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Allright guys after a bit of info regarding how to get the side light bulbs out of the GTi head lamp unit. carnt see any easy ways with out causing damage to the hole light yet, any info or pics would be great

cheers

Not done it myself.....But from previous posts on the forum you have to remove the front bumper then the whole headlight unit itself to get at the side light and main beam bulbs........ That's why i havn't done it myself....Bought some LED sidelights but never fitted 'em to the Polo...Put them on the missus's Lexus instead.

Cheers

Dave.

I was quoted £69 by VW dealer to replace my side light as has blown, say its an hour labour!! cheapest quote I can get £39 from local garage.

You all might be interested in taking a look at this thread here: clicky

Basically swapping out the sidelights or main-beam bulbs requires the removal of the front bumper 9 times out of 10. I believe some of the Mk5 owners have been able to do it without removing the bumper but its a fiddly job and you need small hands!! Plus theres those xenon bulbs and wiring, which run at a very high voltage and are a wee bit dangerous to be working near or with, hence the yellow 'danger' stickers you might see around them...

Thanks had a look at that thread, dont know if would like to play about with that voltage

Beat me too it Si with the link

Its not amazingly hard job really but as always, if your not confident always best to get it done by a pro

£69 for a sidelight swap!! it takes about 5 mins and there is no need to remove the bumper which has about 30 torx screws holding it on! to avoid the high voltage from the hid's just make sure the lights arent turned on! DO NOT pay them to do it they are fleecing you.

So how do you do it in 5 minutes without removing the bumper ?

Ah the sound of silence. lol

I'm interested in hearing how this is done aswell, as the crappy yellow ones take the look off the car, i'd like nice white/blue ones, but i haven't bothered due to the process for replacing them.

Bullsh**!

It took me 90 minutes to swap my bulbs (and put the car back together), and that was the 2nd time I did it (when I knew what I was doing).

5 minutes my ass.

It takes longer than 5 minutes to change the bulbs in ONE of the light units WITH IT ALREADY TAKEN OUT OF THE CAR!

You can do it with it in the car. If its the driver side, its much easier. You just neet to pull the sidelight connector from the reflector. (much easier said than done.) Then just replace the bulb.

You have little choice, but to pull on the wires at the back of the sidelight bulb. But if you pull on both it comes out. (I have a GTi Headlight unit on my knee, just tried it!)

If you are on the battery side, its a pig, but it _IS_ possible. Take the back off the driver side so you know what you are looking at. The other side is a mirror image! The problem on this side is that you need a very short screwdriver. You could remove the battery, but its almost equal in terms of a pain in the ass to take the bumper off. If you do take the bumper off, then make sure you jetwash the car first round the cracks at the front, and then apply masking tape to the wings behind the indicators - you will see why when you ....... hang on England just scored after 51 mins....... try to refit the bumper. You don't need to remove all the bottom screws you can pull the bumper forward at 45 degrees. I'm not sure though about the washer system on a GTi - it might need detatching.

In my opinion, getting the cover back on is the trickiest bit, particularly on the non-GTi - make sure that the two fingers are in.

Going to have to bite the bullet and take car to garage to have side light changed as due Mot next week, cheapest £39 to change bulbs.

The sage continues plases read my posting HELP HELP !!!!!, think we are just going to try and replace these ourselves, Ritey step by step guide is a life saver hopefully this will keep us on right track

which side?

If you head on over to the DIY section, you will find a section about fitting HID's Xenon to your car. In that post, it tells how to remove the front bumper. This is probably the easiest way you are going to do it.


Jet wash your car first to remove any grit that will scratch the paint.. There are torx screws across the top of the grille, in each wheel arch and behind the fog lamp cover things. Take all of them out. Place masking tape just behind the indicator on the wing (this will stop it getting scratched) then firmly pull the bumper toward you and down. It will want to stay on at the bottom, and that is fine. removal of the indicator is very quick and very neat, simply use a screwdriver in the slot at the top, turn through 90 degrees and it just slides out. Next you will find that your headlamp is held in with 3 screws. Undo them and carefully manouver the headlamp out - removing the connector when it becomes possible.

For non-GTi unclip the back of the headlamp and yank the two wires on the back of the sidelight and it will come out. For GTi - unscres the plastic cover on the back, and do the same with the sidelight bulb. If you bought a pack of two bulbs, replace the other side too as you might as well now you have the front of your car dangling off.

Refitting is reversal of removal but note the following. Test the unit works correctly, refit all the screws for the unit, refit the indicator and carefully but very firmly manouvre the bumper back into place. Now you see why the masking tape is there because the corners of the bumper will slide over the wing which would have scratched it. Bung all the torx back in and refit the foglamp covers. Jobs a gooden. Should take about 20 minutes to do the job in total. Maybe half hour if you are being a little cautious.

On the GTi you might run into a snag with the headlamp washer jets. I don't know what you need to do with these since I don't have any! I think its just a case of removing the covers, i.e. press squirt and have someone grab it!

Hi, thanks for your help, its the drivers sidelight which has blown, definitly changing both as it is a pack of two bulbs and would be sods law that the other one would go after all this.

Will need to remove the washer jets as per the other thread on removal of bumper. Cant believe mechanic couldnt do this