Clear Headlight Replacement Lens for 2002 Audi Tt

Do you accept an fault light on your dashboard that looks like above with a xanthous bulb pointing downwards?

That is known equally a "dipped headlight" and this post is written to assistance yous troubleshoot and fix it.

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

Their remedy is typically to propose replacing the bulbs and ballasts at full retail price, costing you lot several yard dollars for a job that is something y'all could fix yourself for a tenth of the price.

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 information technology misguided. Merely piecing together the consistent recommendations equally well equally a little educated guessing and fact checking, I've figured out a good approach for anyone who gets this problem in their 2002-2008 Audi A4, S4 or RS4 and wants to endeavour to ready information technology 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 variety of Audis.

Unfortunately, the dipped headlight warning appears to be a super common upshot, and can also point to any number of issues with your headlights.

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

Beginning of all, what does "Dipped Headlight" even hateful?

Simply put, "Dipped Headlight" is Audi-speak for "there is something wrong with your depression beam headlight" and can hateful a number of things.

This is part of why it is so difficult to troubleshoot and fix on your own, equally the error doesn't give you much information virtually what the trouble is.

If yous accept a VAG-COM cable, or know someone who does, the cable can read your car'south computer and tell you lot the exact error code which volition help tremendously. For some people this error message only comes on intermittently, such as when they're driving slow, when the car first starts up, or in cold weather – for others, information technology comes on every time.

Y'all tin can also pickup a cheaper OBD2 scanner on Amazon which can read codes and at least requite y'all a specific error code and message to troubleshoot, like this i for $23.

Regardless this fault light is a catch-all warning and therefore not very helpful – which is why this issue is so frustrating to have.

Typically in that location 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 error and likely harming your bulbs besides
• Bad wiring in the headlight or xenon motor – the wiring and modules within the headlight is somehow damaged
• Bad ride height sensor or scale – if the motorcar can't sense the right height level of the car, this will trigger an fault

What to Check First

There are several things that most commonly crusade this mistake later reading dozens of owners messages on Audizine, Fourtitude, Audiforums and other message boards. I've listed them beneath in the order of how'd I'd recommend checking and testing the problem.

It seems the most common effect is that a ballast has gone bad…the bad anchor then causes harm to the headlight bulb, requiring you to change the seedling also. If you just change one or the other, you lot do run the risk that yous'll have to replace it once more due to impairment that occurred.

If yous are getting this upshot only on one side, i.e. Dipped Headlight Left or Dipped Headlight Right, and then this is a big inkling for troubleshooting.

To isolate if it 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 fault on your dash changes from "Dipped Headlight Left" to "Dipped Headlight Correct" (or vice versa) then you know that the consequence lies in either the bulb or ballasts.

If this is the case, you lot should guild one new seedling and one new anchor (using the links in this post) and supplant the bad side and you should be good.

I strongly recommend changing both bulbs and ballasts – even if only the ballasts were faulty, the bulbs probable suffered damage from the bad ballasts and will need replaced before long, and replacing bulbs requires the bumper to come off and so its best to practise this all at once. It also eliminates all possible sources of the dipped headlight error, as this can be a catchy problem to resolve and information technology'due south better to exist ambitious on the treatment of it.

If the problem isn't isolated to one side or another, and the above trick didn't work, then yous'll need to troubleshoot the trouble one by i in the order listed below:

Headlight Bulbs

Typically the best place to start is new headlight bulbs, every bit they are frequently the culprit and 1 of the cheapest and easiest things to fix – even if new headlight bulbs don't prepare the trouble, yous'll eventually need to replace them anyway, so consider information technology preventative maintenance.

If you get the "headlight bulb out" message, see your headlights "flicker" on/off occasionally, or notice that your dipped headlight error merely comes on in cold conditions or at first first up, it's probable 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://www.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, so if you've had a bad ballast for a while so yous'll demand new bulbs too. Rumor has it some ballasts have been recalled by Audi, in which case you can cheque with your dealer to run across if your automobile qualifies for the recall, in which instance the service and replacement should be gratuitous – problem solved! However, if yous're not covered past recall and your ballasts are indeed bad, then you take a few options:

1. Take 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 once again. He merely charges $170 per pair for this and can turn it around in about a day then overnight ship it back, so you're downtime is minimal. I've worked with Phil before and he knows the B7 Audi headlights better than pretty much anyone out there, and he'south an airplane mechanic so it's a professional job.
2. Purchase New OEM ballasts – the ballasts are shared past a lot of manufacturers, so don't order through Audi. You tin can selection upwardly the ballasts on Amazon for virtually $110 a slice:

B6 Ballasts (2002-2005)

B7 Ballasts (2005.5-2008) WITHOUT AFS:

B7 Ballasts (2005.5-2008) WITH AFS: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-magneti-marelli-parts/xenon-bulb-ballast-priced-each/8p0907391~mm/

Either way, I strongly recommend new bulbs if you had a bad ballast, as that bad ballast likely caused premature wear on the bulbs and they're likely to burn out presently – all-time to replace both while you already take the headlights off the car!

