 33912

Kufatec's reply was:

the extra wires are for the bi xenon switch and daylight which need to be connected to the boardnet controlling unit.

My reply: Do all A6's have it?

Reply: Yes all A6 4F. (which is what I have)

But I still don't understand the use and where they go.

As far as the link is concerned

First , I don't understand German and the translators are rubbish.

Secondly, I can't even make out what that is a picture of!

But basically those two wires (2 per headlamp/adapter) go into the above link whatever that is... can anyone help out there?

To top it off, we have more rain coming down in the UK, the bumper needs fixing properly, the rear needs sorting, and my vagcom cable (both) are dead so I need to find someone who can do it for me!

So, that's why this supposedly 1 day project has turned into a 4 week nightmare.

If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it so I can get this sorted for the weekend, and enjoy the last week of my holiday because another year at work!

Thanks in advance.

Akash

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Only guessing here, but I would say that those wires are for the solenoids in each lamp for full beam, they connect to C6 (left) and C16 (right) respectively of the headlamp control unit. The wires would be blue/purple.

I've never done this before and I don't want to get involved with this, but that hould help you.

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I don't think I will ever do retrofits for lights again! Fitted everything properly after getting the hose part I broke, £2.91 from Audi so that was nice.

But then found the drivers side light fitting was off and there was too much gap - had to take everything apart again

any forums you are NOT on craigy?

Anyway thanks for the hint... I realised the second link I posted was the same as the first... it should infact have been

http://www.kunset.de/Einbau/Audi/Audi%20A6%204F/Anschlussplan.pdf

Does this go with what you were saying?

Do I assume that these cables actually go in the main connector itself?

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Cheers Craigyb, I don't remember the connector anymore but I assume it just goes into the back of the adapter block itself so that the original connector and adapter now have these extra two pins to connect?

I will do it in the morning before work - getting windy now

On another note, I never did get a reply from you in regards to quoting me a few things on the car (TV addon and possible SAP bluetooth)

Car already has MMI High/Full with the DVD Satnav

And GSM prep (cradle in armrest)

Will update tomorrow!

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Hi,

Just a quick one while I wait for the rain to die down...

I was giong through the instructions just for a once over and where you mention

they connect to C6 (left) and C16 (right) respectively of the headlamp control unit.

Would you say only one wire per side (ie: the blue) would be for this section? Remember there are two wires sticking out per side so I'm under the assumption now that the blue one is what you are saying (as is the instructions at the top half) and the white wire is for the bottom section ?

If you get a chance to reply, please do, otherwise I will make an attempt anyway and see how things go.

I can't believe how much the beam can be used - needed it 2-3 times yesterday and naturally it didnt work :-)

Also the lights are not auto-levelling so while the passenger side is fine, the drivers side is dropped down - looks so ugly

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Time to give up I think and get the baseball bat out to smash them up!

Looked in every forum, ELSA, various sites, I just cannot see where this "control unit" is

Managed to get 30mins today to look in the headlamps again, nothing

I now know which wire is "pin 11 and pin12" but as for the "control unit" .... I just dont know

Time to bite the bullet I think and call it a £500 mistake

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  • 10 months later...

Time to bite the bullet I think and call it a £500 mistake

...old topic, but recently I managed to retrofit Xenon headlamps into my A6 :)

I DID NOT use kufatec set.

I build my own using ELSA schemes and origanl connectors from local Audi dealer.

I retrofitted xenons with auto-levelling and headlight wash system.

Total cost of parts (including headlamps, new bumper with nozzles, xenon range sensor mounted on rear and front left axle, J431-xenon control unit, washer pump, cables etc...) - is lower than 800Euro.

Did it by myself, although I'm NOT a car mechanic or something... :grin:

Cheers from Poland...:)

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  • 5 weeks later...
...old topic, but recently I managed to retrofit Xenon headlamps into my A6 :)

I DID NOT use kufatec set.

I build my own using ELSA schemes and origanl connectors from local Audi dealer.

I retrofitted xenons with auto-levelling and headlight wash system.

