Light Bar

[Ozsko]

What is the deal if I want a light bar made to bolt on a set of driving lights. The LEDS are good and for anyone who is twenty years younger than me they are most probably adequate but us old farts lose the ability to absorb light and what young people see as bright is not to us. I think the light loss is about 30% in some cases so it is significant. Apart from that I drive in the bush every time I leave home and the LEDS are not as good as the Bi Xenons were on the Skoda, I wish I could have seen those with 20 year old eyes!! So, I would like to get some Bi Xenon Cibie Super Oscars and bolt them to the front, is this a big deal to do in this day and age with air bags etc, I know bull bars have to be certified so what happens for a light bar.

[Tigger162]

Early days yet for manufacturing for a nudge bar for our tiggers, ECB East Coast Bullbars- Bull bars, Nudge Bars, Alloy, Steel Winch Bars for 4x4 SUV (http://www.ecb.com.au) do one for the older model. But law states it must have ADR compliance. If you got one made custom I doubt you would have a problem even if it wasn't ADR. You could always just get a quality led light bar and attach it via number plate bracket or hide it behind grill. Your showing your age with cibie super oscars lol.

[Umai Naa!!]

Whatever you mount them to, will need to be solid.

The number plate only screws into the plastic bumper cover. Hanging lights from there isn't a good idea.

If you could make some brackets to come off the reo/crash beam, that'd be the go.

[Hillbilly]

Anything in the front must be ADR approved and airbag compliant.

Would be on your head if you had a frontal and for some reason the airbags didnt activate because of it.

[Tigger162]

Airbags these days are g-force activated. If the g's are there it will pop regardless of what's bolted on the front. The real issue is the legal one and run risk of a insurance company pulling out of a claim cause you have a un-roadworthy install, but would be rare I would think.

[Hillbilly]

Airbags these days are g-force activated. If the g's are there it will pop regardless of what's bolted on the front. The real issue is the legal one and run risk of a insurance company pulling out of a claim cause you have a un-roadworthy install, but would be rare I would think.

But then once would be enough wouldnt it. Far better to comply rather than be sorry afterwards.

[peter51]

I think blocking the view of the front radar sensor may be a concern, the manual shows a fairly large area in the middle of grill that must be left clear of obstructions.

[Umai Naa!!]

Might be able to put something in the lower grille area.

[Ozsko]

I have been crook so I will get back to this in a few days. Thanks for the replies so far.

[Ozsko]

I have just had a look at some "nudge bars" on ECB's site and they are nothing like what I want, big and ugly springs to mind. I want a bar that is low profile and is contoured to the front of the car not something that looks like it could stand a fair chance of fending off a B double in a head on. They would be the guys to speak to though as they know what the laws are and what can and can't be done. I have been using driving lights off and on for decades and I want a reach of about 600 to 800 metres and the way I have done it before is use two Cibies mounted as high as possible, one a driving light and one a spotlight and I am thinking that I might mount a LED light bar between them for flooding the near ground out to about 200 metres. The new LEDS lightbars are good for close in light but useless for long distance. Overkill? maybe but I will only see a 2/3rds of what younger people see and every time I leave home I am driving in the bush. Now I feel a bit better I will map out the no go areas on the front of the car and see where the lights can't go. The light bar should be so low profile it won't be a problem in that regard.

I am thinking pull the front bar cover off the car, build mounting pads off the reinforcement under it that contact the under surface of the bar cover and put the bar cover back on. Build a light bar that has mounts that match the ones under the bar cover and bolt it on with shear bolts so it can't be thieved by some lowlife who needs some drug money. That would keep it low with no need for anything that looks like a nudge bar. Some top stabiliser mounts from under the leading edge of the bonnet should keep them rock steady and let there be light. First to find some Cibies, the last pair met a bad ending after a trip into a culvert at high speed. If the culvert hadn't been there everything would have turned out ok but such is life.

[Hillbilly]

Best ask ECB as I would have thought that what you want to do would be illegal on an airbag equipped car. I bought a s/hToyota Bullbar and it was an easy fit on my vehicle except that it had to have an airbag compliant fitting kit with it Cost me another $200 for the brackets to make it legal

[Ozsko]

Best ask ECB as I would have thought that what you want to do would be illegal on an airbag equipped car. I bought a s/hToyota Bullbar and it was an easy fit on my vehicle except that it had to have an airbag compliant fitting kit with it Cost me another $200 for the brackets to make it legal

Yes, I never had any other intention. Further to this I have just spoken to my son who works on canbus electronics in cars all day and while he doesn't work on VW his biggest issue with it is where to pick up the high beam signal for the relays without causing problems with voltage levels.

[Diver3284]

Any new information about a way to mount some driving lights? I'm in the same boat as Ozsko and would like to mount my trusty Hella 100 watt HID's to my Highline. On previous cars I have used a standard number plate mount, suitably backed up for rigidity, but the radar unit for the cruise control and EAB system is mounted behind the central grille badge and the lights would be too close together. I tried it with a mock-up of the system before going to the trouble of pulling the bar cover off to mount the plate mount and it all came up with error messages.

