Headlight upgrade
New Headlights (upgraded in 2013) – The poor quality and low light from the standard headlights was one of the first issues I noticed about my 1993 Eurovan. I bought my EV in the Berkeley/Oakland area and drove it back to San Diego. It wasn’t quite a white knuckles drive, but I was certainly having issues seeing the road well at times. I researched and found this post describing an upgrade to the headlights – How to install E codes. Ironically, the author, Matt, lives in San Diego. At the same time, I was in communication with a friend that lived in Germany. I found the headlights on ebay.de, and he shipped them to me. I bought the wiring kit mentioned in the post. Installation was fairly simple. This is by far the best upgrade for more comfortable and safer driving that I’ve done. ~$200, but only because I had friend in Germany
Some other lighting options
https://www.fk-shop.de/en/Tuning/Lighting-Tuning/_Filter/Vehicle%2BManufacturer/VW/Vehicle%2BModel/T4/?cur=3
Thanks for this! After a trip through the sierras on winding mountain roads, we really need better headlamps
Yes, I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am after the swap (I wear glasses most of the time now too, so the more light the better). Hope you find a good solution.
John, I am not a mechanic (not even close!), so I’m confused about why your fix was around $200 and fairly simple, while Matt’s was more than $400 and sounded like building a lunar module! I would love to do something about my headlights and I really need to, as you have already experienced! I have a couple of good mechanics that are allowed to touch my ’95 EVC, should I just print out Matt’s opus and give it to them?…
Thanks!
Mark Conner
I saved money because I had a friend that was living in Germany and was able to get the headlights cheaper for me.
The actual install is quite easy… even a non-mechanic can do it… but a shop should certainly be able to figure it out.
I would only be concerned if the new lamp assembly front covers were made of polycarbonate, which I’ve noticed on somewhat newer vehicles tends to become ‘foggy’ over time and thus diffuses the light, making it less focused and possibly annoying to oncoming traffic. My 1993 Eurovan’s original glass enclosures are as clear as when I bought the van new, so their beam focus remains the same. I recently had them adjusted for proper aiming toward a target, which could be why I don’t notice any problem with night visibility.
My interior lights are a different story — these really need upgrading to LEDs.
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