I thought I would have a general nose around the engine bay to see how hard it was going to be, ended up fitting them in about 1-1.5 hrs. so pretty easy.
1. you do not need to remove the bumper or headlights to fit the bulbs and ballasts.
2. Ours is a TDI 130 with the worlds allocation of plastic on the engine. Remove the far left plastic cover (covers the airbox) and far right cover (covers the power steering reservoir with green cap) for access.
3. remove cold air feed to airbox (3 phillips screws secure this at the grille end)
4. remove rubber caps from rear of dipped beam section of headlight
5. remove dipped beam bulbs (twist and remove)
6. remove clipe from rear of bulbs (just a bit of springy pressed metal) note bulb/clip orientation for later.
7. locate locations to house ballasts and fit, I used the metal cage next to the ABS manifold on pass side, and top of chassis rail (?) below the small ally and rubber pipe. Under the cold air feed to airbox. Both these locations enabled securing of the ballasts with multiple zip ties whilst being easily within reach of the headlights and out of general view in the engine bay for neatness.
8. cut small circular hole in the back of the previously removed rubber caps from back of headlights (about 1.5cm dia.)
9. apply previously removed metal clip to back of new HID bulbs and insert into headlight
10. route old bulb connector and wires, and new hid bulb wiring through hole in rubber cap and seal
11. connect ballast spade connectors to existing headlight connector (red to yellow, black to brown) the connector required a slight crimp with pliers to close up the female spade terminals inside a produce a good connection. tape up to protect from water ingress
12. connect ballast to HID bulbs
13. test
14. tidy up wiring, cable tie away from sources of abrasion and heat.
15. refit cold air feed and trim pieces and enjoy being able to see where you are going
+pics
Hope this helps someone else out there.
