Dim Headlights

[nolegjoe]

It's actually quite scary at night sometimes as the lights are so dim! I saw there's a kit on VW Heritage for replacing (or complimenting?) the existing harness with some relays and a connection direct from the battery. Are these any good? The reviews seem mixed.

[DannyH]

You could try Osram Nightbreaker or something similar first.

[unknownmale]

Yeah, pretty common issue, over the years, corrosion in the contacts and old wiring create additional resistance in the headlight circuit meaning there is a voltage drop, although I can't imagine they were great to begin with as they take the power feed from the fusebox.

If you don't mind a bit of soldering it's very simple to make, you're basically taking a direct battery power to a load side of a relay and using the pre existing power feed for the lights as the control side power of the relay.

I did this last year, went from getting around 10v/11V to the lights to 13/14v (running).

[mark1gls]

Relaying the headlights also takes away a lot of current from the headlight switch as it's a common problem for them to burn out.
Well worth upgrade as the power to the headlights come straight from the battery.
Try and get a kit which has 3 relays and fuses as if 1 blows you still have 1 working headlight, if 2 relays and fuses and 1 blows you will lose either both side lights or both main beams. I have a kit with 2 relays and fuses but carry a spare relay and fuse just in case but read the 3 version is better.

Same kit for Mk1 golf so also search for them.

If your headlight lens are cloudy try and clean the inside of the glass or if the silver reflecter bit is in bad shape try and get some new/newer head lights as that will help.

Nightbreaker bulbs will help as well.

[scrumpyone]

Take a look at this thread from 4 years ago:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16082&start=15

[james butler]

yeah the kit from vw heritage does the job.
i made my own but it worked out about the same price, i just wanted to use thicker cable and heavier duty relays.
its a must do mod on these cars seeing as the wiring is so poor taking its age into account.

[dgeorj]

I just changed my headlight bulbs with Osram Nightbreaker and I noticed a big improvement.

[essextom]

relay kit is the way forward, my lights are pretty good

[scrumpyone]

This ^^^^^^