H4 To H7 Upgrade

[Nolan]

I've been watching this with interest and definitely want to find some H7 units for my T6 Cali Beach despite having fitted Philips X-Treme +130% bulbs to my H4 units.

Is there an easy source of H7 units? I've been watching eBay for Carvelle units but I've not seen anything particularly cheap over the last few weeks.

I see the forum shop here does the H7 units for £185 each so £370 a pair.

 

[Hactus]

@Nolan I initially went with the Forum Shop but the cost to ship to Channel Islands was too costly for both @Pauly or myself to pay so I ended up going to my local dealer.

The price on the Forum Shop is a good price if you want new and I assume if you are on the mainland then shipping would be more reasonable. Buying new is an option if you don’t want to wait for a set to come up on EBay.

 

[Nolan]

@Nolan I initially went with the Forum Shop but the cost to ship to Channel Islands was too costly for both @Pauly or myself to pay so I ended up going to my local dealer.

The price on the Forum Shop is a good price if you want new and I assume if you are on the mainland then shipping would be more reasonable. Buying new is an option if you don’t want to wait for a set to come up on EBay.

Thanks, I’m going to live with the Philips bulbs for a while (at least until the bruises on my hand from fitting them go away!) but I can see that before long I’ll end up going for the H7 units.

 

[mmi]

Reading this post it looks like I need to scan first and then is it a tick box or do I need to locate and change the single bit?

Have a look at ---> Bcu Central Electrics Module 09 Byte Screen Shots
A saved scan is useful in case there is a need to revert back to original settings - so just a good practise.

Anyone with VCDS knowledge of HEX-V2 before I waste money would be appreciated.

The HEX-V2 is the latest and greatest tool from Ross-Tech. The software is for Windows only and needs an USB connection.
More discussion about this ---> Buying VCDS

 

[Hactus]

@mmi thanks for the links to posts, perfect. Decision made, will be ordering a Hex-V2.

 

[Loz]

@Loz great idea which I will do as may help others but I need to get mine sorted sooner so will probably buy the Ross-Tech. Not sure how long Carista change would take to update software.

Update: I have sent @Don Carista a message will see if this can be added to Carista.

Anyone with VCDS knowledge of HEX-V2 before I waste money would be appreciated.

If you are that desperate, how much would it cost you ferry over and drive to me and I'll do for you?

 

[Hactus]

If you are that desperate, how much would it cost you ferry over and drive to me and I'll do for you?

More than buying my own VCDS. Wife just booked me and van on ferry for May and with a discount just paid £505 return.

Thanks for the offer but will give this a go myself. Maybe I will need some advice to help me along the way.

 

[Spaghetti]

I agree with Ed!

I've read too many posts by people complaining about issues arising from using some cheap LEDs to entertain using them!

I’d noticed I was getting a ‘bulb out’ warning for the DRLs using Osram LEDs upon first start. This would go out after the van had been run for a few minutes and then turned off, and restarted. I put this down to the voltage being slightly low upon first start and after the battery recovered it would go.

Had my MOLL battery replaced under warranty, and now it has no more ‘bulb out’ warnings.

Pete

 

[Hactus]

Ross-Tech USB arrived and successfully recoded so now the main beam stays on with dipped, took about 5 minutes.

Don't think that I could have done this without the support of the forum information and members.

Big thanks to @Pauly for helping source the lights and @Loz for advice and the offer to code it for me.

 

[Nolan]

Ross-Tech USB arrived and successfully recoded so now the main beam stays on with dipped, took about 5 minutes.

Don't think that I could have done this without the support of the forum information and members.

Big thanks to @Pauly for helping source the lights and @Loz for advice and the offer to code it for me.

So what's your opinion of the upgrade now it's recoded, definitely worth it?

Are you using the H7 lights with Nighbreakers (or similar) or the regular bulbs?

 

[Spaghetti]

So what's your opinion of the upgrade now it's recoded, definitely worth it?

Are you using the H7 lights with Nighbreakers (or similar) or the regular bulbs?

I did the H4 - H7 upgrade last year on standard H7s and the difference is night and day (pun intended). @Loz kindly coded for me.

The H7s have been perfectly usable for me with the H7s as supplied.

My 2p’s worth!

 

[foggy3061]

So what's your opinion of the upgrade now it's recoded, definitely worth it?

Are you using the H7 lights with Nighbreakers (or similar) or the regular bulbs?

I really recommend it if you have H4 units! Even with the stock philips bulbs the H7 lights are great improvement over H4 lights.

I upgraded the bulbs and now they're even better!

 

[Hactus]

So what's your opinion of the upgrade now it's recoded, definitely worth it?

Definitely worth it though not tested at night yet with the re-code only by pulling stalk towards me to bring on both dip and main. As someone else said the change from H4 to H7 is Night and Day.

Are you using the H7 lights with Nighbreakers (or similar) or the regular bulbs?

No. Gone with standard VW bulbs that came with the H7 lights. I did try Nightbreaker’s in the H4’s before the change but apart from a slightly whiter light I didn’t see any difference.

For me the best improvement seems to be the lateral light to the side of the road on dipped. Though with both dip and main it looks as good as my wife’s Merc.

No where near as good as my D4 or D3 that I had previously but even the H7’s on the D3 were just awesome and it has to be down to the design of the reflector in the light.

 

[Withakay]

Just wanted to say thanks to this post I am now running H7s I ordered from the forum shop.
I did the upgrade last weekend, started in the morning and was done by 12 with 10 mins help for my neighbour to lift the bumper off and back on. Unclipping the bumper was a bit of bugger!

I looked at getting a used VCDS but thought I would take a punt on OBDEleven. It turned out to be very simple, in the long coding menus there was already a setting for coding the lights (something like 'disable main beam when high been on: true'). Disabling that and updating and the lights were sorted, both stay on when high beam is on. Happy days!

 

[Spaghetti]

@Withakay - Does OBDeleven support TPMS activation?

 

[Pauly]

If you have long coding ability then yes

 

[Withakay]

I am by no means an expert, I have used OBDEleven once, but it does support long coding. You have to find the right section first and then you can scan through the bytes, each bit in the byte is displayed in a list, some with descriptions.

 

[Spaghetti]

Thanks @Pauly and @Withakay . I don’t have the knowledge to use long coding, so back to a pressure gauge for me!

 

[Pauly]

It’s easy mate, I know it sounds daunting but you just have to find a particular digit in the coding and change the value

 

[Spaghetti]

Cheers @Pauly , I did some VCDS stuff on my old A6 - video in motion, needle sweep etc, but someone gave me some simple instructions.

May have to look into getting hold of OBDeleven and asking for some assistance on here.