Total cost of parts (including headlamps, new bumper with nozzles, xenon range sensor mounted on rear and front left axle, J431-xenon control unit, washer pump, cables etc...) - is lower than 800Euro.

Did it by myself, although I'm NOT a car mechanic or something... :grin:

Cheers from Poland...:)

I have no idea how you got the parts for < 800 EUR, any chance you'd be willing to buy them to sell them to someone in the UK... I had a look at ETKA and got to well over £1500 when pricing bits, then stopped :P

Do you have any details of how you did the conversion? I'm not so bothered about the headlamp wash and self-levelling initially but I miss the Bi-Xenons I had in my old car now that I've upgraded to an A6 :(

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Remember that buying lights from Europe won't work as there are specific ones for right and left hand drive.

I see this all the time on other forums, guys them from Poland or similar and then wonder why the road is not lit very far ahead or they are dazzling oncoming drivers.

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Remember that buying lights from Europe won't work as there are specific ones for right and left hand drive.

I see this all the time on other forums, guys them from Poland or similar and then wonder why the road is not lit very far ahead or they are dazzling oncoming drivers.

The A6 ones are switchable (thankfully) so it's the same part as far as I can see from ETKA

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I don't agree with that, there was a Dutch A6 in the dealers and it had a cracked headlight, they were having to get him a LHD unit from Germany as the RHD ones in stock over here were not suitable.

They said the swicth mearly cut the beam across the top to stop people being dazzled, however this was then very much reduced as far as how far the beam went.

If that makes sense??

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Damn, that's annoying, even then - the RHD parts are probably cheaper if sourced from within europe... I can't justify paying £1500 for headlamps, thats more than the OEM option when ordered new (which includes the washing / self-levelling etc)

Has anyone on here in the UK retrofitted these?

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well remember...I did :- )

But failed in a way because I had a lot of issues along the way such as getting that damn plug to fit properly from Kufatec. I think if that worked properly, I would have had full use of the lights including beam, indicators etc

as for levelling, I don't blame the lights for this as this is a completely separate thing on the suspension that you have to add - something I did not look into as I was hoping the manual would suffice - little did I know, the manual control would not work because obviously...the lights had no manual controllable motor.

I paid about £500 from ebay for them but made a massive loss as I sold them for £250 :(

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I was aware the self levelling wouldnt work (at least not without a lot of extra bits) but I rarely have the car loaded enough to adjust them anyway. I may, in the future, retrofit the self-levelling as well but that's yet another kufatec kit ;)

What problems did you have with the Kufatec wiring harness ?

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I have no idea how you got the parts for < 800 EUR, any chance you'd be willing to buy them to sell them to someone in the UK... I had a look at ETKA and got to well over £1500 when pricing bits, then stopped :P

Do you have any details of how you did the conversion? I'm not so bothered about the headlamp wash and self-levelling initially but I miss the Bi-Xenons I had in my old car now that I've upgraded to an A6 :(

here's an example parts list with prices :grin: :

- xenon plus (with cornering light !) lamps (2500PLN=420GBP): AUDI A6 2006 lampy xenon skrętne (669065137) - Aukcje internetowe Allegro

- complete bumper with nozzles, pipes, halogens, etc... (different colours :)) (price: 1100PLN=180GBP): Kompletny Zderzak Audi A6 4f0 Idealny (666960219) - Aukcje internetowe Allegro

- axle sensors: (2pcs=2x169PLN= 60GBP): can't find at this moment but I've took them for such price

- xenon leveling and cornering module (269PLN=45GBP) - sterownik świateł audi a6 4f0 (667731210) - motoAllegro

- bordnetz reprogramming (200PLN=35GBP) - I've had "B" revision witch did not accept xenon presence... :grin:

- kufatec set (price well known) or "set produced by myself" - cost of parts from audi service - about 10 GBP :grin:

-pump for nozzles - about 15GBP

Of course - you can take some "soute" version of bumper (25GBP), buy nozzles from www.simpsonsupplies.com (UK) - for 22GBP, pipes for 10 GBP and you have "all" for 60 pounds... :grin: (do not know prices for painting elements at UK...)

