I searched and read thru 3+ pages of A4 owners wanting to upgrade with HID kits but nothing for an A6 DIY. Bottom line, I can find Osram or Sylvania Xenon D2S bulbs for $80/pair online versus $160/pair from my shop. Does anyone have the DIY for bulb replacement?? I'm semi-mechanical but not a contortionist.

 

Are you trying to upgrade to HIDs or trying to replace stock HID bulbs?

FWIW...I'm currently experimenting with a pair of super-cheap, Chinese-made D2S bulbs I purchased from Ebay. I've only been using them for 4 months, but they seem to illuminate just as well as the name brand bulbs. They do take a bit longer to warm-up and I have to allow the ballast to "pre-warm" them for ~20sec on bitter cold mornings. But @ only $12/pr...I'm not gonna complain.

UberTeile

 

Replacing oem Xenons with fresh bulbs since one of them is starting to yellow. I plan on a decent Sylvania or Osram pair. Still looking for a helpful DIY or tip sheet on how to access, extract, and replace both bulbs.

 

Just pop off the back covers (two metal bars 'clamp' the back housing on), twist the bright red high voltage wire whichever way it will go to unhook it from the bulb, twist the black plastic (PLASTIC) holder counter clock-wise (it's CCW looking from the rear of the car towards the front; this was pretty stuck for me, but it eventually turned using just my fingers - you can't really get much else in there), pull the bulb out, replace, follow steps backwards. It was a pain in the butt to line up the bulb and plastic holder while replacing the bulb, but once you figure it out it's not too hard. The black plastic retainer ring as well as the bulb itself need to be oriented specifically, but the bulb lines up with the notches and the plastic retainer says 'top' on it.

Bearing in mind that this was on my '99, but i think they're similar enough to still be the same procedure. To make things easier remove the whole air intake assembly on the passenger side so that you can see what you're doing and then apply what you learn to the driver's side. I just did this like two weeks ago, bought the Sylvania bulbs off amazon. They're going to be exactly the same ones you get from the shop (like, exactly) so don't waste your money.

 

First, appreciate the help/advice. I printed and saved it. Even though I found Sylvania bulbs for a little over $42 each, I elected to let my indie shop supply them (we negotiated them down to his cost, $60/ea, and he installed them both for .5 hour labor. At the same time he was doing the timing belt, so he already had the front end apart. I saved the "good" (non-yellow) bulb as a spare. Case closed.