Headlight Upgrade - Halogen to Factory LED ?

[mexy95]

Hey guys,

So over in Australia the only way to get the LED Headlamps are to option a Luxury Pack which has items such as Sunroof, Leather Seats and bigger alloys of which I didn't want.

Long story short I dislike the Halogen headlights that come standard, can you simply purchase the OEM Left/Right LED Headlights and simply remove the halogen headlights and install the LED examples as simple as a plug and play or is there other electronics that are needed for such a job ?

I found the below example;

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/VW-Polo-GTI ... SwDJFdXfTq

[SRGTD]

I doubt it’d be a simple plug and play installation, although I dare say anything’s possible - at a price.

In the LED headlamp units, the DRL lighting strip is an integral part of the headlamp unit, and it also doubles up as the indicator (changes colour from white light to orange when indicating). The LED units are also self levelling, so cars fitted with them don’t have the manual beam height adjustment beside the headlamp switch to compensate for different loads/weight carried in the car; cars with the LED units have sensors that adjust the beam height automatically to compensate for load/weight - on start-up, the LED headlamps also perform a check function (the beam ‘dances’ up and down) to show the auto beam height adjustment is working correctly). There may be other differences in functionality too.

So, I suspect it wouldn’t be a straight swap to change the halogen headlamp units to the LED units; if it is possible to change them, other parts, wiring and coding are likely to be needed as well. I can remember some owners of mk6 Golf GTI’s over on golfgtiforum.co.uk changing their standard headlamp units from halogen to the optional xenon headlamps a few years ago, and it was less than straightforward, and very expensive too.

I also remember seeing someone on the forum posting a link to a website of a UK company that did a retro-installation of LED headlamps on the Polo. I think the cost was close to £2,000 for an installation that replicated the factory installation / functionality, so an expensive aftermarket modification if you don’t have the skills to do this yourself.

If you’re looking to improve the performance of your headlamps at a more reasonable cost which is also relatively straightforward to do, it might be worth considering upgrading the headlamp bulbs in your existing headlamp units with something like Philips X-treme Vision or Osram Night Breaker bulbs. Be aware that the lifespan of these brighter bulbs is usually less than the factory fit halogen bulbs though.

[mexy95]

Thank you for the comprehensive reply...

I think I will make do with the less than desirable halogens, next time I'll make sure I option the car with LED's.

[silverhairs]

When I purchased my Polo, I liked the DRL's built into the headlights, and found out that the cost would be near on £1,000.00.
Now having LED headlights might have been nice, but being an OAP and when it starts getting dark, we lock the doors, have our evening meal then watch TV, we don't go out in the dark if at all possible. We Have all day to do what we want. Can I say, it's not the money why we didn't want LED lights.

At the moment the Mrs has trouble with her hip and finds getting out of the seats with the side bolsters difficult, so I'm still looking for another car. I've looked at the T-Cross, but why would I want to drive another car with the same dashboard, I like a change, so I'm looking at a Skoda Kamiq or Karoq.
You can get them with the 1.5 petrol engine or a diesel with the DSG box, that a lot of Polo members are hoping for.
The extra's I want in my next car.

Auto box
Rear view camera
LED lights all round
Adaptive cruise control
Maybe Park assist?
Folding mirrors
Front and back sensors
Higher seats for easier entry and exit of vehicle.

I'm not particular about the new LED dash.

[Dazeredo]

The factory led headlights have an option in the infotainment to change automatically from lhd to rhd. I guess that only exists one type of led headlights (with red or chrome line inside the headlight).

[SRGTD]

When I purchased my Polo, I liked the DRL's built into the headlights, and found out that the cost would be near on £1,000.00.
Now having LED headlights might have been nice, but being an OAP and when it starts getting dark, we lock the doors, have our evening meal then watch TV, we don't go out in the dark if at all possible. We Have all day to do what we want. Can I say, it's not the money why we didn't want LED lights.

At the moment the Mrs has trouble with her hip and finds getting out of the seats with the side bolsters difficult, so I'm still looking for another car. I've looked at the T-Cross, but why would I want to drive another car with the same dashboard, I like a change, so I'm looking at a Skoda Kamiq or Karoq.
You can get them with the 1.5 petrol engine or a diesel with the DSG box, that a lot of Polo members are hoping for.
The extra's I want in my next car.

Auto box
Rear view camera
LED lights all round
Adaptive cruise control
Maybe Park assist?
Folding mirrors
Front and back sensors
Higher seats for easier entry and exit of vehicle.

