Headlight flicker

[Slammedorion]

A mate has a 2006-2007 Rs4...
He's suffering with on headlight flickering on and off... Factory fitted Xenons...?
I'm not used to factory futted stuff, but presuming he eva has a faulty bulb or ballast unit?
Is there a way to determine what's at fault?
And are replacements available from Audi only?

 

[MartayMcFly]

You can swap the bulb relatively easily, and more cheaply than changing the ballast. I have a similar intermittent flicker in my offside headlight too, sometimes it throws an error saying there's no bulb but it stays lit, sometimes it shows no error but the bulb goes out, and sometimes both. I'm about 99% sure it's the ballast, but as it only seems to come up after a jolt in the car (bumps, potholes etc) I'll live with it for now.

 

[Slammedorion]

That's what he's been doing for now but he's asked me to look into it before it dies all together...
His is drivers side too...
Do you get the bulbs/ ballasts from Audi or can they be had online?
What bulbs are used in the dipped beam?
Anyone have a part number for the ballasts?
Sorry to ask, if the car was mine it would be easier to pull apart to check...

 

[MartayMcFly]

Ballasts are probably available online, but somewhere like TPS or Stoke Audi are probably just as cheap and with added bonus of being guaranteed OEM parts. I don't have parts numbers for the ballast, nor the bulb spec though... they'll hopefully be google-able.

 

[Slammedorion]

Cheers

 

[NHN]

HID's direct will do oem bulbs, audi or tps are very expensive tbh.

It sounds like the buld filament is on its way out, but as marty has said just swap things over with the other side & see what happens, before buying anything, to make sure its not the headlight.

 

[Slammedorion]

Will do cheers

 

[TTE Si]

Stick with a branded Bulb if do replace, as are much better IMO quality. Speaking of say Osram compaired to a the china unbranded HID direct sell also.

Price difference is big but as always so is quality

 

[RS4 Cookie]

If its factory fitted Xenons there will be no filament...HID bulbs last longer than Halogen bulbs because they have no filament to burn out. The ballast creates the Arc that ignites the gas in the bulb rather than passing current through a tungsten filament. As mentioned above HID Direct will probably do a replacement bulb. I got a pair of 8000k bulbs for £32 + postage.