Hi,

Tonight, on my drive home (96 a4 2.8L 12v)from work my lights seemed to be working fine. About an hour later I went to leave and I have no headlights... no lows, brights, or foglights. The parking lights are the only things on. It is similar to when you have just turned the car off and the headlights go out and parking lights stay on. Main difference is that I can not manually flash the brights either.

Anyone have any ideas which part might be responsible for all headlight function? I checked fuses, all look fine. Did the ol' key and stalk wiggle, no luck.

I'll sift through the forums and see what turns up as well...

Thanks in advance,
Brian

 

Ok, I think i've pretty much narrowed it down to being the headlight switch from what I'm reading. I was mistaken above, my brights DO work when I pull toward me. Seems to fit some of the same symptoms others have had.

Now, as far as fixing it, does anyone know if it can be cleaned/fixed myself, or is this a new $150 part/take apart the column type fix?

If it is the latter, does anyone know a good fair shop around naperville/aurora IL area that would be able to install it rather than paying the stealership?

Thanks if you can answer either question,
Brian

 

It should be able to be cleaned and put back in, if not you can order a new stalk from ecs tuning for $130, and installation is very simple. There is a tech article on audiworld that gives step by step instructions for the cleaning and just removing a couple more screws will allow you to replace the whole thing yourself. Installing a new one will take much less than one hour. If you are mechanically inclined DON'T PAY THE STEALERSHIP!!!! Let me know if you need help with this, I'll give you any info I can to help out.

 

Thanks for the input.

I have seenthis article on audiworld: http://www.audiworld.com/tech/elec114.shtmldescribing a procedure, but it completely glosses over how he got the airbag out, etc. I've never taken the steering wheel off before, so it isn't completely trivial to me...

Also, some bolts are supposed to be replaced when removed, right? Is the steering column bolt one of these? Since this is my only vehicle, I kind of need to know all the steps and parts/tools needed for the job up front, since running to the store is less convenient in the middle of a job.

If you can help fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge here it would be great.
Thanks,
Brian

 

You can try some electrical contact cleaner from Radio Shack and see if that works.

 

Just spray it down where the stalk is or what? Don't want to kill anything of course

I've got contact cleaner if I know where I should spray it...

 

i had this same thing happen to me this summer its the ignition switch thats the problem. i got it down to the steering wheel but didn't have the huge torx bit needed to remove the steering wheel plus yo'ure supposed to replace that bolt/screw every time you remove/replace the steering wheel. past that i have no experience because of my limited abilities but it wasn't that costly to get done ever at the stealerships as they call them here. do you notice other electronics not working such as windshield wipers and radio?

 

Wipers and radio work fine.