W12_Carlos

Hi folks!

I just pickup my 2008 S8 with only 81k miles on it and only one owner.

What should I look for as far as maintenance to keep this beast going?

Also, one of my headlights is lower than the other. how can that be adjusted?

Glad to be part of this post!

richard-tx

One headlight (drivers side) is supposed to be lower than the other. It prevents blinding the oncoming drivers.

Don't touch anything until you get a VCDS. You need that to adjust the headlights. Get some time behind the wheel before you start mucking with things.

W12_Carlos

Thank you for your reply!
Thats exactly what I have. Driver side is lower than passenger side. Is there any reason for that?

mishar

No, there is not. They should be adjusted same. It is easy to adjust. There are two screws for that purpose on each headlight. Any DIY'er should be able to recognize them.

MP4.2+6.0

+1. Don't need VCDS to adjust. Have done it on 2000 C5 A6 4.2, D3 W12, Q5 and most recently D4 S8 using the two screws. First was HID, next two adaptive HID, latest one LED. No magic beyond finding a clean dark wall at a distance and dialing in. Obviously don't set to where they would blind oncoming drivers.

peri77

Driver side lower headlight is a regulation in Europe. But you are not there, so the two sides should be equal

Start saving money for air struts. In my experience the lifetime is around 8 to 10 years. On a nice day the rubber gets tired and starts to leak

I have also replaced my intake manifold.

mishar

No, it's not.

peri77

How do you know that?

peri77

In europe the headlights must comply the ECE regulations. In my country the asymmetrical low beam is also a legal requirement (legally you cannot drive a car with symmetrical low beam)

Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

MP4.2+6.0

Maybe just backing up a step, OP is in USA. Both USA and Euro headlights have cutoff patterns; traditionally Euro ones were more pronounced. I'll skip the regs debate and stick to the practical/how to. The asymmetry in light pattern mentioned is present in both headlights though, at least all the Audis I have done in last 20 years.

Having adjusted a bunch of generations of them (and some old Euro spec ones I had on my 85 5000), when you project the headlights onto a blank wall, you will see a bit of a bump upward in the pattern toward the center right. That is meant to get some extra light to the side where pedestrians/animals, etc. may be lurking. Euro ones at least traditionally have a stronger cut off and more pronounced right side throw. When you sight along the car body axis, obviously you want the right side one (for LHD) projecting out further for that part of the beam. So, you dial that in left-right to get to that result. It shows up in the drivers side beam too, but you don't want to pull that to the left. When you switch to high (main) beam, you will see that favoring toward the right/passenger side go away, almost appearing as though lights shift left though it is more just eliminating the higher to right low beam bias. I always bring a simple beach towel with me to cover one light at a time so I can evaluate beam pattern and throw of each in isolation and then at final steps, together.

I try to keep the point it starts to angle up on the wall (or down road driving) closer to center line of car for drivers side headlight, and definitely to left of drivers car body edge, and further right for passenger side one. How the factory setting appears typically anyway. As a final step, I always walk the 75 feet (25m) or so toward the local school wall i use and look into headlights. I should see no obvious blinding light standing or even bending down to 3 or 4 ft (1m) or so--the lower end of height of other non-SUV driver's eyes or shorter pedestrians. That includes that low beam throw area toward right of car side/pedesrrian walking area. Only when I get seriously low--like bumper height--do I see the beam intensity go way up--as it should to light the road at some distance. It's a little higher up as I move into that pedestrian zone of lighting.

As trivia BTW, FWIW, buried in newer Audi's is a setting called something like "tourist mode" that can be enabled with VCDS. It allows you to flip the pattern for left hand drive markets like UK.