Mk1 headlights

[the edmundator]

Driving OHP (my GLi) this weekend, at night, the headlights were absolutely terrible. I know, I know, everyone will say that's how they are, but I've driven lots of Sciroccos and this was particularly bad. Most noticeably, full beam made no difference other than casting a slightly wider pattern - this is definitely not normal as I've always found full beam pretty good. Could this be the wrong bulbs fitted in the full beam lamps?

Here is my list of things to look at, is there anything else I should consider (without going into relays/new lamps etc):

- I need to buy a new battery anyway (I borrowed the one from my Golf for this weekend) so that might make a difference.
- Check/replace the bulbs
- clean up the wiring connections
- check the reflectors.

[mr.brown]

It's pretty hard to get the wrong bulbs - they're H1 as far as I remember. It's possible you could have the wrong wattage though.

More likely it's the cold affecting the battery/alternator performance - although there's no harm going through the steps you've outlined above.

I would also recheck the battery to chassis earths, the fuses and even swap in a "known good" headlight switch.

[the edmundator]

Thanks, yes I did a search for the lamps and saw that the dipped/main beam bulbs are the same. I'll check the fuses and earths too. Don't think I have a spare headlight switch, but that can be the last thing to test!

[mark1gls]

Clean the inside of the glass helps.

Relay the headlights is the way to go, I did mine and you can really tell the difference.