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Bi-Xenon headlight access?

Tyler Durden

Ready to race!
Location
New Zealand
Dirty Bi-Xenon headlight access?

Hi, Is the Bi-Xenon headlight unit permanently sealed or can it be stripped down for cleaning or modification?

One of my headlights has a permanent cloudy film on the inside of the lens and crap all over the xenon ball lens which projects onto the lens and is amplified by the film on the inside of the lens.

It looks fogged up with the main beam on compared to my other headlight which looks clear, this is permanent.

I raised the issue with VW warranty who had to get authorisation, it came back today - denied!

Nice eh, paid an additional $3000NZ just for the headlights and substandard appears to be acceptable.

My experience as a VW customer has gone from very poor to abysmal, I now have to take this further and fight VWNZ and possibly further...

Why the F!@## should I have to fight to get this company to honour the warranty on their substandard wares? :mad: Like I need the hassle.

I'm tempted to contact trading standards.......

OR, I could save myself a massive headache, open the unit up and wipe the shit off the lens myself, something Valeo failed to get right.

I'm very fed up with the MK7 Golf experience, I have already returned a Mk7 due to numerous faults and a few other reasons which I can not go into here.
 
Last edited:

sterl1

New member
Location
Australia
Here in Australia, the projector lens of my Xenon headlights on my GTI Performance have the same cloudy issue.
I raised this Xenon projector lens clouding with my VW dealer, who ended up getting a bloke from VGA to come and look at my headlights.
The official reply was that they are "all OK - all similar models are the same".
They had an R and a GTi on the showroom floor, and turned the lights on both cars for me - the R's projector lens were worse than mine, and the GTI had one clear and one really messy projector lens.
So, no luck getting them replaced under warranty.
Apparently there is no way to get at the projector lens to clean it, which is what I wanted to do, as they are a sealed unit (apart from being able to open up the back and relace bulbs).
Someone on one forum was talking about sticking older headlight units into a hot oven to melt the seals on the headlight units, but that is something I'm definitely not going to consider!
 

Tyler Durden

Ready to race!
Location
New Zealand
Here in Australia, the projector lens of my Xenon headlights on my GTI Performance have the same cloudy issue.
I raised this Xenon projector lens clouding with my VW dealer, who ended up getting a bloke from VGA to come and look at my headlights.
The official reply was that they are "all OK - all similar models are the same".
They had an R and a GTi on the showroom floor, and turned the lights on both cars for me - the R's projector lens were worse than mine, and the GTI had one clear and one really messy projector lens.
So, no luck getting them replaced under warranty.
Apparently there is no way to get at the projector lens to clean it, which is what I wanted to do, as they are a sealed unit (apart from being able to open up the back and relace bulbs).
Someone on one forum was talking about sticking older headlight units into a hot oven to melt the seals on the headlight units, but that is something I'm definitely not going to consider!

Thanks for the feedback, not what I was wanting to hear. Seems the Valeo factory are sloppy with the cleanliness of the production line and VW are ignoring clearly faulty units. That is sloppy workmanship.
I'm going to try further, my first Mk7 had Bi-Xenons also and they were perfect.

Funny thing is the fake Chinese copies of these headlights do not have the contamination.
 

GeoBog

Ready to race!
Someone on one forum was talking about sticking older headlight units into a hot oven to melt the seals on the headlight units, but that is something I'm definitely not going to consider!

That's how you can usually open up the headlights: by whacking them in the oven to heat the rubber seal and take them apart easily. You can also use a heat gun and go round the headlight to heat the seal. It's not that easy with Valeo headlights though as they are usually using a really hard seal that doesn't soften easy. I've had the chance of opening a set of Valeo headlights on my previous car to paint the interior black and I have struggled a lot to get them opened.

Seems the Valeo factory are sloppy with the cleanliness of the production line and VW are ignoring clearly faulty units.

It's not just the MK7 headlights. Almost all automotive parts made by Valeo are like this. On my old car, the only parts that failed were made by Valeo. It seems their main business is to make unreliable parts so that customers have to replace them quite often. The worst bit in this Valeo story is that some parts on some cars are only made by them, which means you can't find counterparts from other manufacturers.
 

Tyler Durden

Ready to race!
Location
New Zealand
I took some pics yesterday, will upload when I find time. The condition of my headlights are as new.

After a google it appears Audi are also afflicted with this fault, do valeo also produce Audi headlights?
 

SonicAaron

Ready to race!
Location
Belfast
My bi xenons also mist up. I thought my car would look cool at night with the U headlight but you can't actually see the U because the headlight is just a bright misty light haha
 

Tyler Durden

Ready to race!
Location
New Zealand
Photos

The condition shown in the following pics are as from new and VW deem this as not being an issue.

This is the passenger side headlight, overall good (RHD Car)



And....this is the driver side head light....Cloud of dirt on the inside on the lens.





The dirty projector lens, I would of thought it was critical to have this part clean.

 
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