And of course oridinary bixenons are much cheaper.... you can take them for 200-250 GBP...

Next 10 pounds for new blend instead old light level stuff.

And that is all.

Retrofitting is not to much difficult. Takes about 12-15hrs (without bumper painting of corse...)

After all you have A6 with bixenon or bixenon plus, with auto levelling, with nozzles. And BIG satisfaction.... :D

No errors on FIS, no errors at Vag-Com. ALMOST like from fabric... :D

Regards

_MROSS

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My main problem has been trying to find ones for countries which drive on the left ... These (AUDI A6 RS6 XENON HEADLIGHTS LED DAYTIME RUNNING LIGHTS on eBay (end time 28-Jun-09 20:27:35 BST)) on eBay looked promising until I realised that (despite the misleading description from the seller!) they're not UK ones :(

I'm convinced the ones I had on my old passat were switchable from LHD / RHD ... their beam pattern was quite different from the halogen equivalent (more even, both lights almost at the same cut off point from memory) but passed an MOT with no issues .. If I could convert the "right-hand traffic" lights that'd be ideal... as it's easy to find them, are you aware of any switch or lever within your headlights that allows the beam to be changed for driving on the "wrong" side of the road ?

Edited by rsmck
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In my headlights there's stuff which mechanically converts lights from lhd to rhd (bixenon). I do not know how it works in fact, but in service manual it is also mentioned about this (see below).

Of course there's possibility to adjust lights from lhd to rhd by computer also (not every model of hedlights).

post-28430-137914433944_thumb.jpg

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In my headlights there's stuff which mechanically converts lights from lhd to rhd (bixenon). I do not know how it works in fact, but in service manual it is also mentioned about this (see below).

Of course there's possibility to adjust lights from lhd to rhd by computer also (not every model of hedlights).

Thanks, that's what I had expected from other cars I've owned, but there are two separate parts listed in ETKA (driving on left, driving on right) which is what confused me.. can you confirm the part number of your lights?

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@mross I tried to send this by PM but it's disabled here ... since it's maybe a little off-topic for the thread and I don't really want to hijack someone else's thread

Anyway, I've obtained a couple of bi-xenon headlamps from a 2007 model (same year as my car) A6 with the correct beam patterns :D ... what do I need to do to get these working - is it worth obtaining the Kufatec adapter (where do the extra two wires go on that?)

Through time I will probably add the self-levelling if I can get hole of the required components cheaply but for the meantime I just need the lights to work (with dipped + full beam and, obviously, indicators/turn-signals) and remain set at a fixed level.

Is there a how-to guide anywhere that shows what wiring needs changing ?

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Hi all,

I think theres a few questions on what goes on with the retrofits so I'll try and breakdown any queries I have seen on here:

1. You can't just add HIDs + Ballasts into the existing halogen lighting housings are these are not compliant and will flood the housing with light rather than having them directed - this obviously blinds oncoming traffic + MOT failure however...all your lights will work including manual levelling.

2. What does the Kufatec adaptor do? Well if you got halogen lighting currently, you will need the adaptor as the current plugs will >not< fit the xenon lights (providing you bought the full original OEM xenon lights)

This will however, remove your manual adjustment. You do have the ability howver to manually adjust on the headlight housings itself using a philips screwdriver so if your car doesnt go up/down much in weight, you can set it so it directs centre or down and leave it as it is - obviously going up/down a hill, it wont adjust so you could blind people.

This too is an MOT failure.

3. What were my problems with the kufatec? I spent weeks on trying to do this mod and in the end failed + gave up.

The adaptor was fine...fitted the existing ones and converted them no problems.

The problems started that despite the vag-com change to allow the car to recognise the lights, I could not get all the functionality working.

Depending on code (from what I remember), the high beams (pull lever) would not work, and indicators would not work. Side lights did but kept stating bulb failure as did the indicators + beam bulbs.

There were two wires that were coming out of the adaptor which I had no idea what they were for. The Kufatec instructions as usual we in German so no understanding there (plus hardly any text to convert!)

