Guide to Headlight Switches

AUTHOR
ventoCL

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the wonderous and sometimes mildly confusing world of the Mk3 headlight switch. In the American market, there were four switches available; these are refered to as NA in this listing. The early NA switch with front fog option and the Euro switch with front fog option are the same style switch. Part numbers might be different, but they have the same functions.

In the European market and most other countries, there were many other options. I have tried to document each switch with their options or functions. Some countries decided that driving on the left side of the road makes more sense, so there are Euro switches that come from right hand drive (RHD) models. I guess you can consider those even more Euro. A RHD switch won't fit in a LHD dash without modification.

THE SWITCHES
Some feel that the Vento headlight switch with front fog option is not a true Euro switch, but rather an early NA switch. I think that if its found in the European market it counts as a Euro switch. After some late night researching of rear foglights I discovered two things: One, the reason that some switches came with only a rear fog option is because some markets require rear foglights by law. Two, the rear foglight is located on the driver's side of the car.

Headlight leveling is the ability to control the beam height from inside the cabin. If you have ever moved a large load at night you might have noticed that your headlight beams go up into the trees. With headlight leveling you can raise and lower the beams by rolling the dial next to the dimmer wheel. This feature has also found to be very useful for extremely low cars at night.

Additionally, some Euro switches use red rather than green lighting. For example, the Mk3.5 Cabrio comes with a red lit interior. They funtion the same as the green lit pieces do, however, the wrong colored switch might look out of place depending on the rest of your interior lighting. But if you're color blind, what's the difference?

Listed below are the headlight switches available for the Mk3:

Early NA


Early NA [front fog]


Late NA switch


Late NA switch [front fog]


Euro switch


Euro switch [front fog]


Euro switch [front fog, headlight leveling rheostat]
picture needed

Euro switch [front fog, rear fog]


Euro switch [rear fog]


Euro switch [rear fog, headlight leveling rheostat]


Euro switch [front fog, rear fog, headlight leveling rheostat]


Euro switch [front fog, rear fog, headlight leveling rheostat]


Euro switch RHD [rear fog]


Vento Euro switch


Vento Euro switch [front fog]
picture needed

Vento Euro switch [front fog, headlight leveling rheostat]
picture needed

Vento Euro switch [front fog, rear fog]


Vento Euro switch [rear fog]
picture needed

Vento Euro switch [rear fog, headlight leveling rheostat]


Vento Euro switch [front fog, rear fog, headlight leveling rheostat]

HELP US MAKE THIS GUIDE COMPLETE
If you have a photo of a switch we are missing, please email it to us.