Xenon Plus help
 

I met the potential buyer of my new car today and he seemed happy with it but one of the Xenon pluses has started to play up yesterday and although it Was fine today I've promised to have this sorted for him before he collects it. Now when I switch them on one headlight flickers and dies. Then sometimes it works. Could it be a bulb or is it more likely a ballast?

You have 3 main components to a xenon light:

Bulb - If this had gone, youd get nothing at all
Ignitor - If this had gone, youd never get it lit either
Ballast - Keeps it going nicely once its lit.

Sounds like the latter? A8parts sometimes have lights in with broken lenses etc, but good ballasts... Its worth giving them a buzz +++

Thanks Ian, I spoke to A8 Parts but there are four different types of ballasts that it could be. They can't find out from my reg as they came from a donor car. Would you be able to help with identifying the right ballast so I can get it ordered asap +++

The lights were spot on just now as I drove back from the office. Could some wiring have been pulled loose or moved when doing the belt change?

couldnt be an earthing issue could it Amar? :Confused:

Most likely as they were 100% before you did the work. Have a fiddle around in there with the lights on to see if you can get it to play up again.

Will do thanks, it flickers like it's about to light up then doesn't now so could it be the ignitor? On the plus side I've been running the car on V Power as too lazy to go to the LPG filling station and it drives like a dream. Wish I'd run it on petrol more often. Could someone tell me where the ignitor is and where to find it?

should look like this Amar +++ from memory it is normally inside the housing

Thanks Neil, I popped into Revo yesterday, I couldn't even work out how to get the bulb out. The Xenon plus design on this is different to the ones on my S8. The ballasts aren't mounted to the headlight for starters. Ben had the bulb out in seconds and said it's blown so I will swap them over to see if that's defiantly the case then get another on order otherwise its going to start getting expensive.
As it's dark when I leave work the car hasn't moved for a good few days (apart from my Revo visit yesterday) but I got my dad to drop me to work in it this afternoon and it felt amazing being driven in and as my dad drove off at snails pace (as usual) it made a lovely awesome V8 vruuum noise. I haven't been bothering with LPG lately. V Power all the way and about 24 MPG on the way to Revo +++

Ben was spot on, turned out to be the bulb in the end. How very odd but at least it's not something more expensive. +++

Fitted some new bulbs today, thought I may as well do both while i'm at it and what a great opportunity to change from 4,300 kelvin bulbs to 5,000 kelvin. It's the perfect combo IMO. Still looks OEM but instead of an occasional yellow hue it's now white. I'm awaiting nightfall now so I can try the difference. 5000kelvin should give a little less light then 4300kelvin in theory however the bulbs that were in the car were old and only gave out the same amount of light as a halogen and were no match for my old plus headlights. I'll report back after sunset and some country lanes +++

Kelvin on Xenon bulbs changes with age anyway - the kelvin increases, and less less light output as you say.

Amar

What's the correct fitting for bi-xenon bulbs? Just wanted to check for future reference as the manual very handily says changing bulbs is beyond the wit of intelligent Audi customers and to refer to your dealer :rolleyes:

I seem to be in need of a few bulbs - keep getting a bulb failure warning that I'm thinking is brake light, but the lights are working fine statically. I'm thinking one of them may be a cheap dodgy bulb (they're stop and tail so plenty of scope for naff bulbs) so going to replace regardless and see if it cures it. The rear roof light isn't working either, although the map lights are so appears to have power.

Adrian you will need D2S bulbs. I think my Bi Xenons are from an early car and it actually had D2R bulbs in it, exactly the same as far as I could see though so maybe the R has now changed to S. I'd recommend 5,000k though. No yellow hue like you get on the 4300k. They have made an amazing difference in reflections etc...
Edit: Audi are right in the sense that Xenon bulbs have 20,000 volts going to them when you initially turn them on so keep the key out the ignition and lights of when you change then and you'll be fine. Audi want £100+ each a bulb so don't bother with them, I think standard fitment was osram. Powerbulbs.co.uk should sort you out for about £40ish quid.

