How to Fix Dipped Headlight Error on an Audi

By Nick Roshon / 13 July 2013 / 31 comments

Audi Dipped Headlight Warning

I’ve read about this issue happening to others, and it finally happened to me too – the dreaded
“Dipped Headlight” error. After reading all of my favorite Audi forums, I found a host of
information, some of it helpful, some of it conflicting, and some if it misguided. But piecing
together the consistent recommendations as well as a little educated guessing and fact
checking, I’ve figured out a good approach for anyone who gets this problem in their 2002-2008
Audi A4, S4 or RS4 and wants to try to fix it themselves. The steps listed here will probably also
work for other Audis as well, although may differ somewhat.

What does “Dipped Headlight” even mean?

Simply put, “Dipped Headlight” is Audi-speak for “there is something wrong with your low
beam headlight” and can mean a number of things. This is part of why it is so difficult to
troubleshoot and fix on your own, as the error doesn’t give you much information about what
the problem is. If you have a VAG-COM cable, or know someone who does, the cable can read
your car’s computer and tell you the exact error code which will help tremendously. For some
people this error message only comes on intermittently, such as when they’re driving slow,
when the car first starts up, or in cold weather – for others, it comes on every time.

What to Check First

There are several things that most commonly cause this error after reading dozens of owners
messages on Audizine, Fourtitude, Audiforums and other message boards. I’ve listed them
below in the order of how’d I’d recommend checking and testing the problem. The simplest
thing to do is to replace the headlight bulbs, followed by your headlight sensor in your front
wheel well if you have adaptive/auto-leveling xenon headlights. The bulbs are cheap to replace
so it’s a good place to start, and if you have symptoms of a bad sensor you can check the
connection and make sure it was bent out of place and fix those problems pretty quickly. The
other cheap/easy thing to try at first is recalibrating the headlights using VAG-com, which
requires access to a VAG-com cable but is otherwise pretty easy to do. Using a VAG-com cable
will also help you pull the exact error code which should also help you narrow it down to an
issue with the bulbs, ballasts, sensors or headlight alignment problems. Issues with the ballasts
or internal motor of the headlight are much trickier, and sadly you’ll probably need/want to
replace the entire headlight assembly. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but with any luck
you can pickup a new headlight and replace it at far less the cost of having the dealer or an
independent shop fix it for you…
Headlight Bulbs

Typically the best place to start is new headlight bulbs, as they are often the culprit and one of
the cheapest and easiest things to fix – even if new headlight bulbs don’t fix the problem, you’ll
eventually need to replace them anyway, so consider it preventative maintenance. If you get
the “headlight bulb out” message, see your headlights “flicker” on/off occasionally, or notice
that your dipped headlight error only comes on in cold weather or at first start up, it’s likely
your headlight bulbs may be on their way out. The good news is that you can replace the bulbs
without many special tools and while leaving your front bumper on. Check out this DIY on how
to replace the bulbs:

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/391054-HID-headlight-bulbs-replacement-
without-removing-the-front-bumper

The cheapest place to buy OEM bulbs I’ve found is Amazon. The OEM bulbs are made by
OSRAM but these Slyvania bulbs are just rebranded OSRAM bulbs. The dealer charges between
$150-200 PER bulb but Amazon has the same ones for $50-60. If you want to get aftermarket
bulbs to have a different color (some like bluer hues, like 6000k bulbs), you want a D1S bulb
and avoid anything too cheap as they will burn out quickly.

If you have halogen bulbs on your 2002-2008 Audi, you’ll want an H7 bulb instead, such as
these made by Philips:

Ballasts

The ballasts are also known to occasionally fail, which can cause this issue. Rumor has it some
ballasts have been recalled by Audi, in which case you can check with your dealer to see if your
car qualifies for the recall, in which case the service and replacement should be free – problem
solved!

