Dennis Ruffing

Hi,

My headlights are out, need urgent thoughts if anyone is reading tonight.

Situation:

I can hold stalk in flash position and get high beams.

Low beams, high beams, fog lights, headlight sprayers, and dash lights (except instrument cluster) all out.

Message center not indicating any light bulbs out. I have access to the fuse boxes and all fuses look okay.

Any suggestions? I'll post more info as I think of it. I might just end up spending the night in the fairfield inn I'm conveniently sitting in the lobby of with my laptop unless somebody has a brilliant idea to get me home (another 30 miles)!

Dennis

ex-a8drifter

its not a fix for your car...which I've got no clue about your particular problem...but it will save you a 100 bucks!

Dennis Ruffing

And a great rate too. Kudos to Marriott for being super-friendly.

Still open to troubleshooting suggestions. Fortunately, I do have an appointment with a shop on Monday anyway. Maybe the car's trying to tell me something?



Thanks,

Dennis

PaulW

Turn it back 1/8 turn and all the other loads will energize when the load reduction relay gets power.....<ul><li><a href="http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/electrical_equipment/ignswitchreplace.html">Read the second paragraph</a></li></ul>

theraudi1

it ended up being the headlight switch unit. It's attached to the cruse control switch. See Paul's audipages under cruse control replacement. Also, be very careful in ordering the part as there was a split in '98. Have the dealer use vin to order part!

Good luck.

rAudiA8

<center><img src="http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/electrical_equipment/ignition5.JPG"></center><p>If your savvy enough to do the work yourself, disconnect the negative battery cable and remove the airbag and steering wheel. my problem stemmed from the contacts inside the guts of my headlight switch (not the ignition switch). You'll need a T6 Torx screwdriver to access the panel. It's the sheetmetal cover on the left side of the steering column. It's kind of square with two triangular points on the top right and bottom right. Remove the four (4) Torx screws to remove the panel. Once removed, be very careful when removing the working parts of the headlight switch. Start by removing the actual headlight lever. It is not attached by anything so you can just take it right off. There are two springs that you need to look out for. Be very careful that they don't shoot off. They are very small. There are two contacts that you need to check for. One at the top and one at the bottom. My trouble stemmed from the contact at the bottom. It is white plastic and literally looks like one of those square-type mail carrier trucks. (sorry i did not have a camera to help out with visuals). Anyway, the contacts within this piece of plastic are also spring loaded and it seems that some heat got to it and deformed one corner of the plastic preventing one of the contacts from making ground when the headlight lever was lifted into the "on" position. I basically "MacGuyver'd" the piece so that the contacts were free flowing again and put it back together. From this point you want to re-connect your negative battery cable to test the lights. Mine worked!

So before you buy the $40-$50 Ignition Switch, check the guts of your headlight switch for bad contacts if your lights stop working...

brittcrowell

I didnt notice it with the headlights first.
I noticed that my turning signals didnt work.
Then I noticed that my radio controls didnt work on the steering wheel.
Then later I noticed that my main head lights wouldnt come on when all the other was messed up.
Its now on the list of things to fix.
But an easy check of the key after start up is good for now.

Britt