Headlight Hell

[jobbys]

There's a lengthy back story of terrible Audi customer service to where I am now, but rather then bore eveyone with the details I'll cut to the chase.

I find myself in postion of having a broken O/S/F headlight (see picture below), with the main beam light sitting phytsically low it's housing. The fault was declaring itself with a beep and a warning appearing on the dashboard every time I started the engine. VCDS reports the fault as follows:

Code: Select all

1 Fault Found:
02770 - Headlight Swivel Module; Right 
            003 - Mechanical Failure - Intermittent
             Freeze Frame:
                    Fault Status: 00100011
                    Fault Priority: 2
                    Fault Frequency: 28
                    Reset counter: 39
                    Time Indication: 0

I'm told by my local dealer that the headlight is physically broken with "headlamp internals rattling around" and that a new one will cost around £700. I say the headlight warning was appearing on the dashboard, because it disappeared after being with the dealer to fix something else. It's unclear why the in-car warning has gone away when the VCDS error code is still active, I suspect something has been fiddled with to stop the dashboard warning coming, on whilst not fixing the underlying fault (am awaiting an explanation from the dealer).

Questions I have are:
1) From the photo does it look like a physical break is the right diagnosis or could it be something wrong with the self-levelling mechanism?
I don't know what the range of movement is for the levelling mechanism and so am not able to judge whether this is obviously broken just from looking at it.

2) Is there a setting in VCDS that can turn on/off the dashboard warning, and so explain why it went away after being with the dealer?
I've searched RossTech and couldn't find anything obvious.

Additionally I've been searching for help on how to level the xenons, but am wary of fiddling at the risk of screwing up the other headlight. It seems to be a mix of physical and VCDS adjustment and I haven't fully understood the details of how they interact.

Any input greatly appreciated, as I'm pretty sure it will fail it's next MOT as it currently stands, despite the beam pattern looking reasonable if a little low on one side.


Broken O/S/F Headlight:



Working N/S/F Headlight For Comparison:

[Silverfox42]

I does appear to have broken away from its housing - possibly due to some heavy handed-ness when replacing the bulb?
If the light check 'swivel up, down, out, then in' does not work, you will get the fault symbol of a light with an arrow, not sure how this might be removed using a coding, but likely to be possible.

A replacement nearside bulb unit should be available for a couple of hundred pounds.

If you have the means, and know how, I would take the unit out and check for any obvious breakages, but if you are suggesting the previous service work has caused the error/ breakage, then keep fighting your corner - these things do not break themselves, and bulbs or ballast units will probably break before something like this - unless you have driven like the dukes of hazard (!) or been in a shunt…

IMO of course!

[jonicox]

Not really answering your questions, but someone has a pair of xenons for sale in the classifieds if all else fails.

[Rick_RS4]

thats buggered, you need a new one, you can level them but the lense will rattle round inside the housing while driving.

[flylife2k]

What was the solution to this? Did you end up purchasing a complete replacement unit? I have the same but nearside (see my recent thread)

[Trups]

If you want to sell the old light as spares or repair il have them, same with you flylife.

Will help me promote the next lot of headlight mods il be offering this year for the rs4 owners.

Trups

[MikeFish]

What's in the pipeline Trups?

[Trups]

Got the clear lens mod for the Projectors, but working on getting something for the DRL side of thing, maybe something that's looks like the D3 S8 DRL's, trying to work on something that will go in there, it will only be for the cars that still have the OEM headlights that open easy, going to try make it Plug and play.

Also, LED replacement bulbs that don't give errors for the other lights.

Trups

[MikeFish]

Looking forward to seeing what you do then!