GermanSheisse

Hey all.

I spent all day looking for the answer to an issue, including scouring through this site and few other forums, youtube, et. al.

Have to replace one of the xenon bulbs in my 2004 A6 2.7t.

Its simple enough on paper. I had everything apart and ready to go. Issue i ran into occurred on both sides. The damned headlight bulb retainer rings.

Every single forum or video simply said to just twist them and then pull out. For mine, the retainer ring on the pass side budged about 3mm after some seriously frustrating attempts. It wouldnt budge further. The driver's side retainer ring seems to be completely stuck.

So, my question being, is there some special trick to these, and has anyone encountered this before?

They seem seated fine, so i doubt theyre cross threaded. Is there some type of tab or hook that the rings could be catching on?

Any help would be very appreciated. The local audi service rep just non chalantly told me to break the rings off and possibly buy new headlight housings (through them of course), and a trusted shop i work with said the same thing. I simply refuse to spend hundreds of dollars on labor only for a dang headlight bulb replacement.

Thanks

Indigo98

When I was replacing my hid bulb I found that if you take out the entire headlight out (I still had mine plugged in) just leaning against the bumper. It provided a lot more leverage when turning the retainer ring and turn it counterclockwise when turning it.