Headlight / DRL / Foglight / Park light bulb replacement

[sillygogo]

Too late to option up factory HID's?

Factory HID not available on the 118TSI GOLF

[Pharkus]

Factory HID not available on the 118TSI GOLF

Too bad. Guess the technology hasn't fully filtered down to every car just yet.

[sillygogo]

Too bad. Guess the technology hasn't fully filtered down to every car just yet.

Well the technology is there, it is available as an option in NZ for the GOLF but i guess the importer didn't want to bring it in for OZ.

[Corey_R]

3. Is it difficult to actually gain access to and remove/change the bulbs?

YES, need to remove a few parts in the engine bay.

Really? Did this change with the MK6 ?
I remember that segment on Fifth Gear where they had the Renault Megane vs the VW Golf MKV, and the Megane took a mechanic over an hour to change a headlight bulb (have to remove wheels and all), whereas the Golf could be done in 30 seconds with one hand whilst sitting forward on the front of the car eating a hamburger in the other hand... (literally)

[sillygogo]

Really? Did this change with the MK6 ?
I remember that segment on Fifth Gear where they had the Renault Megane vs the VW Golf MKV, and the Megane took a mechanic over an hour to change a headlight bulb (have to remove wheels and all), whereas the Golf could be done in 30 seconds with one hand whilst sitting forward on the front of the car eating a hamburger in the other hand... (literally)

hmm, I haven't see that segment.
What I found was, hard to gain access to, awkward angle, very small opening and hard to grip the bulb.

[Corey_R]

http://fwd.five.tv/fifth-gear/videos...hlights-s14-p2

That would be the segment I guess, but I can't play it from where I am (Korea atm). It doesn't mention the Golf in the text of that page, but on the show they used the Golf MKV as an example of 'how it should be' when doing a report on how incredible bad the Megane's headlight design is (literally requiring you to remove the front wheels and access the headlights via a small hole in the wheel arch).
Whereas on the Golf, after a few practices, the Fifth Gear presenter was able to sit on the front of the car, eat a sandwich, lean backwards, reach down into the engine bay and change the headlight bulb with one hand whilst not even looking at what he was doing.

[kimiraikkonen1a]

Yeah the MK6 main dipped beam headlights are as easy to change as the MK5 shown in that Fifth Gear segment, I've done it myself. The tricky ones are the park lights.

There's hardly any room to get your hand down and into the bulb housing, and when u do manage to get your fingers on the park light socket you can't clamp your fingers tight enough to pull it out with enough force.
http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newf...ight=main+beam
According to sillygogo you should be able to get the guys at the service centre to do it for you free of charge. I haven't had time to get mine to my VW service centre yet.

[Pharkus]

Well the technology is there, it is available as an option in NZ for the GOLF but i guess the importer didn't want to bring it in for OZ.

Agree. Don't really see how it is much harder to option it for the 118TSI (hence my assumption before that you could) over a GTI. Have you tried asking the dealer if it's at all possible?

Once you get factory HID's it's hard to go back!

[Corey_R]

It means that VWA would need to keep stock of additional sets of alternate bumpers (with provision for the headlight washers etc) etc in the country. Otherwise every time someone had a small fender bender with a car with Xenon lights, that car would be off the road for ages whilst the bumper shipped from Germany etc.

Additional inventory means extra admin, tracking costs, storage etc. Storage is actually quite expensive in this country! It's always more complicated guys than just having 'an extra box for the customer to tick'.

[Pharkus]

But wouldn't VWA still be required to stock spare bumpers (with provision for headlight washers) for the GTI's and R32's that are optioned/come with HID's?

So where is the difference here if the 118TSI were offered with HID's?

VWA would still be making money off it as the customer has optioned up their car, and we all know how those add up!