How I've went about gathering parts to try and make up a set of Bora OEM HIDs. It's took me a while to gather the parts and a fair slab of cash as well, but I reckon it'll be worth it when I'm done. This all refers to the pre 2002.5 headlights.
Headlight Housings
We all know how rare and hard to get a set of RHD Bora Xenons are so I was pretty shocked one night to find a set on ebay. One was a drivers side from one seller and the other a passengers side from a completely different seller. One was a buy it now auction and the other took a generous offer to have the auction ended early. Yes, i know i'm guilty of this but how often do you get the chance to get a full set in one night. Anyway, even better was the fact that they were both new headlights and still in the VW boxes. Not only was this all matching up nicely there was the surprise of them both being Pre-2002.5 headlights. The xenons changed in wiring and function after this. Next was the long adventure to find the ballasts.
Headlight Housings Cost £280 for the pair.
Ballasts
I have managed to get myself about 5 now. Don't ask why but it's better safe than sorry. These have been gathered up from germany and the USA. None to be found in the UK ebay or elsewhere. I tried just about every scrap yard i could find the number for. the average price I got them for was about £55 - £60 which isn't bad considering that VW charge £276 each for them. Next was the wiring and brackets to hold the ballast as the pre 2002.5 ballasts are mounted away from the light at the front wings. Connected by a wiring loom of their own and a conduit wrapped around. I managed to wrestle these items from a disgruntled german. German ebay is good to find bits on but make sure you have a good translater. I have a very good friend of mine from america who is fluent in german and was invaluable to me getting parts. If you try and use google translater or babblefish, more often than not you'll appear to be rude or not make any sense whatsoever. Try and find a user who already has international shipping indicated on the auction and takes paypal. This means all the negotiation has already been taken care of and you just have to send the money.
Ballast Cost £110 for the pair. Got the brackets and wiring for free.
Igniters
Not so easy to get were the igniters. I have a couple at the minute but need to trim brackets off one to make it fit. The igniters have to be the small 2 pin ones. If you've ever has a look at igniters you'll know what i mean. Igniters can be found on german ebay again but are very hard to fnid the right ones. They are £80 for the pair from VW and you can only order them in pairs. Some dealers will tell you they're £80 each. They need slapped. I could see from where I was sitting that the screen said 2 items = £78. Anyway, typical price on german ebay is about £10 - £15 including shipping.
Igniter cost so far £10 and need to swap a 3 pin for a 2 pin one.
Bulbs
I ordered 2 x Philips D2S 4300K ultrawhite bulbs from a guy called Chris French on ebay. His username is monsterbikes and the guy is a legend. Very helpful and friendly and at £28 for the pair of bulbs it's an unreal price. VW will charge you £114 each for the bulbs.
I also managed to order a set of H7 4700K bulbs from ebay. Cost was about £10 including P+P. Lets hope they last.
Sidelight bulbs were H6W and I got them from ultraleds. They seem very short though and don't realy sit out in the reflector. I'll try and get a pic of it sometime. I'm sure they'll be fine.
Bulb cost so far £50.
Autolevelling
Autolevelling was something I wanted to go with to keep everything OEM. It's not essential and the levelling can be wired to the manual leveller that are on the normal headlights. This is by far and away the hardest parts to find on the pre 2002.5 headlights as the levelling control unit is a seperate box. The control unit has taken me 4 months to find and I ended up paying about £90 for it. Bear in mind that this is £405 from VW and not only that, when I phoned my local dealership he was kind enough to do a little research for me and found out that there was only one of these units in the UK out of all the dealers, and it would still be £405. Off i went on a search from there and again i've tried every scrap yard and not a thing turned up until I found it on german ebay. Funny enough by a german chap who wasn't willing to send it to the UK. German people are VERY stubborn sometimes. (I'm not racist in any way but my experiences lately have reinforced my thoughts on this). After 3 days negotiation with a translator and general begging we managed to agree with the guy that if I won the auction he'd send the item at cost price on the P+P. He turned out to be a pretty agreeable chap after we told him how long i'd been looking for it. Unfortunately that's only part of the battle. I managed to get the front and rear auto-levelling sensors for free from a scrap yard. I have also now managed to get all the wiring and almost all the brackets and fittings. Again I got these thrown in for free.
Auto-levelling wiring loom with spade connectors for attaching them to the 10-12 pin adapters during installation.
Here's the bracket which cost me about £40. It had to be ordered from the factory in Germany because the total amount in stock in the UK was 0. As you can see there is a piece detached from the main bracket. This is because the screws supplied by VW (with the correct part number) don't fit. I'm going to use a drill to very carefully countersink the holes slightly to let the screws get started and then it should screw together.