[Ozsko]

I haven't done any more towards this due to a long period of ill health, I reckon that I might have filled the fuel tank three times since the last post on this it has been driven that little. What sort of space between the lights did the mock up have? I was thinking that the lights would have to be as wide as possible to avoid error messages.

[Diver3284]

The numberplate mount is about 380mm wide, so the lights were mounted about 340mm apart. They are Hella 180's so there was only about a 180 mm gap between the inner edges. Much too close. The only way I can see is if someone makes a proper nudge bar with light brackets, or go a custom route, which would be quite spendy.

Hope your health is on the way back up.

[Umai Naa!!]

Where's the radar on your car?

If it's in the badge, perhaps flip the mount upside-down, and mount the lights/light bar under the number plate?

[Diver3284]

That might put the light bodies out of the line of the radar beam, but they would also obscure the number plate, with the attendant attention of the law!

[Umai Naa!!]

Not if you mount them upside down.

[Ozsko]

The lights would be too low, the lower they are mounted the less range they have.

[Diver3284]

Any movement on this issue in the last few months.. I have tried a few custom alloy shops, but they aren't prepared to touch the job because of the ADR issues. A Google search only turns up an Italian company, Misutonida, who do an EU compliant version which would prabably be OK in AUs, but the price for shipping it out would be prohibitive.

Any ideas???

[Ozsko]

In short, no progress at all. I am very doubtful but have yet to try a mock up to confirm that any driving lights on the Tiguan won't interfere with the forward assist systems but I really must do it to make sure. On the Mk7 Golf which we also have the forward looking radar is below the front bar unlike the Tiguan where they raised it above the bar and put it in the VW badge in the centre of the grill. Coincidentally I was looking at Cibie driving lights on Ebay the other night and thinking the new LED version would make a good addition to my car.

[Ozsko]

A bit of a thread dredge, I have now come up with a plan to do this and pictures will be better than words so I will post them when I am finished. I went for a bit of a drive the other day, 2100 kms in fact and a lot of it at night in forests with Skippies trying to commit suicide and I am more convinced than ever that I need more light. The lights will not live on the car only on there when needed.

[craig_perth]

Hi Ozsko,

I'm looking to get a tiguan, just doing my homework first. I was shocked to see that the LED headlights (in the USA - not sure if they differ to what we get) scored a lower result than the Halogens, so i was looking at lighting solutions also as we do a bit of driving around WA.

Have you considered mounting a your lights on the roof? (roof rack) from this link it appears to be legal in WA,
https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/licensing/LBU_VS_IB_132.pdf
not sure about other states.

Cheers.

[Ozsko]

I don't think the lights are terrible and I explained the problem in my first post but if I was driving in wide open flat country I would put one driving light and one spotlight on the front no matter how old I was and possibly a LED light bar to flood the near ground. As for putting them on the roof, no thanks, the drag and the wind noise must be terrible but it would give awesome light as the higher the better.

As for the Yank comparison, I think they are full of it, bovine excrement that is.

[drivesafe]

Hi Ozsko, I have been running roof mounted lights on most of my vehicles for the last 35 years and there is no other light setup that gives you the visibility improvement for night driving both on-road and off-road.

The improvement over bumper mounted lights is so great, that I stopped fitting bumper mounted lights to any of my vehicles 15 years ago.

here is a link to my setup.

Accessories (http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/f238/accessories-115567-9.html)

[Ozsko]

Hi Ozsko, I have been running roof mounted lights on most of my vehicles for the last 35 years and there is no other light setup that gives you the visibility improvement for night driving both on-road and off-road.

The improvement over bumper mounted lights is so great, that I stopped fitting bumper mounted lights to any of my vehicles 15 years ago.

here is a link to my setup.

Accessories (http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/f238/accessories-115567-9.html)

I totally agree as I wrote above but it is not something I have been happy with doing myself and in the metro area will inevitably lead to more attention from the law which I can do without. I am not even sure if it is legal to do so in NSW but I could be wrong there and I can't be bothered doing the search. If they were left on permanently getting into some covered car parking could also lead to tears if you forgot about them. I also need more reach than a light bar and Cibie Super Oscars on the roof would not be a good idea.

[drivesafe]

They are now legal in NSW and has never been illegal in QLD.

As for clearance in undercover parking, if you could not clear the roof with an LED bar fitted, you sure as hell could not stand up without head butting the roof.

[Ozsko]

But I am not putting a light bar on and they would be two Cibies Super Oscars That would stand about 500 mm above the roof at least if not more.

[Ozsko]

A question for drivesafe that may interest others, where did you put the on/off switch for your light bar? There is a blank space in the console at the front left but I don't think it will take a switch the same as the others. That would be ideal as I would buy another switch from VW and change the lettering on it somehow if I could get it in. I have the lights now and the brackets made, I just have to paint the brackets, do some wiring and see how bright they are. Pictures when I finish and I have not drilled any holes in the car to do it which is a plus.

[drivesafe]

Hi Ozsko, I have never been happy with drilling holes in the dash of a new vehicle and if you read the ADR relating to the fitting of driving lights ( old and new ADR ) it states you must fit a switch to be able to turn the driving lights off.

