Something like this was posted back on Oct 18, and it seems the post-er wore you guys out with strange responses...- I wonder if you can re-attack a similar situation...

Here goes: I changed my battery a few months ago - when I went to re-attach the cables, there was a spark, I flinched, and then proceeded to re-attach the cables - I can't tell you for sure which cable I attached first - I think it was the POS - but whatever the case, clearly I blew something, and haven't had any luck finding it... I didn't notice until a day or so later when I was driving after dark, but my headlights wouldn't come on - to be clear, the parking lights all around the car work correctly, just not the forward white driving lights - but when I pull the brights lever back toward the steering wheel, the brights will come on, so when I need headlights, I have to drive holding my brights on. The brights won't turn on at all if I just flip the lever forward toward the dash.

so I go down the road blinding the on-coming traffic, I feel bad, but haven't found the trouble - all the bulbs test good. Btw, the dash indicator light for the fog lamps doesn't turn on since this event, too.

I bought my 96 A4 2.8 5sp this past March - the fog lamps are white and are built into the composite Halogen enclosure (no HID upgrades or anything like that)

Anyway, not that you would be enabling a dangerous driver or anything, but it sure makes it tough to drive in the dark, eating breakfast, shaving, drinking coffee, and shifting through the on-ramp curve while holding the brights on... - note that I was NOT talking on the phone... I'm not CRAZY


-It just occurred to me that this is EXACTLY the behavior to expect if one were to only turn on the parking lights - (one notch up with the lights lever instead of two) - I'm gonna bet that's the switch that got hammered... - hmmm - to note, the lights behave exactly the same in both positions... surrounding parking lights, dash, interior, etc, just no forward facing white lights (neither headlights nor fog lights)

 

headlight switch?

 

im guessing you already checked fuses?

 

sorry I didn't mention the fuses - yep - walked through just about every one of them - they are all good - but the headlight switch sure sounds like the issue - and the more I think about the timeline, I'm guessing that either there is a specific relay/fuse somewhere in-line from the battery to the headlights themselves which got hammered when I sparked the battery terminal, or the whole battery thing is a coincidence, and the switch in the steering column just died in such a way that the upper position is just the same as the middle position... any guess on the odds? I'm expecting it's a fuse/relay somewhere in a harness between the battery and the front clip... - any access to wiring diagrams out there? I'll start googling...

Thanks for bouncing ideas w/me... I usually buy a high-end repair manual on cars when I buy the car, I just haven't for the Audi ... yet

 

Hi. I had a similar problem on my Audi which I just recently bought. I had a similar situation where my low beams wouldn't turn on.. With a lot of jiggling I would sometimes get them working. Well it turned out to be the contacts on the headlight switch. After cleaning the contacts my lights are working. Good luck!

 

Seems to be a theme - my sunroof is freakin' out and one poster highly recommends cleaning contacts - I guess I'll just get some q-tips and start poppin' of beauty covers... any "best practices" you can offer regarding the headlight switch? I am assuming it's inside the steering column (not to be "captain obvious" - but maybe the actual switch you're referring to is somewhere else...) I'll also jiggle the thing tonight and see if I can get some improvement... since daylight savings, I'm driving home in the dark and I hate doing the brights-thing danka, y'all

 

if your into electronics perhaps a multi meter would be a good idea to see if power is getting to the lights then do a continuity test on the fuses then check the grounds to the lights, strange it should go when all you did was change the battery??

 

Spray the switch with RadioShack Contact Cleaner.

 

Lol my sunroof is also messing with me..
http://www.audiworld.com/tech/elec114.shtml
Follow this DIY and you should have no problem. Just make sure to the the steering wheel perfectly straight when taking it off as even being off by one tooth will mess up your steering.. Also, the 12-sided bit will be very hard to find. I just used a 6-sided one from Sears. Good luck, hopefully it will solve the problem.

 

way cool - I did the contact cleaner idea today - and learned that I have a telescoping steering wheel! lol other than that, didn't have a positive effect - so I pulled the left highbeam fuse so people will at least understand that I'm a bit crippled, and not just a dick... looking through the link, I'll give this a shot - looks dead on for my symptoms - many thanks erikas3 and all... I'll post back w/ results