Hi All,
I own an '06 A4 3.2 quattro. It has adaptive Bi-Xenon headlights.
Recently it has started showing a strange behavior.
One of the head light bulbs turns off automatically while driving. Sometimes the right bulb goes down and the message comes on screen. Sometimes the left bulb goes down and message comes on screen.
I have found a workaround to this problem. Whenever the message comes I turn the headlights off by turning the headlight **** in "off" position, leave it for a couple of seconds, & turn it back to "auto" position. & both the bulbs light again.

i don't think this is a bulb problem. Could it be an electrical circuit issue?
Can one of you gurus help me out here please?
I have also discussed it with the Dealership but they have no clue.

 

sounds like a bum switch....its hard because u said a message came on.....what did the message say? i know a few people have been having lighting issues that focus around the light fixture moving when you turn your steering wheel, the issue is that the gears won't turn the lights and it reads an error

i would bring it in and ask them to look at it.....replace the bulbs first, then check out the electrical i only say this because if your still under warranty its a good way to get a free set of bi-xenons....they aren;t cheap

 

dmfan016,
Thanks for the reply. The message says "left headlight dipped" when the left headlight goes off. It says "right headlight dipped" when the right headlight goes off.
My headlights turn really well. No issues there. It's about the flickering of headlights alternatively.
The car is still under warranty. But as far as I know Xenons are not covered under warranty. They are considered as wear and tear.( as the Audi dealer told me). Are they covered under warranty?

 

Sounds like a faulty control module. I am hearing a lot of complaints on these..my car also would flash the lights on and off while the car was shut off and I was outside the vehicle. One day it actually caused the mechanism to slam the bulb down and break the bulb. It wouldn't surprise me if they open a recall or TSB on these eventually. Module costs about $900, but I haven't had issues since.

 

I had the same issue... first with left... now with right (going in tomorrow). The left front headlight issue was fixed under warranty... "ELE malfunction in gas discharge starter" was the reason given by Audi service

 

I had the same problem on my 06 S4, I was lucky though. I replaced both HID light bulb and it fixed the problem. The bigger problem could be the module which costs around $900 each.

 

i had the same problem a week ago at 22k miles (right dipped headlight, could be temporarily fixed by off/on). the dealer fixed it under warranty. this was on the invoice:

22677 FAILURE OF XENON BULB IN RIGHT HEADLAMP ... VERIFIED CUSTOMERS CONCERN OF INTERMITTENT OPERATION. FOUND RIGHT HEADLIGHT BULB TO BE NON-OPERATIONAL AT TIME OF INSPECTION. AS PER TSB 2013829/6, COMPLETED DIAGNOSTIC TESTING INCLUDING REMOVAL OF NECESSARY COMPONENTS TO ACCESS HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLIES. SWAPPED BULB' WITH LEFT SIDE AND FOUND BULB STILL NOT ILLUMINATED. AS PER TSB, REPLACED BULB AND VERIFIED OPERATION. REINSTALLED BULB AND REMOVED COMPONENTS AND RE-AIMED HEADLIGHT AS PER MANF SPEC.

 

Well,
The good news is mine were fixed under warranty. Audi dealer said they are hearing complains like this and AUDI has a tech bulletin for it. For me they changed the right xenon-bulb and replaced the whole headlight assembly on left side, because it had some other problems too.
As per the dealer "The bulletin says for flickering headlights first procedure is to replace bulbs, then if this doesn't fix the problem.. replace the control module/ballast".

Haven't had this problem for 3-4 weeks now. I think it might happen again in right headlight.. as they replaced only the bulb on that side.

So If any of you still having issue take it to AUDI dealership. If the dealer doesn't understand your problems(since this problem is hard to reproduce in front of dealer) better carry a print out of this thread and other threads around on internet.
Best of luck.
Will keep you updated about my headlight status.

 

o..o..
This thing in not gonna go away.
It started happening again & guess what on the left side headlight(This side was completely new from AUDI, It had new control module, new bulb in fact the whole assembly was new. ).
I had the problem twice in 2 days... At night time..
I'm so scared now. This might cause an accident.
same thing.. the headlights flickered.. & left headlight went out. Got a message on screen " left headlight dipped". Right side was still on..
I had to manually turn the lights off and turn on again. After that both the lights were working.
I'm out of guesses now. Where ever I have read, everybody mentions about ballast/control module. Then Why did it happen in new headlight assembly?
Somebody got a clue?
I don't know what is wrong.. The car is at the dealership again.

 

new stuff can break if it isnt engineered properly to begin with. maybe the whole assembly just really sensitive. knock on wood, but mine has worked fine since they repaired one.