This is also a great time to do the clear corner mod, LED DRLs, and/or LED Urban center Lights since y'all'll have the headlights off the car anyway…

Auto Leveling Sensor

If y'all recently lowered your car, or striking a actually hard bump to your drivers side front or rear bike, this could be the problem. For cars equipped with machine-levelling sensors, the sensors themselves are located in the bicycle wheels well-nigh the lower control arms so they tin can adjust the headlight aiming based on the suspension load. For some people when they lower their automobile, the sensor is out of range as the suspension has been altered. For others, a difficult bump to the front end wheel could potentially break the sensor or cause information technology to become unplugged. To access the sensor, take off your drivers side front wheel and wait nigh the bottom of the suspension. The sensor bridges the lower control arm to the trunk and looks like this:

If it is damaged or the wires have frayed, yous can order a new ane hither: http://www.ecstuning.com/Audi-B6_S4–V8/Lighting/Headlights/Leveling/ES440960/. If you are lowered, yous may just need to curve the upper part of the subclass so the elevation of the sensor is college again. In one case you have inspected and either repaired or replaced the sensor, you lot volition need to recalibrate it using vag-com. Follow this DIY for instructions on how to do that: http://www.a4mods.com/index.php?page=webcontent/pages/autolevel.html&category=6

Headlight Swivel Module

This is the issue I had afterward replacing the bulbs and ruling out that event. It turns out that while I was replacing my DRL bulbs, I must have knocked the master headlight swivel out of place, preventing the headlights from beingness able to aim correctly. The hinge is VERY sensitive, and so if you've been in accident, or were tinkering inside of your headlights too aggressively, it's possible y'all bankrupt a hinge arm or knocked it out of alignment. Looking closely at the headlight I could see the projector lens on my driver side was pushed forwards and not aligned the same fashion my passenger side was, and then I reached inside the headlight housing (much the same way I did when replacing the bulbs) and pulled the projector lens "dorsum" away from the front of the housing until it clicked back into identify. I then recalibrated the headlight adjustment using the DIY on A4mods and cleared the codes and the trouble went away:  http://www.a4mods.com/index.php?page=webcontent/pages/autolevel.html&category=half-dozen

If you run the vag-com on your Xenons and notice fault code 02769 or 02770, it is probable your projector lenses are out of alignment and you 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 birthday, in which case you'll need to buy an entire new headlight housing – similar mentioned earlier, eBay is your all-time bet for that, and expect to pay about $200-300. But hopefully you may simply be like me and have to massage the projector lens back into identify and reset the headlight aligning via VAG-com and the problem will go away 🙂

VAG-com adjustments (reset to manufacturing plant spec)

If yous alter anything other than the bulb, you may besides need to recalibrate your headlights and reset the adjustments to factory. To exercise this, follow the A4mods.com DIY mentioned earlier. For me, I stock-still the projector lens beingness knocked out of place and then recalibrated the headlight adjustments using VAG-com to prepare my errors.

The terminal resort is to pull Fuse #x if you have adaptive or auto-leveling headlights – this disables the feature entirely, which should also disable the warning light. This isn't the all-time mode to prepare it as your headlights might be out of alignment nevertheless, and y'all lose the adaptive features, but hey – at to the lowest degree it gets rid of that pesky warning light and beeping 🙂

The Last Resort – Replace the Whole Darn Thing

At a sure point, y'all may be better off replacing the entire headlight associates as you lot tin can usually find consummate headlights (including ballasts and bulbs) used on eBay for a reasonable toll.

This also covers yous in case the problem lies elsewhere in the headlight housing, and since you lot're going through the trouble of removing your headlights this is probably worth the extra $100 over the cost of a ballast to not have to remove all of these parts more than than once.

If your car is older, chances are it's pretty piece of cake to find used headlight assemblies on eBay from wrecked cars that work just fine, and they're usually pretty cheap, or you lot can pick upwardly a new prepare on Amazon here:

Make certain y'all have the right part number prior to ordering – the part number tin exist found on a white sticker on top of your headlights which you can encounter simply by opening the hood – compare this to the eBay listing to confirm y'all're swapping "apples to apples" with the replacement housing. The biggest affair to watch out for is AFS vs not-AFS, equally you tin can't mix these up. AFS is Audi'due south "curve lighting" organization which has its own wiring to ability this motor, and switching betwixt them is non easy to do.

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

Withal stumped? Get out a comment, I'll do my best to help…

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Clear Headlight Replacement Lens for 2002 Audi Tt

Posted by: figueroasilleal.blogspot.com

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