Light Bar

[Ozsko]

In short, no progress at all. I am very doubtful but have yet to try a mock up to confirm that any driving lights on the Tiguan won't interfere with the forward assist systems but I really must do it to make sure. On the Mk7 Golf which we also have the forward looking radar is below the front bar unlike the Tiguan where they raised it above the bar and put it in the VW badge in the centre of the grill. Coincidentally I was looking at Cibie driving lights on Ebay the other night and thinking the new LED version would make a good addition to my car.

[Ozsko]

A bit of a thread dredge, I have now come up with a plan to do this and pictures will be better than words so I will post them when I am finished. I went for a bit of a drive the other day, 2100 kms in fact and a lot of it at night in forests with Skippies trying to commit suicide and I am more convinced than ever that I need more light. The lights will not live on the car only on there when needed.

[craig_perth]

Hi Ozsko,

I'm looking to get a tiguan, just doing my homework first. I was shocked to see that the LED headlights (in the USA - not sure if they differ to what we get) scored a lower result than the Halogens, so i was looking at lighting solutions also as we do a bit of driving around WA.

Have you considered mounting a your lights on the roof? (roof rack) from this link it appears to be legal in WA,
https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/medi..._VS_IB_132.pdf
not sure about other states.

Cheers.

[Ozsko]

I don't think the lights are terrible and I explained the problem in my first post but if I was driving in wide open flat country I would put one driving light and one spotlight on the front no matter how old I was and possibly a LED light bar to flood the near ground. As for putting them on the roof, no thanks, the drag and the wind noise must be terrible but it would give awesome light as the higher the better.

As for the Yank comparison, I think they are full of it, bovine excrement that is.

[drivesafe]

Hi Ozsko, I have been running roof mounted lights on most of my vehicles for the last 35 years and there is no other light setup that gives you the visibility improvement for night driving both on-road and off-road.

The improvement over bumper mounted lights is so great, that I stopped fitting bumper mounted lights to any of my vehicles 15 years ago.

here is a link to my setup.

Accessories

[Ozsko]

Hi Ozsko, I have been running roof mounted lights on most of my vehicles for the last 35 years and there is no other light setup that gives you the visibility improvement for night driving both on-road and off-road.

The improvement over bumper mounted lights is so great, that I stopped fitting bumper mounted lights to any of my vehicles 15 years ago.

here is a link to my setup.

Accessories

I totally agree as I wrote above but it is not something I have been happy with doing myself and in the metro area will inevitably lead to more attention from the law which I can do without. I am not even sure if it is legal to do so in NSW but I could be wrong there and I can't be bothered doing the search. If they were left on permanently getting into some covered car parking could also lead to tears if you forgot about them. I also need more reach than a light bar and Cibie Super Oscars on the roof would not be a good idea.

[drivesafe]

They are now legal in NSW and has never been illegal in QLD.

As for clearance in undercover parking, if you could not clear the roof with an LED bar fitted, you sure as hell could not stand up without head butting the roof.

[Ozsko]

But I am not putting a light bar on and they would be two Cibies Super Oscars That would stand about 500 mm above the roof at least if not more.

[Ozsko]

A question for drivesafe that may interest others, where did you put the on/off switch for your light bar? There is a blank space in the console at the front left but I don't think it will take a switch the same as the others. That would be ideal as I would buy another switch from VW and change the lettering on it somehow if I could get it in. I have the lights now and the brackets made, I just have to paint the brackets, do some wiring and see how bright they are. Pictures when I finish and I have not drilled any holes in the car to do it which is a plus.

[drivesafe]

Hi Ozsko, I have never been happy with drilling holes in the dash of a new vehicle and if you read the ADR relating to the fitting of driving lights ( old and new ADR ) it states you must fit a switch to be able to turn the driving lights off.

The ADR does NOT state where that switch has to be located, so in all my vehicles for the last 15 years or so, I have mounted the switch in the engine bay, usually next to or close to the driving light relay.

BTW, I always fit an ON/OFF/ON switch. One “ON” position is wired to the Highbeam and the other “ON” position is wired straight to the battery.

I wire the switch this way so that in normal operation, turning the vehicle’s Highbeam on also turns the driving lights on, as is the normal use.

But the other “ON” position allows me to turn the driving lights on at any time, not just to be able to have the driving lights on when the ignition is off, but it also makes it much easier to aline the driving lights when you first install them.

I just find a good bit of quiet straight road, turn the vehicle’s lights off, then turn the driving lights on via the engine bay switch and adjust the driving light position to suit. This is much easier to do with the other lights turned off.