AudiQ5sleeper

im not sure about xenon. they are extremely expensive to replace on our own.

vutekho

Thanks for the diagram. I was able to get the bulbs/capsules in last night and all is fine now. I was not aware that we had to turn the entire capsule unit to get it off. That might explained why simply pushing it straight in didnt quite lock the bulb in place.

My passenger side started flickering and I used that as an excuse to change out the bulbs.

JaXeN

Agreed that Xenons are expensive.... That said, they should last *many* hours longer than the conventional halogen bulbs, which is why I would expect them to be fully covered under warranty.

So back to the OP:

Is there a reason as to why you want to change the Xenons in your '13Q5?
Aesthetics? Or do you have an issue that the dealer or Ao(x) isn't willing to repair?

JaXeN

Did you raise this issue with your dealer?

dmicah

Wish the Q5 allowed the full LED upgrade option like some of the more expensive models. I assume you pretty much never need to replace those...

AudiQ5sleeper

OEM should last for awhile, ive had aftermarket D3s they burnt out in a few months

Redd

The numbers I've seen are that prime quality HID capsules will last 10x longer than prime quality filament bulbs.

If the warranty says "no bulbs" that's actually great, as Phillips, Sylvania, and other prime manufacturers will gladly tell the dealer and Audi that HID capsules are not bulbs.

No matter how Audi may have incorrectly translated whatever they are called in Germany.

There would have to be a manufacturing defect, allowing the gas to leak out of the capsule, or a major failure of the ballast (overvoltage) to cause an HID capsule to fail in just a year.

spijun

For a full LED models there is no option of replacing the bulb, only complete headlight .... price about $ 4,000 (without power module)

JaXeN

OEM Xenons in my '01 A6 are still going strong and they've been used daily as Daytime Running Lights for the past two years.

I'm sure that now that I've posted this, they'll experience a failure within a week. lol.

Redd

Offhand and without checking:
Tungsten bulbs, filament bulbs, have a typical lifetime of 2000 hours. Although I recently had one fail in under 200, I'll put that down to it being made in a country with no name.
I don't think I've ever had a headlight burn out in under five years, but then again I'm not running cross country every night.

HID capsules, supposed to last at least 10x longer, vaguely 20,000 hours.

And prime quality LEDs are industry-standard rated to retain 50% of their brightness at 50,000 hours, which may be only half of their lifetime but "time to replace". I haven't heard any comments about LED headlights but would expect they are over-driver to get the brightness, which would cut their life down significantly if true.
By the time any new LED headlights do burn out, I'd expect repair/rebuild options to be available. The actual LEDs aren't commonly available yet--but that always changes. With the rate of technology change in LEDs, it is possible the current ones will be totally obsoleted and have to be replaced as a whole unit, sure.