Bringing back to life an 18 year old Audi A8 D2 part 11

The last thing in the car I wanted to update are the headlights.

The 'top spec' Xenon Plus headlights which came with the care are totally terrible, I'm sure they were great when the car came out, but after 20 years I'm better off using candles.

The problem with xenon plus headlights is that the have a plastic diffuser right in front of the xenon lamp, so it gets all this heat and light intensity passing through the diffuser yellowing it, and causing micro cracks which just direct the light everywhere but where you want them:

Brand new xenon plus for reference:

This diffuser is not a replaceable part, and nothing can be done to restore it.

So.. I managed to find a set of standard halogen headlights. A8 D2 could be specified with with xenon plus, halogen and xenon headlights, listed in order of rarity.

I then did some research online and found a Dutch company called retrofit lab which makes a kit for converting xenon headlights into bi-xenon headlights, meaning dipped and full beam are xenon.

I had one set of halogen headlights and one set of xenon plus headlights, so the kit could not be used on them. But i thought that I may be able to make one very good set of headlights out of all the headlights I have plus the Dutch kit.

Audi A8 D2 99-02 bi-xenon headlight repair & upgrade kit for xenon HID headlights

Headlight repair and upgrade kit with HID bi-xenon projectors for the Audi A8 D2 with HID xenon headlights. Guaranteed improved light output! High-quality retrofit parts

Retrofitlab.comAudi

Here's a comparison pic of standard halogen reflectors vs retrofitlab reflectors:

I wasted no time 3d printing an adapter bracket to replace the halogen lenses with the Dutch stuff, once I was certain it works i had it laser cut in steel:

bracket prototype on the right, and final version on the left

Test fit

More testing

This Bracket allowed to fit the projector in original reflector of the halogen headlight:

This halogen projector was then made to fit the Xenon Plus housings, to retain the self-leveling of xenon plus and the associated electrics for xenon lamp::

I then fitted the headlights to the car and adjusted them in Asda's supermarket.

You can see that the two beams have very different colours, at the time i just used 2 random old bulbs i had lying around. The result compared to Xenon plus is spectacular:

2 bulbs of the same colour fitted

Finally, a picture comparing all the headlights available in the D2 + comparison against a modern 2022 Kia Sportage with led headlights:

I would put Kia and the "Dutch Headlights" on par, followed by halogen headlights and then Xenon Plus, which are just terrible.

Part 12:

Bringing back to life an 18 year old Audi A8 D2 part 12 - The end

After fully resorting and updating the car, I decided to move on and sell it. 5 years of ownership, around £13k spent. Here are a few pictures of the complete and finalised car on the day of the sale:

Lazy MarcelMarcel