My Audi Rs3 Turn Lights Don't Go Left to Right

Do you have an error light on your dashboard that looks like in a higher place with a yellow bulb pointing downward?

That is known as a "dipped headlight" and this post is written to help y'all troubleshoot and fix information technology.

The truth is that even Audi dealerships are notoriously bad at fixing this problem.

Their remedy is typically to advise replacing the bulbs and ballasts at full retail cost, costing you lot several k dollars for a job that is something yous could set yourself for a 10th of the cost.

After reading all of my favorite Audi forums, I found a host of information, some of it helpful, some of it alien, and some if it misguided. But piecing together the consequent recommendations as well as a niggling educated guessing and fact checking, I've figured out a good arroyo for anyone who gets this trouble in their 2002-2008 Audi A4, S4 or RS4 and wants to try to set up it themselves. The steps listed here will probably also work for other Audis as well, although may differ somewhat.

Since originally posting this I've gotten hundreds of comments (literally) with others experiencing this issue on a multifariousness of Audis.

Unfortunately, the dipped headlight warning appears to be a super common issue, and can too point to whatever number of issues with your headlights.

I've too updated this mail with revised ideas to assistance you fix the problem easier, after years of helping others I've refined my approach.

First of all, what does "Dipped Headlight" even mean?

Just put, "Dipped Headlight" is Audi-speak for "there is something wrong with your low axle headlight" and can mean a number of things.

This is part of why it is so difficult to troubleshoot and prepare on your ain, as the fault doesn't give you much information nearly what the problem is.

If you have a VAG-COM cable, or know someone who does, the cable can read your car's reckoner and tell you the exact error code which will help tremendously. For some people this error message only comes on intermittently, such as when they're driving slow, when the machine get-go starts upwardly, or in cold weather – for others, information technology comes on every time.

You tin can too pickup a cheaper OBD2 scanner on Amazon which can read codes and at to the lowest degree give you a specific error code and message to troubleshoot, similar this one for $23.

Regardless this mistake light is a grab-all alarm and therefore not very helpful – which is why this issue is and then frustrating to have.

Typically there are several major culprits:

• Bad headlight bulbs – the bulb has gone bad, but isn't completely out.
• Bad xenon ballasts – the ballast has started to malfunction, causing the mistake and likely harming your bulbs too
• Bad wiring in the headlight or xenon motor – the wiring and modules within the headlight is somehow damaged
• Bad ride height sensor or calibration – if the car tin't sense the right height level of the car, this will trigger an mistake

What to Bank check Starting time

There are several things that almost commonly cause this error after reading dozens of owners messages on Audizine, Fourtitude, Audiforums and other bulletin boards. I've listed them below in the club of how'd I'd recommend checking and testing the problem.

Information technology seems the most common issue is that a ballast has gone bad…the bad ballast then causes damage to the headlight bulb, requiring yous to alter the bulb also. If you only alter one or the other, you exercise run the adventure that you'll have to replace it again due to damage that occurred.

If you are getting this event only on one side, i.due east. Dipped Headlight Left or Dipped Headlight Right, then this is a big clue for troubleshooting.

To isolate if information technology is the headlight bulbs, ballasts, or something internal in the headlight itself, simply swap both the bulbs and ballasts from left to correct headlight.If the dipped headlight error on your dash changes from "Dipped Headlight Left" to "Dipped Headlight Correct" (or vice versa) so you lot know that the upshot lies in either the bulb or ballasts.

If this is the case, y'all should order 1 new bulb and i new ballast (using the links in this post) and replace the bad side and you should exist good.

I strongly recommend changing both bulbs and ballasts – fifty-fifty if merely the ballasts were faulty, the bulbs likely suffered harm from the bad ballasts and will need replaced before long, and replacing bulbs requires the bumper to come off so its best to practice this all at once. It also eliminates all possible sources of the dipped headlight error, as this can be a tricky problem to resolve and it'southward improve to be aggressive on the treatment of information technology.

If the problem isn't isolated to one side or another, and the to a higher place trick didn't work, then you'll need to troubleshoot the problem ane by one in the gild listed below:

Headlight Bulbs

Typically the best place to start is new headlight bulbs, as they are oft the culprit and i of the cheapest and easiest things to gear up – even if new headlight bulbs don't fix the trouble, y'all'll eventually need to supersede them anyway, so consider it preventative maintenance.

If y'all go the "headlight seedling out" message, run across your headlights "flicker" on/off occasionally, or find that your dipped headlight error just comes on in cold weather or at get-go start upwardly, it's likely your headlight bulbs may be on their way out.

Follow this DIY for tips on picking the right bulbs and how to install them: https://world wide web.nickscarblog.com/diy/replacement-d1s-headlight-bulbs-for-b7-audi-a4s4rs4

Headlight Ballasts

The ballasts are also known to fail, which can cause this issue – even worse, the failed ballast burns through bulbs, and then if you've had a bad ballast for a while and then yous'll need new bulbs besides. Rumor has it some ballasts accept been recalled by Audi, in which case you tin check with your dealer to see if your car qualifies for the recall, in which example the service and replacement should be free – problem solved! All the same, if yous're not covered by recall and your ballasts are indeed bad, and so you take a few options:

1. Accept your Ballasts Rebuilt – Contact Phil at tbm850 @ gmail.com – he can rebuild your factory ballasts to fix whatever is wrong, and actually strengthen them so it doesn't happen again. He only charges $170 per pair for this and can turn it around in near a day then overnight ship it back, so you lot're downtime is minimal. I've worked with Phil before and he knows the B7 Audi headlights better than pretty much anyone out at that place, and he's an airplane mechanic and then it'south a professional person job.
2. Buy New OEM ballasts – the ballasts are shared by a lot of manufacturers, so don't society through Audi. You tin can pick up the ballasts on Amazon for well-nigh $110 a slice:

B6 Ballasts (2002-2005)

B7 Ballasts (2005.5-2008) WITHOUT AFS:

B7 Ballasts (2005.v-2008) WITH AFS: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-magneti-marelli-parts/xenon-bulb-ballast-priced-each/8p0907391~mm/

Either style, I strongly recommend new bulbs if you had a bad ballast, as that bad ballast probable caused premature article of clothing on the bulbs and they're probable to burn out soon – best to replace both while you already accept the headlights off the auto!

