Mikaere808

okay your right it comes unconnected with the littlest bump....any ideas on how to proceed? should I take off the head light assembly and clean the contacts or look at buying a new connector? what are your thoughts?

jcman

What connector are you referring? Perhaps a picture.

tanya_charbury

I'd clean the contacts, on the off chance that -- even when snugly and correctly connected -- there's some corrosion that makes the connection iffy. This is a long shot but easy to do. You shouldn't have to remove the headlights to do so. According to how I read the Bentley manual, removal of the headlights requires removal of the front bumper so assuming that's correct, it's no small task. I've tried to remove mine and I failed unless I removed the front bumper first.

Really, when snugly and correctly fitted, the connection should be solid, so as the next step I'd recommend diligently making sure the plugs are connected as they should be.

Then again, if someone has broken off the retaining clip or tab (maybe whoever did the engine work?) then yes, then the connector would be loose due to damage, and then you'd have to install a replacement, either at the end of the wire (the way Audi did it) or by cutting the wire near the connector and splicing in a pigtail. The latter I would do with, ideally, soldering and heat-shrink connectors, to keep things reasonably reliable.

The Xenon high-output headlamps were an optional extra, so unless the connectors were identical for these vs. the regular headlamps (I hope that's not so but let's not rule that out), there could potentially be at least two different styles of connectors ...

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