Car- 1998.5 A4 2.8 quattro

Ok so i drive to my friends house to hang out tonight. I get there and shut my lights off. Few hours later i go out to my car, get in and start it up. Go to turn the lights on and only the turn signal lights are on. Switch is all the way up. So i figure must be bad bulbs. So i replace them. Still no lights, so i replace the fuses. Still nothing. The only way i can get lights on is to pull the highbeam leaver to me. If i push it to keep the highs on they dont work.

Can anyone help me out? Thanks in advance!

 

Sounds like wiring/electronic bugs to me considering your highbeams work...doubt its the bulbs.

 

This happened to me before when I was changing the battery on a passat, I used a backup 12v source. The windows wouldn't work either. All I did was disconnect the negative and let the car sit for five minutes. Connected the negative and everything was fine.

 

Hey Man,
The same thing happened to me last monthon my 98.5 A4 1.8t It is a fixable problem if you have
the tools and time. It should take about 2 hrs. I found this great play by play on another AF
thread. This worked for me and saveD about $300 IN PARTS AND LABOR!!

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/elec114.shtml

A couple of pointers>>>

Once you have the metal plate off and all of the sliders and parts are showing
take a picture w a digital camera so you know to put it back together correctly.

The reason the lights stop working is because the spring loaded contact stops
making contact b/c the plastic melts around it immobilizing it. I used a razor blade to
skim the plastic to get the spring loaded mechanism moving again. It depends how
badly it is melted also.

Just so you know after I disconnected the battery my idle was a little off b/c
the disconnected battery resets something in the ECU on the throttle body causing
a jumpy idle. You may not experience this but I did. It corrected itself after a day or so.
I believe it was from carbon deposits on the butterfly inside thej throttle body.

Good luck man. I hope this helps

Jrox1.8t

 

Hello. Another '98 with the same problem. It is definitely the headlight switch. Cleaning it may fix your problem but it didn't for me since the spring loaded contact is broken on mines. When you do the DIY, make sure that you line up the steering wheel! Good luck.

 

lol i just finished this process andi cleaned all the metal contacts with e q-tip. and everything looked clean. I put everything back and still nothing
But i didnt do the last step with the sanding of the plastic and taking the metal contacts out.

Could this be the reason for the lights still not working? Im kinda confused on what and where to sand... can someone help me with this step? Thanks in advance

 

check fuses #20 and #21 they are the low beams

 

nope just did the fuses... thanks tho. Do you think that me not sanding the part is the problem?

 

that's difficult to answer from here but I would check for bad grounds and see if power is getting to the dipped beams using a multimeter and also look at the bulbs to see if they are blown if you haven't already done so