This is as well a great time to practice the clear corner modernistic, LED DRLs, and/or LED Urban center Lights since yous'll take the headlights off the motorcar anyway…

Motorcar Leveling Sensor

If you recently lowered your motorcar, or striking a really difficult bump to your drivers side front or rear cycle, this could be the trouble. For cars equipped with auto-levelling sensors, the sensors themselves are located in the bicycle wheels most the lower command arms and then they can adjust the headlight aiming based on the suspension load. For some people when they lower their car, the sensor is out of range as the suspension has been altered. For others, a hard crash-land to the forepart bicycle could potentially intermission the sensor or crusade it to become unplugged. To admission the sensor, take off your drivers side forepart cycle and await most the lesser of the suspension. The sensor bridges the lower control arm to the body and looks like this:

If information technology is damaged or the wires have frayed, y'all can gild a new one here: http://www.ecstuning.com/Audi-B6_S4–V8/Lighting/Headlights/Leveling/ES440960/. If you are lowered, yous may just need to bend the upper role of the bracket and then the acme of the sensor is college over again. Once you lot have inspected and either repaired or replaced the sensor, y'all will need to recalibrate it using vag-com. Follow this DIY for instructions on how to exercise that: http://www.a4mods.com/index.php?page=webcontent/pages/autolevel.html&category=6

Headlight Swivel Module

This is the issue I had after replacing the bulbs and ruling out that issue. Information technology turns out that while I was replacing my DRL bulbs, I must accept knocked the main headlight hinge out of identify, preventing the headlights from existence able to aim correctly. The swivel is VERY sensitive, so if you lot've been in blow, or were tinkering inside of your headlights as well aggressively, it's possible y'all broke a swivel arm or knocked it out of alignment. Looking closely at the headlight I could see the projector lens on my driver side was pushed forward and not aligned the same way my passenger side was, so I reached inside the headlight housing (much the aforementioned way I did when replacing the bulbs) and pulled the projector lens "back" away from the front of the housing until it clicked back into place. I then recalibrated the headlight aligning using the DIY on A4mods and cleared the codes and the problem went abroad:  http://www.a4mods.com/index.php?page=webcontent/pages/autolevel.html&category=half dozen

If you run the vag-com on your Xenons and discover error code 02769 or 02770, it is probable your projector lenses are out of alignment and yous may be able to manually push or pull them back into place. Information technology is also possible the motor inside the headlight has malfunctioned or stopped working altogether, in which case you'll need to buy an unabridged new headlight housing – like mentioned earlier, eBay is your best bet for that, and expect to pay nigh $200-300. But hopefully you may just be like me and have to massage the projector lens back into place and reset the headlight adjustment via VAG-com and the problem will go away 🙂

VAG-com adjustments (reset to mill spec)

If you change annihilation other than the bulb, you may too need to recalibrate your headlights and reset the adjustments to manufactory. To do this, follow the A4mods.com DIY mentioned earlier. For me, I fixed the projector lens being knocked out of place so recalibrated the headlight adjustments using VAG-com to set up my errors.

The last resort is to pull Fuse #10 if you lot accept adaptive or motorcar-leveling headlights – this disables the feature entirely, which should also disable the warning calorie-free. This isn't the all-time way to fix it equally your headlights might be out of alignment still, and you lot lose the adaptive features, but hey – at to the lowest degree it gets rid of that pesky alarm light and beeping 🙂

The Concluding Resort – Supersede the Whole Darn Thing

At a certain point, you may be better off replacing the unabridged headlight associates as you can commonly find consummate headlights (including ballasts and bulbs) used on eBay for a reasonable price.

This as well covers you lot in case the trouble lies elsewhere in the headlight housing, and since you're going through the trouble of removing your headlights this is probably worth the extra $100 over the toll of a anchor to non have to remove all of these parts more than in one case.

If your car is older, chances are information technology's pretty easy to find used headlight assemblies on eBay from wrecked cars that work merely fine, and they're usually pretty cheap, or yous tin pick upward a new ready on Amazon hither:

Brand certain you have the correct role number prior to ordering – the part number tin can exist found on a white sticker on meridian of your headlights which you lot tin can meet simply past opening the hood – compare this to the eBay listing to confirm you're swapping "apples to apples" with the replacement housing. The biggest thing to sentry out for is AFS vs non-AFS, equally you tin can't mix these upwardly. AFS is Audi's "curve lighting" system which has its own wiring to power this motor, and switching between them is non piece of cake to do.

To swap out the headlight housings, follow this DIY: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/234131-B7-A4-S4-Articulate-Corner-Mod-Removal-of-Bumper

Still stumped? Go out a comment, I'll practice my best to help…

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My Audi Rs3 Turn Lights Don't Go Left to Right

Posted by: pennworescred70.blogspot.com

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