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S4 Euro light install (very long)
This weekend I finally got around to installing Euro lights in my '92 S4.
I've only owned the car for three years, and the poor output of the low
beams in particular has been a constant gripe. Two years ago, I
installed Hella XL's, but they aren't a very attractive solution, and give
a somewhat spotty field of view.
Here's what I did:
General order:
1. remove OE headlights
2. mount relays
3. wire relays
4. wire lights
5. mount Euro lights
notes on removing the OE headlights...
* I found it a lot easier to do this with clearance. I removed the air cleaner
first on the RF side, and unbolted various reservoirs on the LF side,
leaving them loose. This was probably unnecessary.
* snap off the plastic cover over the wwasher squirter below the headlight
* clamp the wwasher hose with suitable device. Gave me an excuse to buy
a couple of hose pinch clamps to keep from draining my washer tank
* pull the squirter forward (there's a lot of piston length behind it) and twist
off the squirter head (it just pulls out)
* remove the screw on the end of the trim strip, then pull the trim strip
towards the center of the car to remove it
* the headlights are held in place with four screws, two below (behind the
trim strip) and two on top of the light. Push in the retainer clips on the
two plugs, then pull the plugs. Unscrew and remove the lights. Twist
out the (still attached to wire) parking lights and unlock/slide off the plastic
directional signal housing (which you'll attach in the same way to the new
lights. Look at how much room you have behind there!
* remove the little plastic assembly from the bottom of the light (you'll need
it to attach the front trim piece again). It has one phillips screw, and you can
attach it once the headlight's in place
Notes on mounting relays...
* Everyone who does this has a different relay solution. At first I was going
the route of an auxiliary waterproof relay box, but then I couldn't find enough
space for it. I also thought about adding a couple of relays to blanks in the
lefthand firewall relay box, yet it looked like running wires from there would
be a PITA. Finally, I found a fairly simple solution that seems robust. I got
a couple of super duty off-road relays from Dick Cepek. They're dual
relays with a load capacity of 350W per side. Overkill is my middle name.
* one hard part was finding a place to mount the relays. I used
the vertical channel sheet steel brace just behind the parking light. There
was just enough room to squeeze the relay in there without interfering with
the light assembly or the airbox (RF) or wwasher resevoir (LF)
* I also established a common grounding point. You'll see one on the LF
mount for the headlight wwasher. This is one great spot to apply Stabilant22,
since bad ground are a common issue in older Audis. If you look underneath
the LF chassis member, you'll see where the alternator ground is anchored t
o the frame. You can run a nice 10 guage wire up to the base of the relay to
make a bombproof ground.
Wiring notes...
* Issue: Corrosion protection! Use dielectric grease on the terminals to
protect them. Where possible, solder all joints. Alternatively you can use
the super-expensive Beldon "total seal" connectors, which heat shrink,
seal and melt solder with just a heat gun. I didn't want to do this again,
so that's what I used.
* ran 10 guage wire from battery jump post to RF headlight area. Used an
inline fuse mounted next to the battery jump post
* ran 12 guage wires from each tripped circuit to headlights.
* cut off original headlight connector. put spade terminals on old headlight
wires from wiring harness, then connected them to relay as triggers,
connected the brown ground wire to the new "super" ground, along with
the relay ground and the ground wire from the new headlights
* For the LF side, ran the hot wire from the inline fuse across the base of
the windshield (in and out of the firewall), then down the RF side behind
everything. zip tie in place.
Headlight connections...
* install terminals in plug (confirm the right pins!) that the low beams went
on in the "low" switch position and high beams with "high"
* don't forget to then put wires through rubber boot BEFORE putting on
connectors! Drill out the holes in the boot to accept larger wires
* need to splice into parking light wire to connect "city light" Have to figure
out which wire is parking light (gray on my car) and which is directional signal
filament
* intall the new headlight & plug in the main plug & fog light plug. Test to
see that lows go on first, then high beams (autocheck goes wonky).
Still to do: the Igor "autocheck" modification, so my display stops telling
me I have a burned out bulb.
Hope this helps someone else!
Now have DOT S4 headlights for sale and Hella XL's for sale.
Doug
'92 Ur-S4
'99 A4 1.8qtm