daredevil1

Where did you get the LEDs that go on the bottom?

jetshine

Those LEDs are integrated into the newer-style headlight (2009+), you don't need to get them separate. The LEDs should last the lifetime of the car, so there would be no reason for Audi to design the LEDs to be removable or replaceable.

daredevil1

No no no, look at the picture, he has LEDs in the bottom grill.

zzz4

He's got both.

daredevil1

Yup

Robert Schirmer

Any updates on getting this done to your car? Would like to update mine this spring when time allows.

Thanks,
Bob

jetshine

Hey Bob-
Yes, an update... like you, I'm waiting for some warmer weather to actually do the work. I have the HID bulbs + ballast in-hand from the eBay auction I linked above. I also decided to get LED turn signal bulbs (heck, why not go all modern!). I decided to go cheap and got a pair of used headlights from eBay for ~$600, just waiting for those to come in. So in total, I'm spending just under $1000 for all this, instead of close to $3000.

One note about getting from eBay, they have a mix of adaptive front lighting system (AFS) and non-AFS units out there. My car has AFS, so obviously I want to preserve that feature. The AFS units end in part number "DK", while non-AFS units are "DG".

Found out I needed one more little thing, a bulb holder for the D3S bulbs. It is a different design than the older headlight (since that used D2S bulbs), and these little buggers were hard to find. Again, found on eBay:
bulb holder

Lastly, I ordered the Bentley CD from Amazon, I want to understand the wiring differences. The 2009+ headlights have an H8 bulb on the inside, instead of a daytime running light. I'm guessing this is either a flash-to-pass high beam bulb or maybe some kind of built-in foglight? not sure... but hopefully the Bentley CD will tell me. Will post an update once I start putting the new lights in.

Robert Schirmer

Thanks for the update. I was looking at some used housings on ebay also. New is nice but a couple extra bucks in my pocket is better. If an a4 setup is like the a6 in 09, a friend of my wife has on I can look at for the h8 bulb qusetion.

Thanks,
Bob

Robert Schirmer

hey jetshine,
Did a little digging and an 09 a6 takes a d1s xenon bulb. Do you know what the difference between them and the d3s is that is listed in the ebag kit?
Thanks,
Bob

jetshine

Well I had an unsuccessful weekend trying to fit the '09 headlights to my '08.

I had tested the headlights before installing them using a bench power supply. I was able to test the main (xenon) lights, turn signal, shutter, even the cornering light, but I could never get the LED strip to light up... I assumed that maybe the lighting control module perhaps sends a different signal that just plain old +12V. I had applied +12V to pins 10 and 12 and ground to pin 7 on the headlight connector T14... according to the wiring diagram from the Bentley CD, this should cause the LED strip to light up.

Despite this, I proceeded to take the car apart to take the old headlights out, and put in the new ones. I started by just connecting the new ones to the harness, and guess what... nothing from the LEDs. Main beams, turn signals, and as far as I know, leveling/AFS all seemed to work, but LEDs wouldn't work.

I tried all different combinations of coding the central electronics module, and had even compensated for the connector change at the headlight (for some reason, Audi changed the pinout, DRL signal now comes through on pin 10 instead of 12). Fault codes logged in the cent. electronics module indicate "Short to Ground". I have a cent. elec. module that is hardware rev A and SW rev M, which as far as I know should support DRL LEDs (S6 obviously has them). I even tried to run some pigtails (test wires) from the harnesses on the CE module up to the headlight so that the wiring matched the diagram exactly, to no avail.

So, right now I am at the conclusion that the headlights that I got from an eBay seller had defective LED arrays. My gut tells me that this should be very unlikely, given the high reliability of LEDs. I also thought it should be unlikely that both headlights would have a defective LED array. But there is some hint of problems with the LED DRLs over at audi-forums.com
http://www.audi-forums.com/c6-forum/...ghts-a6-4.html (see post #33). Perhaps the electronics controlling the LEDs are prone to failure? Anyone with an '09 or '10 model have their LED DRLs fail?

Now I am left wondering what to do... I'm thinking about opening up the headlight to further check the electronics, but I think that involves putting the headlight in an oven to release the sealant - major pain. It seems like there are lots of 09+ headlights available for sale on eBay, I'm wondering if these are units that dealers are throwing away due to defective LEDs? As a result, I am reluctant to order any more off eBay. Very few sellers offer any kind of warranty, and none claim that the LED array has been tested and found to be working. If someone else has bought a pair of 09 headlights, maybe you could confirm for me that applying +12V to pins 10 and 12 and Ground to pin 7 of the headlight connector will light the LED?

GenuineAudiParts.com sells the headlights for $612 a piece new (with AFS), but that makes this upgrade more expensive now. Maybe the S6 bumper/LED strip is the better option after all!

Speaking of major pains, it was not fun to get at the headlights to remove them... it requires removing the bumper cover, and even with the repair manual, it took me half a Saturday. After I threw in the towel, re-installing and re-aligning the original headlights took about two hours-the manual is very precise about gap measurements around the headlight... down to a tenth of a millimeter precision. I managed to break a 90 deg elbow in the headlamp washer plumbing line, despite trying to be careful when removing the bumper, there just wasn't much slack in the line. Luckily, the elbow was easy to replace with a part from the hardware store (nylon 3/8" in. ID barbed hose elbow).

Wish I had better news to report. Will post further updates as I continue troubleshooting.

Bob - D1S and D3S look the same, but D3S bulbs contain no mercury, which appears to be the major difference. The 09 definitely takes D3S bulbs, I just don't know enough to tell you that D1S bulbs would work too. The ballast is definitely different between 2008 and 2009 - old one won't physically fit on the new headlight housing. I don't know if the ballast is specifically designed for D3S bulbs or if it would work for D1S bulbs too. But I can tell you the combination of the newer ballast and D3S bulbs worked fine for me.