A4 B8 headlight problem - Please help?

[CraigG86]

Hi everyone, and thank you in advance for taking the time to read this. I know there are many posts about headlight problems for various models, but I'm yet to find anything on my problem. I hope I explain everything right...

I've got a 2008 B8 A4 S Line, so naturally it's got LED DLRL's and Bi-Xenon headlights. I was on my way home from work in early December at 5am. Travelling on an unlit stretch of the M6, struggling to stay awake after a busy night when all of a sudden... Darkness. The display pointed out the obvious to me that both left and right, dipped beam and headlights had failed. Struggling to see, my true professionalism came out (honest). Quick call to the RAC and with his wizardry he told me that he could try to botch it to get me home and I would have lights, but he'd need to cut into the lighting loom to do this. Me actually getting home was the priority so this was done, and he fed a constant live, splicing into the live just before the connector block... Bingo! Lights were on! Got home and disconnected this constant live and got a friend to take off the wire the RAC had put on. As this worked, this to me says that the ballasts and bulbs are fine. The DLRL's work and dim when I indicate and dim when the headlights are switched on, but still no headlights or dipped beam. So I booked the car in to Liverpool Audi and found the car was needed for a recall for a cam bearing. I spoke with the aftersales manager who told me that they only needed to 'plug the car in' and they would have a diagnosis for me, then we could discuss repair price based on what the diagnosis was before they went ahead with any repairs. Later that day I got a call to say the diagnostics were done and the car was ready to collect. Long story short, I paid £47.52 for 0.3 hours diagnostics and the result of that was the car needed further investigation chargeable to me at £207, the week before Christmas. I declined that offer. I've spoken to Audi UK on the matter as I feel this is a fault that is detrimental to safety, but they disagree and have said any work that needs doing, diagnostic or repair is chargeable to me as the car is out of it's warranty period. Has anyone come across this fault before and able to point me in the right direction to repair it? I begrudge paying out on a car that's 4 years old for a fault that isn't (as far as I can work out) down to wear and tear. But I obviously need to have the car repaired because I didn't buy a car to sit outside my house to look nice. Any advice on this is massively appreciated as it will feed with with knowledge to hopefully cut down any diagnostic charges when I take it to a garage to get looked at.

Thank you again

Craig

[CraigG86]

In a strange turn of events, my off side headlight has decided to start working again...

[CraigG86]

Is it possible that the bulbs have been changed and they're not compatible with Audi CAN bus?

[MFGF]

Faulty headlight switch, maybe?

[CraigG86]

Would this be the case when the off side is working?

It takes it's time to come on though, probably about 5 minutes before it comes on, but once it's on, it stays on and flashes when I flash my headlights.

[CraigG86]

Little bump, my off side now works fine and the near side came on for a few minutes the other day but nothing since.

[Phil K]

Every time I have read your post above I'm amazed that they charged you £50 for 20 minutes work and couldn't tell you what the problem was! If they hadn't diagnosed a fault on my car I'd refuse to pay!

Personally I'd kick off a bit and push for a GWG from the dealer or AUK. Do you have FASH or a history of Audi's? I only ask as they can sometimes help your case...

good luck and I hope you get sorted soon!

[CraigG86]

The car had missed one service at a dealer and was done by Arnold Clarke, before I bought the car, so they said they wouldn't do a good will gesture. But they did say if I paid £420 for a major service then they may be able to discount any repair work. This is my Third Audi, but my other two were bought in my company name when I was trading, so for my own personal use, this is my first one. Audi UK said this (and spelt my name wrong)...


Dear Mr Geer

Thank you for your email addressed to Martin Sander, Director of Audi UK. As Martin is out of the office this week, he has asked me to investigate on his behalf.

I have spoken the ****************, Service Advisor at Liverpool Audi, who explained that they charged you 47.52 gbp for 0.3 hours labour to investigate the fault with your headlights. The Technician suspected a fault with the wiring on the passenger side headlight but to confirm this, needed to investigate further.


Once a vehicle is outside of its warranty period, it is the customers responsibility to pay for any diagnostic charges. Once a fault has been confirmed, we can then look into assisting with the repairs costs as a gesture of goodwill, if a customer deems the repair to be premature. When looking into a repair contribution, we take a number of factors into consideration, for example, the age and mileage of the vehicle and customer loyalty as evidenced by regular servicing and purchases within the Audi Network.

I am sorry that you were unhappy with the diagnostic charges from Liverpool Audi, however, as all our centres are independent businesses, they do charge for this service and we are unable to overrule the cost.

If you choose to go ahead with the diagnostics proposed by Liverpool Audi and would like any further assistance, please call me on 01908 601719 to discuss in more detail.

Kind Regards

Rob McDonald
Customer Relations Manager
Audi UK



I wasn't happy with the way Audi UK Customer service were being so blasé about it after telling me that the fault is not detrimental to safety, so I wrote straight to Martin Sander, the CEO of Audi UK.

