HID Bulb installaton

[ThePhoenix]

Hi

I have an A3 2007 170 TDI Quattro. It has a single projector providing both high and dipped beams via a single HID bulb on each side. It has never had new bulbs and one sometimes flickers a few times before it lights up, so have decided to replace the bulbs in the hope that that solves the problem.

I have the bulb mounted in it's igniter sitting infornt of me now, but cant figure out how to remove the bulb. It looks to be a twist fit, but I have used reasonable force in both directions and it has failed to budge.

Can anyone tell me definitively how to get the bulb out as I don't want to force it any more.

Cheers.

[ThePhoenix]

Oh, don't worry, Ive taken the outer casing of the igniter and discovered it is a single Philips unit; bulb and igniter integrated. Fantastic, so now I have to get a refund on the bulbs and source one of these. Bet they're a whole lot more than the £25 I paid for the bulbs!

Cheers

[Fexo]

At Audi they are about £150! Bit of a shock to the system as I had them fit it as well as I had no idea how to do it. Fortunately they only charged "diagnostic rates", but £230 for a new bulb seems a bit excessive though I did get them to replace the external temperature sensor which they were at it, so it wasn't so bad. (I did actually go to Halfords for the bulb fit [£95ish] who said I should go back to Audi as they thought that it was a 2 part bulb).

Look on the web and you can find them down to about £35.