From my understanding, these were the two key wires to solve the issus I was having but from the vague information I had, Audi had (what they would provide) and the guys on here and other forums...these two wires had to go to the headlight control moduel found potentially somewhere under the steering wheel.

Having found my emails from Kufa, the reply was as follows:

"the extra wires are for the bi xenon switch and daylight which need to be connected to the boardnet controlling unit."

On replying about difficulty:

"Dear It's not difficult"

On further asking for information on where the hell it was...and sending themthe picture under my steering wheel#

(Imageshack - cimg0805tu9.jpg)

I got no reply

Bang went 50 quid - wasted

In the end, I got so frustrated, i took them out and sold them on ebay with the adaptors.

Hopefully that may help - I know one guy on here I think has actually done it successfully but he went the whole way with the levelling etc.

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1 => I know, I'm using OEM Audi Bi-Xenon headlamps with Ballast + proper optics :)

2 => The self-levelling never worked in the last OEM bi-xenon car i drove have never been flashed at by anyone, passed MOT every time and were adjusted correctly by the MOT centre. Not having manually-adjustable headlamps or self-levelling is *not* an MOT failure, although the DfT do say that "in their opinion it is not legal" to have it fitted without the self-levelling, although it does not (yet) form part of the MOT

3 => Disappointed to hear of your experience with Kufatec, I believe they now have a UK distributor so they may be able to offer more information. mross above has retrofitted them successfully with self-levelling etc and I hope he'll at least be able to advise how to connect them (with or without the kufatec kit) and get the full-beam and indicators working :) ... self-levelling I may well add in the future.

Re the above information on my MOT experiences: My last car (VW Passat) had Bi-Xenon headlamps with no self-levelling (and a manual adjustment control that did nothing), it passed 3 MOTs in the time I had it. Another car I have access to (SAAB 9-5) has OEM Bi-Xenon headlamps and the self-leveling has not worked for many years (faulty sensor) - it has passed 4 MOTs in that condition.

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If they do have a UK distro. great - I wanted to use them for many things but just felt scared after that attempt!

Hmm interesting about the MOT - it's something I've always been told. From the 2009 testing schema:

Lights

The headlamps are checked for alignment with a Beam Setter. After first aligning the equipment with the vehicle, the left and right headlamp beams are checked to ensure they are correctly set so as not to dazzle other road users.

Test Description

All required lights are checked for:

  • operation
  • condition
  • security

Side lights and headlamps

  • are the correct type and colour
  • dip and aim.

Stop lights, indicators and hazard lights*

  • are the correct type and colour
  • do not interfere with each other in operation
  • driver's tell-tale works with respect to indicators, or there is an audible warning system.

Rear Fog lamps**

  • must be fitted to the centre or offside of the vehicle
  • tell-tale must work
  • must not be affected by other lamps and not be obscured
  • must be red.

Number plate lamps

  • All lamps fitted must be working.

Rear reflectors

  • There must be two red reflectors fitted reasonably symmetrically, securely attached and not obscured.

* Must be fitted to all vehicles first used on or after 1st April 1986, but if fitted, must be tested.

** Must be fitted to all vehicles first used on or after 1st April 1980.

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I think the consensus by the MOT stations that have tested mine then must be that they are set so as not to dazzle other road users and that the aim is correct, the manual adjustment control for the halogen lights is never used by people going up a hill but rather for heavy loads which lower the rear of the vehicle and change the angle of the light, in which case my lights possibly would dazzle oncoming traffic however the car never has such a load in it...

I'm only going from past experience but I would have no issue with them as long as their correctly adjusted. I'll also add that i have been on the road with my own car behind me and coming the opposite way from me (that's what I get for sharing cars with the other half ;)) and have never been dazzled by the light as I have been from many cars I've seen with "retrofitted hid kits"

Hoping I can get these working as-is for now (assuming mross can share his knowledge :)) ... and then will probably add the self-levelling at some point in the future as and when I can get the parts reasonably :)

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