2018 S H7 headlightbulb replacement help?

[Johaan]

Hey all,

I give up. What’s the trick to removing the H7 bulb from the housing on a 2018 GTI S? It’s not matching what I found online YouTube-wise and seems a little different from earlier models.

First, the bulb housing remains wired, don’t see how to get more than 4 inches of slack or remove it completely. The housing looks different as well from what I’ve seen in video.

Second, I don’t see how to remove the bulb itself. Short of sticking a screwdriver in between to pry to out, it’s not moving. That may be the answer but I’m not keen on breaking this.

I’m more used to wrenching on my Jeep, and there are manuals and videos everywhere for it. Some of the videos have folks taking the whole front apart for a bulb and that seems crazy.

This is what I have and see...

Thoughts? I’ve googled and searched the forum and not found what I’m looking for, so forgive me if I missed it.

-Jon

 

[Carlosfandang0]

Hey all,

I give up. What’s the trick to removing the H7 bulb from the housing on a 2018 GTI S? It’s not matching what I found online YouTube-wise and seems a little different from earlier models.

First, the bulb housing remains wired, don’t see how to get more than 4 inches of slack or remove it completely. The housing looks different as well from what I’ve seen in video.

Second, I don’t see how to remove the bulb itself. Short of sticking a screwdriver in between to pry to out, it’s not moving. That may be the answer but I’m not keen on breaking this.

I’m more used to wrenching on my Jeep, and there are manuals and videos everywhere for it. Some of the videos have folks taking the whole front apart for a bulb and that seems crazy.

This is what I have and see...
View attachment 164468

View attachment 164469

Thoughts? I’ve googled and searched the forum and not found what I’m looking for, so forgive me if I missed it.

-Jon

Just pull the bulb out from the holder, it’s just tight from not being removed before,
I believe your picture shows you holding the HIGH beam bulb (the inner reflector nearest the grill) which is the bottom diagram shown below,

 

[Johaan]

Just pull the bulb out from the holder, it’s just tight from not being removed before,
I believe your picture shows you holding the HIGH beam bulb (the inner reflector nearest the grill) which is the bottom diagram shown below,
View attachment 164507

It’s the low beam, the outer ones and what is on in my front-end photo.

I really have pulled on it hard and it did not budge. Only thing I did not do is grab the bulb itself and pull. :-/

 

[Carlosfandang0]

That is how you remove them, give it a bit of a wiggle when pulling, as said, it will be tight as it’s not been removed before.

 

[ack_attack]

I agree. I've replaced H7 bulbs in my MK6 TDI and Jetta; the bulbs are extremely difficult to get out of the holder. But there IS hope...

Look at the new bulb for comparison, and you should see a couple of recesses where a smallish screwdriver should fit. To remove the old bulb, find the same recesses, and using a smallish flat-blade screwdriver, GENTLY pry up the bulb's metal frame from the the holder. Once you get 1-2 millimeters pried up, you should be able to remove the bulb using your fingers.

Once you learn the trick, it'll be easier next time (but still not easy).

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

 

[rowdyzombie]

I had to gently pry the two metal tabs and then pull the bulb. You can see the two tabs in the picture above.

 

[Johaan]

I considered doing that but it did not look like that was supposed to come out...

 

[Carlosfandang0]

I considered doing that but it did not look like that was supposed to come out...

It’s not supposed to really!

 

[Johaan]

Used a small flathead screwdriver to get under the gap and twisted to create enough space to pull them out. Thanks for the advice.

New Philips x-treme vision +130s look like they will be a lot better than the stock bulbs, even in daylight I could see the difference.

 

[Zzonyx]

A question for Golf 7.5 owners out there: is there a list of bulb types used on the car?
I have the 2018 Variant (aka Sportwagon), comes with a nice fat Owner's Handbook lacking that information. And there's no pdf file available either (while the sister company SKODA had them since 2005).
Are we supposed to crawl into wheel wells and take out the fogs just to see what they are or go to a Dealer for a rip-off? Preposterous, VW!

 

[Zzonyx]

Some time ago I embarked on a thorough LED upgrade involving low-beam, high-beam, cornering, fog and front indicators. All remainig on-board light sources are OEM LEDs.
To my dismay, the indicators don't have the familiar rubber (or any other type, for that matter) cover. I had to remove the entire headlight assembly to establish the fact beyond reasonable doubt.
Does this imply throwing away the unit because a 1€ WY21W incandescent has blown? I can't believe or accept that.
The OEM headlight unit is a HELLA one manufactured in Czechia and built-in by VW in Germany. It carries a label with all the bulb sizes listed on it (see photo).
An inch-high manufacturer's User Manual doesn't even mention bulb replacement, let alone show how it's done. BTW, the car's front end is poorly engineered so as to not allow a straightforward replacement of low-beam H7's. The bipolar bulb connector leads are too short to rotate the bulbholder comfortably.

Any experience and/or suggestions?
Thanks & cheers.

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