2012MY with Bi Xenons - headlamps melting

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
Has any body else with a 12 model year with bi xenons got the same problem as me? On mine the heat from the lamp has blistered the headlight internals in only 3 and a bit months and 7500 miles total! They now both look like this.

2479cb16.jpg


The shiny bit is where the plastic has bubbled, it looks worse in real life, and the dealer has said he will replace the lights under warranty, however I would like to know if others have the same prob?

Cheers

Karl
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
Has yours got the older silver lights? Or the new black headlights with led drl? As mine are the new black ones, and I suspect it's a problem due to the new design
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
Ahhh they are prib ok the , there's nothing really in front of their projector, the 12MY lamps are very different and having not been out long not many have done many miles.
 

Dave_

Active Member
Jul 7, 2011
286
0
Hertfordshire
Yeah looks like there's plastic quite close to the projector in your pic. Weird, I always thought Xenons ran cooler than filament lamps.

Has it done both?
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
Both lights have done exactly the same, which makes me think it's a design fault.

HIDs run very very hot! If you put a hid into a normal reflector lamp you will see a milky area on the reflector above the bulb, this is the reflector being burnt due to the heat given off. the hid works by having an arc accross 2 electrodes sealed in a glass bubble filled with xenon gas, like a spark plug. You need a big currant to start the arc, but once it's started and jumped the gap you need much less to maintain it, hence hids being rated at 35w not 55 like halogen h7 fulfilment bulbs, but start up of a Hid will be at least 60w normally then as it stabilises the draw drops off, after about a min it's down to 35w
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
Legaly they can't be turned up or down, they have type approved at a set value and varying from that will invalidate the approval, I'll play with some stuff, but lighting is very sensitive to varyation. (the joys of being a type approval engineer)

Also not sure how you would turn them up or down, as I can't see how you could make them any brighter, if the arc is working more current wont make much difference I would have thought,

It will be interesting if the new lights do the same, and if other folks with a 12MY get the same...not really any second hand ones to check on dealer forecourts yet lol
 

Dave_

Active Member
Jul 7, 2011
286
0
Hertfordshire
I don't know the ins or outs of it - just reporting what I've read on here.

I'll be getting a MY12 in November, so will come back to this.... If I remember!
 

mcdonald

Active Member
Maybe they need turning down in VCDS? I read on here that someone's were only at 70% power...

No, that's for the DRL's and some other lights possible, but not the xenons.


I know there's a firmware upgrade for the xenons but I am sure this has nothing to do with this issue and my guess is that M7R has the latest firmware version already.

Maybe it's an idea to mention this issue on the spanish Exeo forum. Might be that one of the spanish guys overthere is familiar with the issue.
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
I'll have a butches on the Spanish forum.

I did notice that my drl doesn't dip when the indicator is on, so when I'm back home I'll be cracking the vagcom out and seeing what else I can do.

Back on track though I'll see what happens on the other forums
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
Well this is STILL on going!! went to Derby seat a few weeks back, spoke to the service manager.. explained the issue, showed him, he took pictures etc and said he would write a report for SEAT UK, and put the claim in... 2 - 3 weeks on I have herd nothing... I was promised a call in a couple of days time just for an update... so off I went back to Seat Derby... The service manager was off, so asked some one else who was in charge... according to him there was nothing on the system, no log of my report etc! so now I am not impressed at all!

I have another report done (no photos this time)... and was prmosied another call back on monday (I went in on Sat as I happened to be in Derby).. Monday came and went, and it took a case up from me on Tues before I was told anything.... I spoke to woman who said she would get the guy to call me and appologised for the hassle I have had since buying the car 5 or so weeks ago...

I had a voice mail today saiding there was no news on my "good will" headlight replacement...and I would be called again tomorrow or friday depending if there was any news.. so we will see... but I will be pointing out it is not a "good will" claim! as the headlights are 100% not doing what they are suposed too!
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
Progress has been made! Seat are very interested in the problem on both my car and Derbys demo car, and have ordered both cars to have new lamps fitted and the old ones sent back to them to be checked over. It's booked in for thurs for the work.

On a side note, I played on vagcom the other night and set the lamps to go through a test sequiance, and now the lamps appear to be doing what they are meant to in terms of lifting when the speed increases! So I will be keeping an eye on this with the new lamps
 

mcdonald

Active Member
Good to hear there is progress regarding the headlamps finally.

On a side note, I played on vagcom the other night and set the lamps to go through a test sequiance, and now the lamps appear to be doing what they are meant to in terms of lifting when the speed increases! So I will be keeping an eye on this with the new lamps

Can you give a description (steps) about this test sequence? I am very interested.
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
I'll have another play tomorrow but its basicly under the xenon headlight section, then test output iirc, you can then tell it to auto run the sequence, where it swivels the lamps fully left, fully right fully up and fully down, and while doing it it shows the voltage so you can check ones not sticking - would show up as a higher voltage needed to move it.
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
It went in for 2 new lamps yesterday, so I will see how long these last... But in true derby seat fashion it wasn't a perfect job! It's going back in today as the bumpers not sat quite right, it's only a little off, but that's not the point, I had to fight for them to even look at it today, they were trying to fob me off till next week! I'll put the full story on my build thread..oh and the initial aim is not right either! One lamps higher than the other!

For now I will keep an eye on the lamp and see if it starts to blister again..
 

Sinbad

Active Member
Oct 25, 2006
238
0
Johannesburg, South Africa
Both lights have done exactly the same, which makes me think it's a design fault.

HIDs run very very hot! If you put a hid into a normal reflector lamp you will see a milky area on the reflector above the bulb, this is the reflector being burnt due to the heat given off. the hid works by having an arc accross 2 electrodes sealed in a glass bubble filled with xenon gas, like a spark plug. You need a big currant to start the arc, but once it's started and jumped the gap you need much less to maintain it, hence hids being rated at 35w not 55 like halogen h7 fulfilment bulbs, but start up of a Hid will be at least 60w normally then as it stabilises the draw drops off, after about a min it's down to 35w

HIDs run cooler than halogen. Think about the power usage... the 55W of the halogen generates x amount of light and y amount of heat.
35W for the HID generates 2x amount of light, therefore the amount of heat must be less. If they generated more heat, the light would require more than 55W.
 
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