Hanzo

Hello Audi friends,

My xenon headlights on Audi A4 B8 end 2014 were not centered correctly. I bought the specific screwdriver to manually orient them as desired.
The xenon headlights worked fine during a couple days, until I got headlight dip error on the right headlight. It would occasionally work on/off. About 5 five days later, the left one started giving me the same error, and both would turn on, and occasionally on/off at it's own pace.
I brought the car (still under 5 year warranty) for the Audi dealership to fix, they said that the warranty on the xenon headlights is only for 3 years, and it is counted as maintenance usage, hence not free to fix under warranty.
To no surprise, the dealership stated that they both have to be replaced for an astounding price and could not be purchased elsewhere or else the dealership will not install them.
My car has been running for 50,000 KM, making it stil somewhat new hence not using the xenon lights for such a long period of time.
Would the xenon have tired out already?
What would you suggest I do to fix this situation instead of purchasing new ones for a hefty price?
Thank you for your help!
- Hanzo

uberwgn

Hanzo, it used to be that you needed a tool like VCDS to change the headlight aim. It may be that you've lost the basic adaptation and that will cause the warning messages on the dashboard. Worst case scenario would be broken adjuster mechanisms. Best case would be nothing more than re-adaptation (re-learn process).

Hanzo

Thank you for your reply uberwgn.
The Audi dealership said they tried messing around with it, it works for a 5 minutes, then off. As soon as the car is turned off for a minute and back on, it works for another 5 minutes then off.
You suggest that I recalibrate the headlights and that would give them some more time to shine?
Would have any link where I could learn how to do it correctly?

Thank you

uberwgn

There's someone working with it here, but on a previous generation car with HID:

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...non-Headlights

You'll still get the basic idea.

SMac770

https://nickscarblog.com/diy/how-to-...ror-on-an-audi

The bulbs are not particularly expensive, though not cheap either. But if the dealership is wanting to change bulb and ballast on both sides, yeah, plan to pay a lot of money. Unless you acquire and replace the parts yourself (I would do them myself, but you may or may not prefer to).

With VCDS, you could at least pull the actual code and it might point you towards a particular error. You can't rerun the adaptation without VCDS anyway.

The ballasts are not a wear item. While the bulb is, that you're replacing them at 50k km is a joke. You should have gotten 150k km out of them. Bulbs care about on time, not overall time. Unless the environment has been harsh to them. Could be an issue with the wiring too. Have you tried to just unplug/replug the plug to the headlamp assembly and see if it's just some contact corrosion?

audi8k

If I understand you correctly, Hanzo, the problem you have now is not with aiming or the auto range/level adjustment but that the lights turn off after a short time or not always turns on. It seems that this is a usual symptom when the xenon bulb is worn out. My understanding is that it not only ON time but also number of ON/OFF that limits the life. 50000 km seems short but maybe if you have a lot of headlights turn on daily? That both started behaving would to my mind point to worn out bulbs but I'm guessing. I have nearly 80000 km on mine (but a lot of that with only DRL:s). My plan is to by replacements from a reputable non-Audi store,and replace them myself when it's time.

Hanzo

Thank you for your replies SMac770 & audi8k,
Unfortunately I don't have a VAG or know anyone who does, hence that isn't an option.
The dealership said that I have to change the N 10721805 bulbs because they died off {they still work for a short period of time}.
Like you said, it is impractical that the lights not being ON more than 40% of the 50K would already be done.
Following your given guideless, I'm gonna manually lower both lights hoping that the dashboard computer stabilizes and approves of it's usage with displaying ERROR.

On a side note, I had initially manually "played around" with raising/lowering the lights, because everytime I get close to the rear end of a car, I could see that one was aiming higher than the other; this could of caused the error I keep receiving.

SMac770

At a dealership, you're likely going to pay $350 for bulbs and one or two hours of labor. Online parts, you can get OEM spec D3S pair for $200 and change them yourself in half hour. But your options are limited to what you have access to and what you feel comfortable doing.
That they just want to replace the bulbs and not the ballasts is good, assuming it turns out to be enough. You won't know if the problem is the more expensive ballasts until after trying the bulbs. But most would say if the bulbs are old and you need to change the ballast, you need to change the bulb anyway.
I had my right bulb go out one night and give the dipped message, then it came back on the next time I drove at night and was fine from then on. I had already ordered bulbs, so changed them anyway. But that was after almost 10 years since build date and 170k miles (not km).

Aiming the headlamps, you should have a near full fuel tank, weight similar to yourself in the driver seat, no other loading on the vehicle, light switch in auto position, then point the headlights at a wall along a level surface. The bright spot on the wall should be 1% down (at least in US, see what number is stamped in the plastic on your headlamp) from the height of the bulbs.at the car. So bulbs at 100cm high, wall 400cm away from the bulbs (not the car front), the bright spots should be 96cm high on the wall. This requires the wall to be reliably perpendicular to the floor and the floor reliably flat.

Bulb outage will not likely be tied to a problem with the leveling system. Again, I'd start by unplugging/replugging the D3S bulbs and the wiring to the headlamp assembly and see if that clears anything. If not, then go for the bulbs. Hopefully it ends there and the ballasts are not a problem.

Hanzo

The dealership made me understand that the electrical engineer took a moment trying to understand what the issue was and concluded that the bulbs were tiring out.
Last night, after trying to re calibrate/center and adjust the bulbs aiming at 100cm high being at 400 cm distance from the wall, my xenon lights started shifting between purple to brownish yellow, back to blue, then bright purple. (Very pretty exotic colors, but I doubt those colors are healthy aspects of the xenon bulb)
I'm gonna drive around later tonight to see if I still get the dip error, if so I will find a surface which will enable me to do the 100cm X 400cm calibration. I found online that to calculate the exact center, one should distance the car at 7m away from the wall, cover one bulb draw a line on the wall based on the lower light line and center them both on the lower support line making them identical.
I found on amazon 2 bulbs for $81. This sounds reasonable since one bulb runs for $65. Depending on research I have made, Phillips seems to be the quality light to use.
I will keep you posted.
Thank you!

uberwgn

OK. I would recommend replacing both bulbs at the same time. Philips is a good brand for the bulbs.