A6 C7 Avant headlight problem

[Stevey Y]

Hi fellow isolators, I am new to this site and this brand of car, I bought the Audi last July and have been using it as a taxi on a circuit in my local town having had Ford Mondeos as my last three cabs and I have racked up best part of 820,000 miles between them, the Audi has been a bit of a revelation, its far more reliable than the Fords ever were

I now come to my first problem, last week when coming home from a friends house I noticed that the nearside beam was illuminating the floor about ten feet in front of me whilst the other offside beam was normal, when I got home I parked at a suitable distance from the garage door and noticed that only the offside lamp was going through the levelling routine the other light remained stuck in the downward position this is where it all gets confusing.

Having done extensive trawling on the net only made it worse, some say its. the light range control module under the dash glove box so pulled the Dash apart that side only to find just the airbag canister and nothing more, tried the other side as well and there was nothing remotely like a light range control module with a blue plug, then onward to the levelling  sensors on the back and front, I found the rear sensor ok all attached and correct, then off to the front which did not seem to have a sensor on either side, had the splash guard off to see if the previous owner had disconnected it and slung the connector under the engine again nothing.

In the end after multiple scans with VCDS, Snap on, Delphi and Maxiscan, still no codes!, I finally got round it [Bodge] by using the VCDS headlight position relearn and adjusting the unit manually then doing new values function but again its only the offside unit that does the self alignment sweep but at least the beams are level, when I first bought the car I enquired which main beam bulbs were fitted to my car and was told D5S these bulbs have the ballast built in which negates the need for a separate ballast control, on inspecting the offending light there is a ballast control unit bolted to the side of it, again research has two conflicting theories some say it must be a D3S set up others say its there for the DRL, oh well just have to skip the back cover off and read the bulb rating off the back. so does anyone out there know what propels the levelling absent a front sensor, does it all work off of the rear sensor?, I have another theory that it may be the stepper motor in the unit playing up, deep joy if its that as either way the front bumper comes off and I can't seem to find a part number for the motor and the bumper removal looks a daunting task, any advice greatfully received

[Stevey Y]

Well now heres a thing, after going through the drama of re educating the the headlight level I noticed today that when we pulled in against a wall at our local supermarket it was almost dark because of the storm clouds and trees overhanging that part of the car park, whilst waiting for my missus to go and pick up her order boredom is a terrible thing, I started looking at the light beam alignment against the wall, the nearside light which I adjusted is now in a position where it would be good for shooting roosting pigeons at night and it would appear the start up self levelling sweep is now working, I thought maybe the heat this week had baked it back to life but remembered I had been rooting about under the n/s front plastic scuttle cover there is a box in a plastic shroud under the vent intake which I could just about reach the connector to give it a wiggle no more than that, I haven't driven in the dark since so I wouldn't have noticed any change, my guess is I have found the light reach module and it has a cruddy connection because some Div has stuck it in a place where it can get damp, therefore on my next day off I will have it out and clean the connector.

[Steve Q]

Good luck with.your investigations, hope you get it sorted soon. 

Cheers

Steve

[Johan O]

Hi I have the same problem. Did u manage to locate the problem? 

Best regards 

Johan 

Edited November 30, 2022 by Johan O