Drew Eckhardt

I broke out my power tools, and performed a little surgery on my '98 A4 2.8QM to get my E-code projectors in.

Along the way, I noticed that there were a few things that didn't get covered in the archives or the other Drew's page

What metal to cut:

The two piece lights are designed to go against sheet metal which is parallel to the lamp face. The one piece lights seem to want a flat surface contoured to the lamp body. Ergo, you want to trim all of the metal parallel to the lenses to get the one-piece lights in.

The downward-angled metal adjacent to the bumper also gets in the way of the one-piece lights.

Mechanics of trimming:

I masked off everything not getting cut, so minor slips wouldn't hurt anything. My Sawzall and
sabre saw both seemed hard to control and took off metal _quick_, so reciporcating saws are probably out. For coarse metal removal, my nibbler (of the manual < $10 variety) seemed easiest to control, and reasonably quick. I didn't try the right angle grinder, although it seems like it would have been scary. The Dremel cut-off wheel was good for a couple straight cuts, but wouldn't do for the curved pieces. And the stones were just way too slow. OTOH, the die grinder with a stone on the end was just right for finishing up every place it would fit.

Once cut:

There's a hollow plastic bolt on the back of the light. Turning it down a bit will cause the lamp to butt up against the flat sheet metal and look like the factory installation.

Wiring:

The pinouts appear to be as follows:

New

high city level level
1 3 5 7
2 4 6 8
low ground level no pin


Old
low high
fog
ground


NOTE that on the right side, the low beam is yellow with a white stripe while the high beam is white with a yellow stripe. When you're getting anxious, they look pretty much the same.

While not as cheesy as some vendors wiring kits, the PG Performance setup leaves a bit to be desired. The female connector pins come pre-crimped on the wires, which according to my local dealer is normal for Audi OEM wiring. This pretty much forces you to use cheesy butt-splices to attach them. The Molex power connector pins look close, may be an acceptable substitute, and are fairly easy to come by. Otherwise, you might want to look for a source for uncrimped pins.