THANK YOU for this. I have no idea how much you saved me, but I'm sure it was a lot! The VW Dealer gave the fuse to me at no cost.

Just for future searchers, my symptoms happened two weeks ago in my 2009 Audi A3. Bulb warning light came on and the front passenger (right) headlights - high and low - and corresponding fog light were out. Parking lights were fine. At the same time the rear left (drivers side) tail light was out (brake light was fine). I was pretty stressed about it because of how difficult electrical problems can be. I did some searching on my phone, but then it started working again so I gave up. It happened to me again on my way to work today so when I got to my desk I searched again and found this thread. I checked fuse F16 in the engine compartment and sure enough it was black and melted. I replaced it with the VW part number mentioned and the lights are working currently! Hopefully the fuse box is not melted enough and this will be along term solution. If it happens again I'll replace the box.

Thanks again!

 

I had the same issue today , all lights have erors in the dashboard in my A3 2012 !! What should i do ??

 

2004 Audi A3 2.0 TDI BKD can anybody please assist all right hand side lights are dead all fuses and wiring aswell as globes has been checked and replaced nothing broken or lose any suggestions please. Thank you Manie

 

II have a 2012 A3 2.0. The passenger Headlights, blinker and fog lamps went off at the same time. I checked the fuses as instructed by so many in this thread but everything was good. As a last resort I pulled the terminals off the battery and cleaned them up and reinstalled them and BINGO, that seems to have done the trick. I still have a sinking feeling that something strange is going on electrically. But at least it's fixed for now.

 

Pretty sure that you "fixed" a bad ground connection on the circuit(s) you were working on. Just for giggles, trace the ground connection for that headlight "unit" back to where it is bolted onto the body, and make sure there's nothing wrong with the connection or cable.

 

Thank you for your reply, that makes total sense I will check that out especially in light of the fact that this has been going on for about 6 months and has gotten progressively worse. It all started with my fuel gauge not working. I tried resetting fuses, replaced the relay and ultimately pulled the pump but even the new pump had the same problem. Then my brake pad warning light came on but my brakes pads were just replaced, so, I pulled the wheels off and inspected the front driver pad where the sensor is, everything looked good. Then, I started getting all of these light warnings, rear, front, blinker, headlights, fog lights but everything was still working. Then the headlight, blinker and fog light on the passenger side went out and that's what led me to pull the battery to reset it. However, the fuel gauge still doesn't work and brake pad warning lights are still on. I should also mention that from time to time the fuel gauge will come back on and operate for a while and then go off again. I can't afford to bring it to a dealer, god only knows how much they would charge to diagnose and fix this. So I've been trying to narrow it down on my own by process of elimination. My suspicion is that I have an intermittent ground problem probably somewhere more universal than just the passenger headlights, blinker and fog lamps. But I'll check that out too. Any insight you can provide would be appreciated.

 

I visually inspected the connections to the headlights on the passenger front and there's no obvious ground (local to the headlights) that I could see which tells me that the ground is probably central? I looked at the main ground to the battery and to the fuse panel and both look good and are not corroded.

 

I really can't say where the ground for the headlights (and associated other lights) is at, but if you can get the lights into the failed state, you might be able to diagnose the problem by just pulling / wiggling / tugging on wiring harnesses - if it's a typical flaky connection, it's likely to cause the lights to go on and off as you move the "guilty cable / connector / ground".