I recently finished my longer-than-anticipated HID projector retrofit project on my mk7 GSW and I’m thrilled with the results. I figured I’d share some of the specifics, potentially leaving some good info for the next guy.
I’ve always been enamored with the Uu uU DRL setup of the mk7 R headlights, and I like them marginally more than the dual-projector setup in the mk7.5 units. So I opted to find a set of replicas that would hopefully open up easily (e.g. sealed with butyl and NOT permaseal like the OEM headlights). I decided to take a chance on a no-name brand on Amazon and, much to my surprise, they sent me a set of Spyder headlights! Specifically, I received part number PRO-YD-VG15-BLK-DRL-BK, Spyder sku#5080578.
These are halogen units with H1 high beams, incandescent turn signals, and LED drl's in which both 'U's light up (like the OEM Golf R setup). Pretty high quality from what I can tell. Seems reasonably on par with OEM, aside from a few minor annoyances (e.g. dangling external wires in lieu of having them fully inside the housing). That I can definitely live with.
I went into this project having done retrofits before and having a decent understanding of all of the drawbacks of swapping incorrect bulbs into projectors designed for a different light source. So I wanted something a bit more higher-performing (and responsible to other drivers) than a set of drop-in LED or HID bulbs incorrectly matched with these halogen projectors. Having retrofitted FX35 projectors in the past to the tune of fantastic results, I wanted to go with another good bixenon HID setup. I thought about taking the cutting edge route and getting the Morimoto Bi-LED projectors, but I opted to stick with HIDs for a few reasons. I have always been a bit sensitive to color temperature, and LED headlights are just a bit too much on the cool side of the spectrum for me. The 4200k temperature of the high-quality Philips 85122C1 bulbs is more desirable to me than the 6300k LEDs fitting the Morimoto M LED 2.0. I also like that HID technology has mostly peaked at the time of this writing, being the more mature technology. The distance associated with the strong hotspot of well-designed HID projectors is a definite plus. It also helps that this was a more inexpensive route to take. I went with Morimoto Micro D2S projectors.
Also wanted to give a shout out to @Gray_Panther . His retrofit from many years ago inspired my own here, as he used mostly identical headlights (but opted to go with Morimoto Mini H1 projectors instead). Though I took a slightly different path with regards to projectors, mounting strategy, and ballasts, he was super helpful sharing what he learned from opening up his headlights (thanks for spotting that hidden shroud screw at the bottom!).
On to the project: This was far more time-consuming than I originally planned. First and foremost, I was wrong when I assumed that an aftermarket set like the Spyders would be sealed with rubber butyl. My first unpleasant surprise was encountering permaseal (e.g. "cold glue").
It is for this reason that I do not recommend that anyone follow in my footsteps, as this adds significant time to the project. On more than one occasion I had wished I just paid the extra money for the Osrams and got used to the high color temp of LEDs, but I was in it for the long haul the second I put one of the Spyders in the oven. Mercifully, as far as types of permaseal go, this is a type of glue that's marginally easier than some of the types used in OEM setups. Still, it took countless cycles at higher temperatures (275F in the oven) to get this to separate. The best tools for this were a tiny smooth flathead screwdriver, the morimoto pry tool, and the morimoto seal splitter. I had to focus on the inner corner (close to where the grill and bumper meet on the car), as this was the strongest part of the housing and it avoided my initial error of prying too deeply on a non-reinforced lip and tearing the plastic.
Oops. One more thing to fix later down the road. Many hours later and limits of patience reached, I was able to separate the lens, making sure to disconnect the side marker wire before separating fully. Happily, none of the permaseal stuck to the inside of the channel.
The inner shroud was trivial to remove, having removed the hidden inner screw at the bottom of the back of the housing. The two wires for the uU shroud need to be disconnected. There is also a screw that connects the housing to the lens that should be removed before starting all of this, which I re-threaded before taking this pic (it's at the bottom near the turn signal bulb):
The frustrating part of this project is that you're only halfway done with the lens separation at this part. A full layer of permaseal still sticks to the polycarbonate lens. I took two different approaches with each lens. On one lens, I patiently used a heat gun and peeled the permaseal off slowly with a long needle nose and my smooth flathead screwdriver. This took a very, very long time. The other approach I took was to use a scraper with a metal razor blade to cut off as much as the permaseal as I could. This was marginally easier, but still time-consuming. You can see here where I was able to cut down to the polycarbonate, and how thick some parts of the permaseal layer gets:
Go back to hell where you came from, permaseal.
On to error-correction: I have a decent plastic welder with some welding rods and mesh, so I pretty quickly repaired the torn lip. Not the prettiest, but this is why you always start prying the bottom of the headlight, which is completely invisible when installed. I'm satisfied with the fix.
