The D2 Forums

Hello and thanks for letting me join! I posted a bit on another forum about my adventures in D2 maintenance and had a lot of helpful expert advice from the great folks I see are now on here.

I have had the S8 around 5-6 years (having previously owned a 4.2 quattro) and it is currently undergoing a further round of ‘wee jobs’ for which I may have some questions coming up…


Scott

Hello and welcome!

Are the headlights xenons?

Welcome I do approve of a Dolphin Grey

Thanks!

The lights are xenon for low beam. I would have loved full Xenon though – most of my night driving is with full beam. I need to replace the xenon bulbs though – I suspect they are long past their best. It also has the solar roof which is quite good – I suspect it would be pretty useless when very hot, but works quite well with the milder weather we get up here!

The Dolphin Grey is nice. I had only just been starting to think about getting an S8 when this one popped up relatively local (in Dunfermline) and it was the perfect spec for me – black leather, dark wood and dark grey – so I had to grab it

A local car youtuber I know did a video on the car a while ago:

Those lights are way better than the Xenon Plus now, which have faded and yellow internal reflectors that can't be cleaned or polished. Get some Nightbreakers in yours and they are excellent, you'd be amazed how much xenons fade with age while still 'working'.

I shall watch that video later There's an FE going to be on Number 27 soon, and in theory a manual swap on Jayemm, although that particular car is one of the most troublesome in the entire community so it may or may not make it, and if it does he certainly won't like it

Hello from me too, Scott.

And MJ, which FE is going to be on Number 27? Is it known to us?

That’s interesting regarding the xenon lights – looks like I have a good option then. I am pretty sure I have Nightbreakers bulbs installed, but I will double check this for the coming dark nights.

I like a bit of Number27 and Jayemm so will watch out for those. What is making the car troublesome?

I have had a set of reflectors of your type 're-silvered' in Poland for i think £90.
The really cool thing about halogens and xenons like yours is that they have the toggle to switch the beam to european roads. X+ do not, they are terrible headlights after 25+ years anyway

Spanker wrote:
And MJ, which FE is going to be on Number 27? Is it known to us?

Neil's.

scottmgibb wrote: Sun Aug 24, 2025 4:28 pm I like a bit of Number27 and Jayemm so will watch out for those. What is making the car troublesome?

It's Bert's black one. It just is troublesome. It always has been, always will be. It was my first manual swap and the clutch pedal arrangement is sub-par compared to mine so its very heavy and the bite point is wrong. It also has a TDI gearbox because we couldn't get a petrol one at the time, and the ratios are really too high. It has a factory manual map, which doesn't work well on conversions, and the clutch switch is broken which makes it jump about and shudder badly on gearchanges. All that could be solved if I was well and could get some workshop time on it, but unfortunately thats not going to happen any time soon, if ever.

It is the worst possible choice of manual swaps for Jayemm to try because he will hate it and condemn the conversion as stupid just like everyone else does who hasn't driven a proper one. If I were interested in promoting the conversion I'd suggest he drove mine, but I'm not. So I won't I will only be making one or two more ever.