The ADR does NOT state where that switch has to be located, so in all my vehicles for the last 15 years or so, I have mounted the switch in the engine bay, usually next to or close to the driving light relay.

BTW, I always fit an ON/OFF/ON switch. One “ON” position is wired to the Highbeam and the other “ON” position is wired straight to the battery.

I wire the switch this way so that in normal operation, turning the vehicle’s Highbeam on also turns the driving lights on, as is the normal use.

But the other “ON” position allows me to turn the driving lights on at any time, not just to be able to have the driving lights on when the ignition is off, but it also makes it much easier to aline the driving lights when you first install them.

I just find a good bit of quiet straight road, turn the vehicle’s lights off, then turn the driving lights on via the engine bay switch and adjust the driving light position to suit. This is much easier to do with the other lights turned off.

[Ozsko]

Hi Ozsko, I have never been happy with drilling holes in the dash of a new vehicle and if you read the ADR relating to the fitting of driving lights ( old and new ADR ) it states you must fit a switch to be able to turn the driving lights off.

The ADR does NOT state where that switch has to be located, so in all my vehicles for the last 15 years or so, I have mounted the switch in the engine bay, usually next to or close to the driving light relay.

BTW, I always fit an ON/OFF/ON switch. One “ON” position is wired to the Highbeam and the other “ON” position is wired straight to the battery.

I wire the switch this way so that in normal operation, turning the vehicle’s Highbeam on also turns the driving lights on, as is the normal use.

But the other “ON” position allows me to turn the driving lights on at any time, not just to be able to have the driving lights on when the ignition is off, but it also makes it much easier to aline the driving lights when you first install them.

I just find a good bit of quiet straight road, turn the vehicle’s lights off, then turn the driving lights on via the engine bay switch and adjust the driving light position to suit. This is much easier to do with the other lights turned off.


I have been fitting driving lights to cars since about 1968 so it is a familiar process but my last two cars have had such good headlights after I upgraded them with 125 watt globes in the high beams that I did not bother. I have always fitted a three way rocker switch for the same reason you outline and I definitely do not want to drill holes where I don't have too. I have found that in light misty and where I have to drive in and out of light fog and we get a lot of that where I live it can be an advantage to turn off the driving lights to prevent glare. I did a trip to SA a long time ago and the bloke on the SA fruit fly inspection came out to chat to me with his sunnies on about 2:00am in the morning, he reckoned he had never seen lights so strong on any car or truck.

[drivesafe]

No lights work in fog, especially the type of fog you get on the Illawarra escarpment.

I spent 30 years driving through that crap from 1970 to 2000 and again, no lights, not even so called FOG LIGHTS, work in that soup.

The fog is so bad there that it was the first place in Australia where they put up huge signs advising the use of hazard lights during fog events.

[Ozsko]

No lights work in fog, especially the type of fog you get there on the Illawarra escarpment.

I spent 30 years driving through that same crap for 1970 to 2000 and again, no lights, not even so called FOG LIGHTS, work in that soup.

The fog is so bad there that it was the first place in Australia where they put up huge signs advising the use of hazard lights during fog events.

We often get misty light patchy stuff but yes the heavy stuff I measure in how many lines I can see on the road, two is bad and six just go for it. Fog light are a scam, always have been and always will be as far as I am concerned. You can see from my location I am very familiar with fog and have been since I began driving fifty years ago.

[Ozsko]

Slowly getting there, Drivesafe where did you pick up the high beam signal for the relay?

[drivesafe]

Hi Ozsko, I picked up the wire near the front passenger side light assembly, but it’s too dark now to see what colour the high beam wire is.

If no one can give the colour tonight, I’ll check in the morning.

I chose that side because the relay is mounted close to the battery, for the driving light positive ( + ) supply.

[Ozsko]

We put the relay and circuit breaker in the fuse box near the battery as on my car there was room that in other models would have been taken up by something else. I found a really neat rocker switch in Jaycar that went into the blank position on the console.

[veew]

We put the relay and circuit breaker in the fuse box near the battery as on my car there was room that in other models would have been taken up by something else. I found a really neat rocker switch in Jaycar that went into the blank position on the console.

Are you able to upload a picture of your rocker switch?

[Ozsko]

IP65 Rated Mini Rocker Switch | Jaycar Electronics (https://www.jaycar.com.au/ip65-rated-mini-rocker-switch/p/SK0968)

I am a bit handicapped at the moment as I am operating one handed due to a hand injury and can't use my camera and the switch panel is not back in the car anyway.

[drivesafe]

H Ozsko, the high beam wire on the passenger side, is at the top of the headlight wire loom where it plugs into the headlight assembly.

The high beam wire is WHITE/BLACK or White with a Black Trace.

[Ozsko]

Thanks for the info, just confirming that you have LED headlights?

[drivesafe]

Thanks for the info, just confirming that you have LED headlights?
NO, conventionals

[Ozsko]

Thanks.

[Ozsko]

Troubles in paradise http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/f78/driving-lights-122816.html#post1262244