I'm not particular about the new LED dash.

Off topic as far as LED headlamps are concerned, but relevant to the 1.5 litre EVO engine, silverhairs, If you’re thinking of getting a car / SUV with the VAG 1.5 EVO engine, it would be worth reading some of the owner experiences on other VW / Seat / Skoda forums.

Quite a few owners of VW’s, Seat’s and Skoda’s (not sure about Audi, but assume Audi is also affected if it uses this engine in its cars) have experienced quite pronounced ‘kangarooing’ and hesitation, especially when the engine’s cold / during the warm-up phase. A forum member over on seatcupra.net forum has recently rejected their Seat Leon with this engine.

VW have developed a software fix to cure this issue, but some owners have still experienced the ‘kangarooing’ and hesitation after the fix has been applied.

[Nora]

The factory led headlights have an option in the infotainment to change automatically from lhd to rhd.

What are the menu options to achieve this as I’ll be head from the uk to Europe this summer and it’ll be handy if I can make the change

[stuartrendall]

I know in another topic in this forum someone has fitted new tail lights from their official dealer and they give a set price for purchasing and fitting so if it was me then my first port of call would be to call the dealer regarding the LED headlamps and get a quote from them as it is possible to fit the LED lights and they should give a set price for both the part and fitting plus the guarantee from the dealer will be helpful.

[Dazeredo]

The factory led headlights have an option in the infotainment to change automatically from lhd to rhd.

What are the menu options to achieve this as I’ll be head from the uk to Europe this summer and it’ll be handy if I can make the change

I guess that is only for oem led headlights. It's in the light settings in the car settings menu.

[SRGTD]

I know in another topic in this forum someone has fitted new tail lights from their official dealer and they give a set price for purchasing and fitting so if it was me then my first port of call would be to call the dealer regarding the LED headlamps and get a quote from them as it is possible to fit the LED lights and they should give a set price for both the part and fitting plus the guarantee from the dealer will be helpful.

As said earlier (second post in this thread), anything is possible, but I’d hazard a guess that to have LED headlamps fitted by a VW dealer would be eye wateringly expensive. It would be interesting to see what the OP’s dealer would quote to get this done.

Not headlamps, but forum member @david.stark asked their VW dealer last year about changing the dash pad inserts on their Polo for a different colour set. The VW dealer quoted £1,500 to supply and install these .

viewtopic.php?f=71&t=72839&p

I would expect retro-fitting LED headlamps by a VW dealer to cost more than it would to supply and fit new dashboard trim pieces, as it’d be a more complex job and a set of LED headlamps are likely to be more expensive than a set of dash trim pieces (although not necessarily so!), plus the cost of fitting load compensating / adjusting sensors, new light switch panel without the manual lamp height adjustment, wiring and coding work, and any other ancillary work that might be required.

The cheaper option would be to fit a set of upgraded, legal for road use, headlamp bulbs.

[stuartrendall]

I know in another topic in this forum someone has fitted new tail lights from their official dealer and they give a set price for purchasing and fitting so if it was me then my first port of call would be to call the dealer regarding the LED headlamps and get a quote from them as it is possible to fit the LED lights and they should give a set price for both the part and fitting plus the guarantee from the dealer will be helpful.

As said earlier (second post in this thread), anything is possible, but I’d hazard a guess that to have LED headlamps fitted by a VW dealer would be eye wateringly expensive. It would be interesting to see what the OP’s dealer would quote to get this done.

Not headlamps, but forum member @david.stark asked their VW dealer last year about changing the dash pad inserts on their Polo for a different colour set. The VW dealer quoted £1,500 to supply and install these .

viewtopic.php?f=71&t=72839&p

I would expect retro-fitting LED headlamps by a VW dealer to cost more than it would to supply and fit new dashboard trim pieces, as it’d be a more complex job and a set of LED headlamps are likely to be more expensive than a set of dash trim pieces (although not necessarily so!), plus the cost of fitting load compensating / adjusting sensors, new light switch panel without the manual lamp height adjustment, wiring and coding work, and any other ancillary work that might be required.

The cheaper option would be to fit a set of upgraded, legal for road use, headlamp bulbs.

I have seen the tail lights advertised on my local VW dealers website for something like £349 fitted. I suppose it depends entirely on the loom and other parts that need fitting. if it is just the headlight units and a re-code then i'd imagine it cant me more that £800 but like you said it could be more expensive if they need to fit new units to the vehicle to support the headlights. It would certainly be interesting to see how much they would charge.

[giannis159]

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