However, if you’re not covered by recall and your ballasts are indeed bad, this is a huge
undertaking. To replace the ballasts you have to remove the headlights (and bumper) from the
car, as the ballasts are mounted on the underside of the headlight housing. OEM ballasts cost
anywhere from $100-200, at which point you may be better off replacing the entire headlight
assembly as you can usually find complete headlights (including ballasts and bulbs) used on
eBay for $200-300. This also covers you in case the problem lies elsewhere in the headlight
housing, and since you’re going through the trouble of removing your headlights this is
probably worth the extra $100 over the cost of a ballast to not have to remove all of these parts
more than once. Make sure you have the right part number prior to ordering – the part number
can be found on a white sticker on top of your headlights which you can see simply by opening
the hood – compare this to the eBay listing to confirm you’re swapping “apples to apples” with
the replacement housing:

To swap out the headlight housings, follow this DIY:

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/234131-B7-A4-S4-Clear-Corner-Mod-
Removal-of-Bumper

Auto Leveling Sensor

If you recently lowered your car, or hit a really hard bump to your drivers side front or rear
wheel, this could be the problem. For cars equipped with auto-levelling sensors, the sensors
themselves are located in the wheel wheels near the lower control arms so they can adjust the
headlight aiming based on the suspension load. For some people when they lower their car, the
sensor is out of range as the suspension has been altered. For others, a hard bump to the front
wheel could potentially break the sensor or cause it to become unplugged. To access the
sensor, take off your drivers side front wheel and look near the bottom of the suspension. The
sensor bridges the lower control arm to the body and looks like this:

Front Headlight Sensor Audi A4

If it is damaged or the wires have frayed, you can order a new one here:

http://www.ecstuning.com/Audi-B6_S4–V8/Lighting/Headlights/Leveling/ES440960/.

If you are lowered, you may just need to bend the upper part of the bracket so the top of the
sensor is higher again. Once you have inspected and either repaired or replaced the sensor, you
will need to recalibrate it using vag-com. Follow this DIY for instructions on how to do that:

http://www.a4mods.com/index.php?page=webcontent/pages/autolevel.html&category=6

Headlight Swivel Module

This is the issue I had after replacing the bulbs and ruling out that issue. It turns out that while I
was replacing my DRL bulbs, I must have knocked the main headlight swivel out of place,
preventing the headlights from being able to aim correctly. Looking closely at the headlight I
could see the projector lens on my driver side was pushed forward and not aligned the same
way my passenger side was, so I reached inside the headlight housing (much the same way I did
when replacing the bulbs) and pulled the projector lens “back” away from the front of the
housing until it clicked back into place. I then recalibrated the headlight adjustment using the
DIY on A4mods and cleared the codes and the problem went away:

http://www.a4mods.com/index.php?page=webcontent/pages/autolevel.html&category=6

If you run the vag-com on your Xenons and find error code 02769 or 02770, it is likely your
projector lenses are out of alignment and you may be able to manually push or pull them back
into place. It is also possible the motor inside the headlight has malfunctioned or stopped
working altogether, in which case you’ll need to buy an entire new headlight housing – like
mentioned earlier, eBay is your best bet for that, and expect to pay about $200-300. But
hopefully you may just be like me and have to massage the projector lens back into place and
reset the headlight adjustment via VAG-com and the problem will go away :)

VAG-com adjustments (reset to factory spec)

If you change anything other than the bulb, you may also need to recalibrate your headlights
and reset the adjustments to factory. To do this, follow the A4mods.com DIY mentioned earlier.
For me, I fixed the projector lens being knocked out of place then recalibrated the headlight
adjustments using VAG-com to fix my errors.

The last resort is to pull Fuse #10 if you have adaptive or auto-leveling headlights – this disables
the feature entirely, which should also disable the warning light. This isn’t the best way to fix it
as your headlights might be out of alignment still, and you lose the adaptive features, but hey –
at least it gets rid of that pesky warning light and beeping :)