I’ve always been enamored with the Uu uU DRL setup of the mk7 R headlights, and I like them marginally more than the dual-projector setup in the mk7.5 units. So I opted to find a set of replicas that would hopefully open up easily (e.g. sealed with butyl and NOT permaseal like the OEM headlights). I decided to take a chance on a no-name brand on Amazon and, much to my surprise, they sent me a set of Spyder headlights! Specifically, I received part number PRO-YD-VG15-BLK-DRL-BK, Spyder sku#5080578.
These are halogen units with H1 high beams, incandescent turn signals, and LED drl's in which both 'U's light up (like the OEM Golf R setup). Pretty high quality from what I can tell. Seems reasonably on par with OEM, aside from a few minor annoyances (e.g. dangling external wires in lieu of having them fully inside the housing). That I can definitely live with.
I went into this project having done retrofits before and having a decent understanding of all of the drawbacks of swapping incorrect bulbs into projectors designed for a different light source. So I wanted something a bit more higher-performing (and responsible to other drivers) than a set of drop-in LED or HID bulbs incorrectly matched with these halogen projectors. Having retrofitted FX35 projectors in the past to the tune of fantastic results, I wanted to go with another good bixenon HID setup. I thought about taking the cutting edge route and getting the Morimoto Bi-LED projectors, but I opted to stick with HIDs for a few reasons. I have always been a bit sensitive to color temperature, and LED headlights are just a bit too much on the cool side of the spectrum for me. The 4200k temperature of the high-quality Philips 85122C1 bulbs is more desirable to me than the 6300k LEDs fitting the Morimoto M LED 2.0. I also like that HID technology has mostly peaked at the time of this writing, being the more mature technology. The distance associated with the strong hotspot of well-designed HID projectors is a definite plus. It also helps that this was a more inexpensive route to take. I went with Morimoto Micro D2S projectors.
Also wanted to give a shout out to @Gray_Panther . His retrofit from many years ago inspired my own here, as he used mostly identical headlights (but opted to go with Morimoto Mini H1 projectors instead). Though I took a slightly different path with regards to projectors, mounting strategy, and ballasts, he was super helpful sharing what he learned from opening up his headlights (thanks for spotting that hidden shroud screw at the bottom!).
On to the project: This was far more time-consuming than I originally planned. First and foremost, I was wrong when I assumed that an aftermarket set like the Spyders would be sealed with rubber butyl. My first unpleasant surprise was encountering permaseal (e.g. "cold glue").
It is for this reason that I do not recommend that anyone follow in my footsteps, as this adds significant time to the project. On more than one occasion I had wished I just paid the extra money for the Osrams and got used to the high color temp of LEDs, but I was in it for the long haul the second I put one of the Spyders in the oven. Mercifully, as far as types of permaseal go, this is a type of glue that's marginally easier than some of the types used in OEM setups. Still, it took countless cycles at higher temperatures (275F in the oven) to get this to separate. The best tools for this were a tiny smooth flathead screwdriver, the morimoto pry tool, and the morimoto seal splitter. I had to focus on the inner corner (close to where the grill and bumper meet on the car), as this was the strongest part of the housing and it avoided my initial error of prying too deeply on a non-reinforced lip and tearing the plastic.
Oops. One more thing to fix later down the road. Many hours later and limits of patience reached, I was able to separate the lens, making sure to disconnect the side marker wire before separating fully. Happily, none of the permaseal stuck to the inside of the channel.
The inner shroud was trivial to remove, having removed the hidden inner screw at the bottom of the back of the housing. The two wires for the uU shroud need to be disconnected. There is also a screw that connects the housing to the lens that should be removed before starting all of this, which I re-threaded before taking this pic (it's at the bottom near the turn signal bulb):
The frustrating part of this project is that you're only halfway done with the lens separation at this part. A full layer of permaseal still sticks to the polycarbonate lens. I took two different approaches with each lens. On one lens, I patiently used a heat gun and peeled the permaseal off slowly with a long needle nose and my smooth flathead screwdriver. This took a very, very long time. The other approach I took was to use a scraper with a metal razor blade to cut off as much as the permaseal as I could. This was marginally easier, but still time-consuming. You can see here where I was able to cut down to the polycarbonate, and how thick some parts of the permaseal layer gets:
Go back to hell where you came from, permaseal.
On to error-correction: I have a decent plastic welder with some welding rods and mesh, so I pretty quickly repaired the torn lip. Not the prettiest, but this is why you always start prying the bottom of the headlight, which is completely invisible when installed. I'm satisfied with the fix.