98 headlight upgrade to facelift 99.5
 

I recently damaged the driver side turn signal on my two piece headlamps and though i could easily replace it, i'd rather use this as an excuse to go to the facelift 99.5+ headlamps (i can exploit the wife's ignorance and justify the purchase). I hate having halogens, in short, they blow, but I've read around that for the face lift headlights to fit i have to trim some material from the inner fender. I'm perfectly fine with doing that, but what are people's experience with this and how hard was it?

Furthermore, I wanted to go with HID's, I obviously don't want to go to ebay unless i can get someone's recommendation that i won't be buying garbage. I know i need to get a valeo d2s hid projector and ballasts, but i want to kind of get a better understanding of my options. What are people's experience with best type of headlight projector combo and economical self built against prebuilt? What kind of price on the low and high end are we talking about? Thanks in advance, any help is greatly appreciated.

The fender lip trimming is easy and the wiring modification is minor - www.audiworld.com has a DIY in the Tech section that will show you what to do. You don't have to use tge OEM style D2S system - any H7 HID system is fine. Most here go with a kit from VVME or DDMTuning for $50-70 shipped. Stick with a color temperature in the 4300-6000k range for optimum visibility and output.

High end would be Valeo e-codes. Tough to find and last time i saw a pair they were going for $800 :eek:, but you absolutely can't beat the quality and fitment. In the middle would be some DEPO e-codes like what i have. Depo also makes 2-piece e-codes like Devil has, those are commonly referred to as "S4 two-pieces" or some variation of that. A third option would be trying to get your hands on the OEM one-piece units from someone parting out or replacing them with e-codes. FWIW, the term "e-code" is just a buzzword for euro-spec, and has to do with the shape of the projector lenses and the light cut-off they produce. The fender trimming is pretty minimal, and you'll be very pleased with the results if you take your time. Most of the DIY's I could find were either vague or had broken picture links, so i made one here if you'd like to take a look. If you have any other questions just post them up, a bunch of guys on here have done the swap and I'm sure we could walk you through it :D

Thanks a lot, the B5 is slowly finding it's way to the archives of most forums and pictures on a lot of tech articles and write ups are broken links, so your walk-through helps a lot. If i found some OEM S4 Headlights from a part out car, would i have to splice any different connectors or would it hook up to the standard H7 wiring?

Can't answer that, but if the S4 headlights take a different connector, ECS sells adapters.

I don't thunk there's any difference between facelift A4 and S4 lights so any mods to tge wiring of A4 lights should be the same for the S4 lights.

I think i'll go with the DEPO lights (if the part out doesn't go through), but i've read some QC issues regarding their seal, (causes fogging when humid) have any of you experienced this issue? If so, what kind of adhesive did you use to reseal the headlights?

emajnthis- i have the depo one piece and i noticed a little bit of fogging but its really nothing that bothers me personally...i talked to ECS Tuning and told them that i did the HID install on them and said that doing that voided the warranty and they couldnt do anything about it...i am very pleased with the outcome with mine...i got my HIDs from DDM Tuning. i got the slim ballasts 35w 6000k for $62 shipped to my door. hope this helps with your choice