S4 Xenon light problem

JamieOS

JamieOS

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I bought a set of Xenons from an S4 that a lad I know was breaking, for my A4 and I seem to get occasional issues with the lights on the left side. Sometimes the park light and/or the dipped headlight warning comes up on the DIS and they wont light up. If I take out the keys come back in a few minutes or so, everything is fine again. Just from searching online, I see a lot of people mention the ballast as being the problem for this and similar problems and thats its fairly common. I just wanted to make sure before ordering a set. Audi want an arm and a leg for a set, but apparently they can be bought for a lot less from other manufacturers (same model number). Ebay sellers seem to have them for about £55 a pop, so that seems fairly reasonable. I'm going to pop out both lights just to make sure they both have the same ballasts and that they are the right model.

One other funny thing is that that the rear left light seems to go also, but often when driving. I'm not sure if its just coincidence or not, but I guess I'll see. A wire might just be loose or something because a garage was messing around in the left side of the boot when installing an RNS-E for me. Nothing has happened to any of the lights on the right side of the car, but I may as well get a spare ballast. I've read of one guy replacing one only to have the other go immediately.

So has anyone had any of these or similar issues? Did replacing the ballast go the trick? I'd like to get them ordered asap because I really don't want to go back to the standard headlights anymore! My dipped headlights were a bit weaker than the Xenons and always have been.
 
1st question, did you wire them in 100% as factory & 2nd is your ce module compatible & coded for xenons?

Side lights aren't controlled via ballast, its for xenon only, however, if the above isn't adhered to, on some cars it affects other bulb locations.

RNS wiring in boot could be due to the tmc etc wiring if it had a previous nav system in place, who knows what they did.
 
i fitted a set of xenons in my friends a4 b6 and didnt have to re code nothing just hah the change the leveling motor. and it very much plug and play.
 
The lad I bought them from just dropped them in. They were pretty much spot on level, so I haven't bothered to change the motors or anything

The RNS-E wiring in the boot was just bridging the aerial on the TMC module and bridging a few pins on its 12-pin plug. I gave the garage worker the instructions in what to do.

The only bulbs being affected are the left parking light and dipped headlight, both inside the headlights itself, and the odd one being the left rear light, but again, that might be coincidence. I might just order the ballasts and see how I get on. I should be able to return them if it doesn't do the trick (hopefully).
 
just try the ballast from the other headlight if you feel that's what the trouble is that will tell you, I had a similar issue with my o/s one not coming on all the time, I thought that was a ballast problem so I tried another one from my spare set of S4 lamps but sill did the same, lucky for me it was a wire in the main plug had come loose.
 
Mine will work most of the time. It's intermittent and I can't seem to replicate it. I'll swap them and see what happens. I had to border the ballasts regardless. There were 4 left the other day and only 2 today, so I didn't want to miss the chance since my next option was going to cost the same as buying 3 ballasts. I've got 14 days to request a refund, so if it turns out to be something else, I can return them.
 
JamieOS said:
The lad I bought them from just dropped them in. They were pretty much spot on level, so I haven't bothered to change the motors or anything

The RNS-E wiring in the boot was just bridging the aerial on the TMC module and bridging a few pins on its 12-pin plug. I gave the garage worker the instructions in what to do.

The only bulbs being affected are the left parking light and dipped headlight, both inside the headlights itself, and the odd one being the left rear light, but again, that might be coincidence. I might just order the ballasts and see how I get on. I should be able to return them if it doesn't do the trick (hopefully).
Click to expand...

hi mate. hope you get this sorted. my b6 didnt have any control modules in my boot. have you treid refitting your old halogen ones to see if this problem still exists, just a though.
 
I might try it, but my cousin and I took out the left headlight and as we were gently pulling it out, the plug just sort of fell out, so that might be the problem. Typical me, didn't even think about checking that first. We took out the ballast just to make sure I ordered the right ones. Then we had a look at the bulb in the left taillight and it was turning a little bit black, so that was replaced along with the right side to for good measure, since we had a spare bulb anyway. Then all of a sudden the left reversing bulb warning light came on. We left it for 5 minutes or so, put the key back in the car and nothing wrong... a bit strange. I also forgot to mention we checked the wires of the left taillight. We didn't bother swapping the ballasts until I make sure that it wasn't just the loose plug, so I'll chug along as see how that goes. I've still got 14 days to get a refund on the new ballasts, so hopefully I'll know well before then.

The old headlights were working fine for years. I've never had this happen with them. Its only showed up a few weeks after getting the Xenons. Taillight issues and all. If all else fails, I'll refit them and see what happens.
 
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No problems today. I went out and put the key in a few times and got no errors. More time will tell though. Fingers crossed I'll be sending those ballasts back.
 
No problems yet. Things are looking good, but I really need to be sure, so I'll keep an eye on it over the next few days. Hopefully I'll be snedning those ballasts back and wont be needing them again.

Another question I have is if the parking bulbs are the same as the regular A4s. I haven't taken them out to examine yet, but I'd assume they are. The ones in the lamp are rather yellow, and I've got a white set in my old headlights so i might just swap them over. Just thought I'd double check.
 
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At the very worst you may have to change the bulb holders, my original halogen headlamps had different side light bulb holders to the S4 headlamps I fitted.
 
S4 Xenon bulbs

PY21W - Indicator
D1S - Dipped beam
H6W - Sidelights
H7 - Main beam
 
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Thanks. The ones in my old headlights look to be W5W I think. They are similar to these, so they wont work. I guess I'll just have to buy a new set. Hopefully they don't spit back any errors to be. I had a lovely set of white fog light bulbs, but they give an error. They were pretty cheap though.

s-l225.jpg
 
FYI I had a flickering front light (xenon) and replaced both bulbs. £55 for the pair from TPS (Quantum branded). Had thought it was the ballast but seem to have got away with the bulbs just.

bought some "super white" sidelight bulbs to match but pure yellow lol. I was getting an intermittent error on the parking lights (side lights) hence the change.
 
Any chance of putting the part number for the bulbs up, I've just ordered a new condenser from TPS and enquired about new headlight bulbs without much luck, but then I think I was talking to the cleaner!!!
He kept telling me they were halogen bulbs!!
 
While the thread is still here, does anyone know if its ok to drill holes in the back of the S4 headlights to help with condensation? Would it damage the xenon bulbs in any way? I had them on the covers on the back of my old headlights (could just swap them over). Its probably not something I should be worried about, but I may as well ask in case I'm about to do something stupid, which is likely considering its me.
 
I have drilled the back covers on my S4 xenons without any problems and no condensation issues, granted only been done a couple of weeks but with the monsoons we have had just lately I'd like to think that was a good test for them.
 
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Mine are really filled up today. Normally theres just a little bit of condensation near the bottom of the lens, but its brutal with the weather the last few days. My old headlights rarely ever had issues with it. I suppose swapping the back covers over wont do any harm.
 
Also remember your old halogen bulbs would have given off a lot more heat so that would have dried any condensation quicker.
 
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