Autolevelling cost so far £130
Headlight Washers
The headlight washers again are something that aren't needed but I want them to keep the whole HID system as OEM as possible. So far I've managed to get the 5.5L washer bottle and secondary water pump with wiring and headlight washer jets all for £20. I also just got the piping and a headlight washer jet carrier for FREE. I managed to get a full second set of headlight washers and a passenger's side washer cap last week. I only need one pressure cylinder and the cap and I'll just order another cap. So roughly that works out at about another £10. The drivers side cap should be about £5 but I need to check.
Headlight washer cost £30
Wiring - 10-12 pin Adapters
The 10-12 pin Adapters have just been finished. It's not as simple as whacking in the ones we've seen everywhere in diagrams as the pre2002.5 adapters are not only different from the 2003 ones but the left one is different from the right one. This is made even more complicated by the fact i'm including the autolevelling. I'd like to also mention that Bosch and their suppliers are pretty useless and were no help what-so-ever when it came to the pin outs for these parts. Also Kufatec.de were pretty ignorant and only aggreed to tell me how they were wired if i bought the sensors and wiring package from them at about £130.
Below is a diagram I've just put together to show the wiring connections for the adpaters and the sensors. It shows every wire needed.
Wiring and plugs for adapters - Approx £20
10 pin Stock Wiring
1. Level Motor (+)
2. Front Fogs (+)
3. Negative (Level motor)
4. Negative (Low Beam, Indicators, Sidelights)
5. Level Motor Control (+)
6. Indicator (+)
7. Low Beam (+)
8. Negative (Front Fogs, High Beam)
9. High Beam (+)
10. Sidelight (+)
12 Pin Left Headlight
1. Black – Level Motor (+)/Purple – Levelling Controller (+)
2. K Wire à OBDII socket pin 7 or T32/25 (Blue plug on clocks)
3. Sidelight (+)
4. Indicator (+)
5. Main Beam (+)
6. Ballast (+)
7. Negative (Main Beam, Levelling Motor, Levelling Controller)
8. Negative (Ballast, Sidelight, Indicator)
9. Suspension Sensors (+). Pin 5 on both sensors (black wire)
10. Rear Suspension Sensor. Pin 4 (blue wire)
11. Levelling Motor Control
12. Front Suspension Sensor Pin 4 (red wire)
12 Pin Right Headlight
1. Level Motor (+) à T12a/1
2. K Wire à T12a/2
3. Sidelight (+)
4. Indicator (+)
5. Main Beam (+)
6. Ballast (+)
7. Negative (Main Beam, Levelling Motor)
8. Negative (Ballast, Sidelight, Indicator)
9.
10.
11. Levelling Motor Control à T12a/11
12.
On the left 12 pin adapter, all pins must included and are all utilised.
On the right 12 pin adapter, Pins 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11 are used.
Here's the tapes I'm using. One is a standard rol of insulating tape and the other roll is the type that's used on the original loom. It's a cloth tape and is excellent. It wraps in pretty tight and is easy to work with. It's about £4 per roll.
"
Other Bits
Stuff I need or want to get yet include 1 indicator bulb (a mate has a set for me for just under £2). I need to modify an Ignitor. I intend to get either laminX or the Lexan covers to protect the headlight housings.
Part Numbers (some VW prices)
Left Headlight Housing - 1J5 941 017 AN - £276
Right Headlight Housing - 1J5 941 018 AN
Auto-Levelling Control Unit - 1J0 941 651 - £405
Ballast - 1J0 941 641
Igniter - 1J0 941 641 A - £80 per pair
Igniter Holding Bracket - 1J0 941 613 A
Bulb Retaining Ring - 1C0 941 621
Left Ballast Holding Bracket - 1J0 941 613
Right Ballast Holding Bracket - 1J0 941 614
Screws for Ballast Brackets (x2) - N 904 556 03
Wiring Harness to Left Ballast - 1J0 972 813
Wiring Harness to Right Ballast - 1J0 972 813 A
Left Ballast Wiring Conduit - 1J0 971 821 C
Right Ballast Wiring Conduit - 1J0 971 822
Wiring and plugs for adapters - Approx £20
TOTAL COST FOR ME SO FAR: £680 I think this price isn't too bad considering It's all OEM and i'm installing headlight washers and autolevelling.
Well, that's the story so far. I'll try and get a few updates and pictures as soon as I get a chance. I'm almost ready for installation now. About time too. My first move will be pulling the autolevelling wiring down the side of the car. Then I'll need to install the headlight washers as it's only 2 wires and the washer bottle. I'll leave the cutting of the bumper to a good friend and professional bodywork geezer and painter.
All the best and if anyone has any questions just ask. I might even have a few spare parts left over when I'm finished.
Cheers
Baz