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Flickering Head light

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:31 pm
by Jog
Advice required please guys. I pulled away from the office a few weeks ago and noticed the NS headlight flickering. After 20 seconds or so, it went out and the blown bulb indicator appeared on the DIS. When I got home I turned off the ignition and then switched on again and the light works normally with nothing on the DIS. It has flickered a few times since but has not gone out. Is the bulb on the way out or could it be something else??

RE: Flickering Head light

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:49 pm
by pippyrips
Sounds very much like the symptoms I had, cured by two new headlight ecu's.

I still have a sneaky feeling it was just a loose conection but Audi's approach of replacing bits one by one got it on the 3rd attempt.

When mine was playing up, turning the lights off and on again worked for a while.

RE: Flickering Head light

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 12:02 am
by bn8959
Ive had this happen on my old Mondeo. Flickering then it going out. I left it too long (until it stopped working alltogether) and I had to replace the bulb and the ballast (the device that converts 12v up to 60ish volts with a 20kv kick start needed for HID bulbs - the 'xenon' type we have) - so Im not sure whether the ballast went wrong and blew the bulb; or more likely the bulb was wearing out and it blew the ballast, presumably as it worked too hard trying to keep the bulb alight.

I suggest you see if Audi will fix it under warranty asap, otherwise start by replacing the bulb asap - very expensive from the manufacturer (£150+), I got mine from hids4u.co.uk for about £50. I think the type needed is D2S - but double check that!

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:23 pm
by Jog
Cheers guys, I shall get her looked at.