[CraigG86]

Moved the car this morning because my good lady was blocked in, and I'm back to the no light situation....


I hate my life!

[Phil K]

Really sorry to hear your still having this issue... I'd still be back at the dealer insisting they actually diagnose this having paid them good money to tell you sweet FA so far! Maybe try another dealer?

[CraigG86]

Is there a relay for the headlights?

If there is, can someone point me in the right direction of them please? This is seriously peeing me off.


I'm a bit dubious as to try another dealer to be honest, I didn't get the backing from Audi UK last time, so what will make a dealer 'go easy on me' so to speak. It seems that these dealers just charge what they want. Apparently to work on a B8 A4 the standard charge is £168+vat per hour. If I could afford to pay them rates, I wouldn't be driving a 4.5 year old Audi.

[hollow]

where are you based, not an advert but my brother owns a vw audi indy garage and is 110% on there electrical system . if he cant fix it then there will be no fee . but I guarantee he can and at a guess it will be an easy fix. most of them are but because dealers do guided fault finding they could half rewire the car without finding the fault . my brother uses the common sense approach . they have full dealer diagnostics and more . IT will be cheaper than dealer prices and its genuine parts used .as I said its not an advertisement but he opened the garage as vw couldn't pay him enough to keep him with his skills

[CraigG86]

So yeah, this saga continues!!!

After lots of shrugged shoulders and "I don't know's", I've finally found someone who has given me an answer....

He's tested everything, and everything is as is should be, switch is good, signal is good, components are good... But the headlight units are nackered. He said he's come across this a few times before and can be resolved by fitting new headlights. Now, I didn't get a chance to ask, so hopefully one of you clever guys/gals (see how unsexist that was) can answer a question for me.

What's inside the headlight unit to fail? Can it be repaired rather than being replaced (thinking of cost here)?

Hopefully someone can help me out on this, and sorry for dragging an ancient topic up!

[CraigG86]

where are you based, not an advert but my brother owns a vw audi indy garage and is 110% on there electrical system . if he cant fix it then there will be no fee . but I guarantee he can and at a guess it will be an easy fix. most of them are but because dealers do guided fault finding they could half rewire the car without finding the fault . my brother uses the common sense approach . they have full dealer diagnostics and more . IT will be cheaper than dealer prices and its genuine parts used .as I said its not an advertisement but he opened the garage as vw couldn't pay him enough to keep him with his skills

I'm Cheshire based, friend.

I feel really posh typing that ha ha!

[CraigG86]

So I've been looking on the German eBay and I've come across the headlight units a lot cheaper than English eBay. As my German is quite limited (I can count to 12, say please, thank you and good morning) I don't know if I'm looking at damaged or LHD parts only. So again, forgive my ignorance, I vaguely remember something on the AMI menu about changing the headlights to LHD (I might be imagining this) so does it matter if the lights are off a LHD car? If so, where can I get some suitable headlights that aren't going to cost me more than the car's worth?

[CraigG86]

Right, I've stumbled across an aftermarket set of TYC headlights, at £364 a set. Now, I'm a fan of the saying, buy cheap, pay twice, but are these worth the gamble? Anyone used or heard of these?

I'm reeeeeeaaaaaaally sorry to keep going on about this subject, but it's killing me now, having a car for nearly two years that you can't use is not what anyone wants! Really regret buying it now!

[CraigG86]

If someone can answer this quick question, I'd be much appreciated!

If I buy a set of lights from Germany (LHD part numbers) and use Audi's techno wizzardry to use them for RHD, will I have limited range? If so, is it a noticeable difference?

[CraigG86]

Before I take the plunge and spend £600-700, someone on another forum has said it could be the Central Electrics Module?

I'm more in favour of it being this, what are your opinions?

[Zenerdiode]

Have you had a fault scan done? There are two TPI's for the headlights for the age of your car; however I don't think the dealers will carry out TPI work for free once out of warranty. One is where the xenon lamps need changing - the other is the whole headlamp cluster needs changing. For the fault that requires the entire cluster changing; the problem is in the braiding of the High Voltage cable to the lamp plug coupler. It looks fine from the outside but the insulation breaks down with the high voltage pulse required to strike the arc in the xenon - effectively short circuiting the output side of the ballast.

[CraigG86]

I've just spoke to the auto spark who's looked over the car, and he said the fault is coming back to the "Control Unit" after doing a full scan, he said it's located under the steering column.

He's under the impression that it's central electrics module that's at fault, or the body control module as it's also known.

Where is this actually located? So I can get a part number off it. I'll also ask him about the possibility of what you've suggested. Thank you for that!

[CraigG86]

Or if anyone knows the part number, that would be grand!

I've found this 8K0907064C but unsure if it's what I need?

Found another part number, so really unsure of what part does what?

8T0907376