I think S = Straight and R = Reflected. So the R's bounce their illumination onto the back reflector in the headlamp and thence out the front. While I guess straight just bung it straight out the front, with a lens to focus it.
I don't think they are interchangeable.

I investigated importing these when I paid £105 to replace one in an Omega back in 2001/2 :mad:

Thankfully prices have since dropped :)

It might be useful if we could all try and chip in to a database of bulbs and their codes for A8/S8 by model/type and then refer to a table of bulbs on the same sticky?

I for one would find that very useful as reference every time a bulb goes!

Cheers chap :D

I can understand the xenons being a bit of a risky venture if you have to account for clowns wielding screwdrivers digging around to change the bulbs, but the handbook doesn't even tell you how to access the bulbs in the rear of the car (which is obvious when you look and not remotely difficult) or the interior lights (also easy if you've owned a few VAG cars)

I like the idea of the bulb info sticky - would take the risk out for many people.

Another good site for bulbs is www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk - I ordered Philips X-Treme Vision +100% bulbs for my A6 (H7 fit) and just bought another set for my dad's A4 as they are mind-blowingly better than the ones that were fitted. The A6 was dangerous to drive at night in wet weather as you couldn't see unless you put the front fogs on!

I actually find the S8 bi-xenons no brighter than the Philips bulbs above, but they do have nice controlled light pattern.

The auto bulbs site suggests:

Xenon headlights/bi-xenons - D2S
Flash/main beam support on bi-xenons - H7
Main beam - H9 (presumably for non bi-xenon cars)
Interior - 269
Sidelight - 501 (odd fitment)
Indicator (front) - 581
Fogs (front) - H7
Stop/tail - 380
Reverse - 382
Indicator (rear) - 382
Reg plate - 269
Fog (rear) - 382 (not sure if 1 or 2 as not checked)

I suspect there's more than 1 type of interior bulb to cover the map, interior and puddle lights so these could be updated with specific info?

Apparently Philips and Osram are the only 2 manufacturers who make their bulbs in the EC now - the rest are made in China and from past work related experience the QC goes right out the window when they are!

Ah, the Omega - first production car to use xenon lights circa 1994?

501 -still remarkably common as a sidelight bulb.

Adrian, my rear courtesy light plays up. Bad connection somewhere as I have to give it a tap when the rear doors are open to get it to work on damp/cold days.

Yeah, my A6 requires the occasional jog to keep it working - this does appear to be utterly dead. Didn't have a suitable screwdriver to hand to remove the cover last night without risk of damage so left it for another day

Im not particularly amazed by how bright my xenon plus's are, so maybe they need new bulbs? hmm.

Im sure I read somewhere that BMW developed xenons, being the first manufacturer to use them on the 7 series. I could be wrong though.

What normally happens with these bulbs is that as they age, they become dimmer, and the colour temperature changes towards 6000-8000k - assuming they don't go pop first.

If they are blue, then your light output will be lower, but in my experience, it is more likely the headlamp covers getting dirty inside or potted with stones that reduces their efficiency.

Some headlamp covers have a UV film that goes milky over time. Remove this and polishing the lenses will restore a fair amount of light output +++

Had a similar issue with my mercedes S430, one of the bulbs was ''on'' but it would flicker, was very weak and the cluster was saying ''bulb burnt''. I switched the left/right bulb to see if it was the ballast or the bulb, and it was the D2S Xenon bulb. Replaced the bulb with a new phillips original bulb and has beeen fine ever since. !

have amended the bulb listing on page 2

Also worth noting if you're replacing your tail light bulbs that although the fitting is the same, the bulb required for the ones in the tailgate itself are the same diameter as the fitting, rather than a traditional bowl shape. Don't have the number to hand - just don't buy 4 expecting them to all be the same!