Audi S3 D3s Xenon HID Bulbs

A very good friend and customer brought his newly purchased Audi S3 to us as the previous owner had replaced the D3s Xenon HID Bulbs prior to him buying the vehicle. The light emitted did not match from one side to the next so we decided to open it up to investigate.

Gaining access via the wheel arch liners, the issue was soon found. It had two different aftermarket D3S Hid Bulbs installed. Upon further investigation it also looks like there may have been a quick fix carried out on the vehicle in the past, we could see signs that a Aftermarket Xenon HID Ballast had been used instead of replacing the ballast for the correct 1307329115 unit.

This is not an uncommon fix for people to do when struggling to find a Replacement OEM Xenon HID Ballast or trying to save money. The problem is in most cases the Aftermarket Ballasts perform differently to the OEM Ballast on the other side of the vehicle and often results in unmatched reaction times of the lights getting to full brightness, or a difference in the overall brightness or colour. Its ok for a temp fix but we always recommend replacing Faulty OEM Ballasts like for like. 

We decided to swap out both D3s Bulbs for our own 6000k D3S Xenon HID Bulbs.