Complete failure of headlights

R

Robin_Cox

Member
Have just gone out to move my car (parked by my other half in the wrong place) - and found that the headlights (and rears) are completely dead. They weren't this morning. I fitted one of the auto headlight switches (the one that doesn't have app control) about 3 years ago and so far it hasn't done anything untoward.

Indicators and hazard lights all work. Main beam works when I pull the left stalk back to main beam position. However, there is no output with any setting of the headlamp switch from position 0 to position 3 or either foglight position. The wee symbols light up on the headlamp switch casing when the ignition is switched on, although the foglight illuminations don't.

I suspect either a loose connection or that something has failed in the auto headlamp switch.

Any thoughts?
 
Do you still have the original Audi headlight switch? If so, fit this as a means of testing whether the issue lies in the switch or somewhere in the rest of the car.
If not, can you perhaps borrow one from another A2?

Cheers,

Tom
 
timmus said:
Do you still have the original Audi headlight switch? If so, fit this as a means of testing whether the issue lies in the switch or somewhere in the rest of the car.
If not, can you perhaps borrow one from another A2?

Cheers,

Tom
Click to expand...
Hi Tom,
that's been my thought process - starting with remembering the action to back the switch out of the fascia to check the connector as Graham @audifan suggested above, followed by swapping the original switch from my car that is currently in my other half's car (that I have been driving since November) back. But it is peeing down with rain and is pitch black outside at the moment.... these things always happen at just the wrong moment!! I must also have the much battered original original somewhere.

In a worst case scenario I will just give her the other car keys tomorrow and sort it out in daylight! Having the third A2 on the drive means we usually have one spare for these sorts of situations.

Many thanks again.
 
Located the original light switch in my garage box (along with the new silver handle, surround and metal ring surround I've not yet fitted) .. unplugged the auto lightswitch, plugged the old one in and hey presto, we have lights again. Have been able to drive in to work with the switch floating in the hole as I've not transferred the fascia yet, but it has solved the problem.

Thanks all!
 
Robin_Cox said:
plugged the old one in and hey presto, we have lights again.
Click to expand...
In all my years of solving electrical problems on A2s, I've known of 2 genuine headlight switch failures. One was repairable. So, I cannot deny that, after 18-23 years of use, the original ones do develop faults. However, I have long believed that the auto-headlight switches are cheap Chinese rubbish, and every failure adds to that belief.
Besides decent build quality, the other major advantage of the original A2 headlight switch is that it fits perfectly in the A2's dashboard. It also doesn't have an ugly light sensor on the end of a wire. As I see it, the only disadvantage of the original A2 headlight switch is that you have to switch your headlights on and off yourself. Over 15 years of driving A2s, the total time I have spent switching on and off my headlights is a fraction of the time spent trying to get a single one of these auto-lightswitches to sit properly in an A2's dashboard such that it looks vaguely decent and doesn’t move about during use.

Robin_Cox said:
the one that doesn't have app control
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Don't get me started on this! It's like 'Windows 10 for Toasters'. Personally, I have never felt the need to have a Bluetooth connection to my car's headlight switch. After all, it's for switching lights on and off, much like toasters are for turning bread into toast. Some simple things are best kept simple.
The idea that you cannot upgrade your smartphone OS because some 2-bit Chinese company haven't updated the software for controlling your car's headlight switch is absurd. To my mind, it just highlights what cheap rubbish it really is.

Robin, please don't take this rant personally; I hope you know that I hold you in the highest regard and have every respect for you. My point is merely this: if somebody is thinking of changing to the auto-headlight switch, in the belief that this product constitutes an ‘upgrade’, take a moment to appreciate all the advantages of the original and stick with it. :)

OEM parts to the rescue.

Cheers,

Tom
 
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timmus said:
In all my years of solving electrical problems on A2s, I've known of 2 genuine headlight switch failures. One was repairable. So, I cannot deny that, after 18-23 years of use, the original ones do develop faults. However, I have long believed that the auto-headlight switches are cheap Chinese rubbish, and every failure adds to that belief.
Besides decent build quality, the other major advantage of the original A2 headlight switch is that it fits perfectly in the A2's dashboard. It also doesn't have an ugly light sensor on the end of a wire. As I see it, the only disadvantage of the original A2 headlight switch is that you have to switch your headlights on and off yourself. Over 15 years of driving A2s, the total time I have spent switching on and off my headlights is a fraction of the time spent trying to get one of the Chinese auto-lightswitches to sit properly in an A2's dashboard such that it looks vaguely decent.


Don't get me started on this! It's like 'Windows 10 for Toasters'. Personally, I have never felt the need to have a Bluetooth connection to my car's headlight switch. After all, it's for switching lights on and off, much like toasters are for turning bread into toast. Some simple things are best kept simple.
The idea that you cannot upgrade your smartphone OS because some 2-bit Chinese company haven't updated the software for controlling your car's headlight switch is absurd. To my mind, it just highlights what cheap rubbish it really is.

Robin, please don't take this rant personally; I hope you know that I hold you in the highest regard and have every respect for you. My point is merely this: if somebody is thinking of changing to the auto-headlight switch, take a moment to appreciate all the advantages of the original and stick with it. :)

OEM parts to the rescue.

Cheers,

Tom
Click to expand...

Good rant, couldn't agree more!

Though I'm sure in this woke world you can't say "cheap chi...se rubbish" anymore lest it offends some sensibilities somewhere, even though it's clearly a statement of fact.

Fortunately, I've got to an age where I don't really give a monkey's anymore. I'm rapidly turning into Victor meldrew. With tourettes. On speed..!
 
A2Dreamer said:
Though I'm sure in this woke world you can't say "cheap chi...se rubbish" anymore
Click to expand...
I mean no insult to anyone from China. I am just making a general comment on the quality of the mass-produced stuff that comes out of some factories in China. Cheap, poor quality stuff is also made elsewhere in the world, and decent quality stuff can also emanate from factories in China. 👍
 
You can DEFINITELY say "cheap Chinese rubbish" - because 95% of the time, it's cheap, it's Chinese and it's rubbish. It is what it is (never was that most-overused of phrases more apt here).

I am torn on this Tom - I'm very much in agreement on the software update thing - and it's disappointing that the switch doesn't sit quite correctly in the A2. I believe at some point I may revert back to original; but then I do like the automatic headlamp function and the look of the switch overall with it's chrome ring.

I shouldn't have sold the hard touch switch which I daresay @Dave M installed when he had the car however. I will look out for another for when the current one fails.
 
timmus said:
In all my years of solving electrical problems on A2s, I've known of 2 genuine headlight switch failures. One was repairable. So, I cannot deny that, after 18-23 years of use, the original ones do develop faults. However, I have long believed that the auto-headlight switches are cheap Chinese rubbish, and every failure adds to that belief.
Besides decent build quality, the other major advantage of the original A2 headlight switch is that it fits perfectly in the A2's dashboard. It also doesn't have an ugly light sensor on the end of a wire. As I see it, the only disadvantage of the original A2 headlight switch is that you have to switch your headlights on and off yourself. Over 15 years of driving A2s, the total time I have spent switching on and off my headlights is a fraction of the time spent trying to get one of the Chinese auto-lightswitches to sit properly in an A2's dashboard such that it looks vaguely decent.


Don't get me started on this! It's like 'Windows 10 for Toasters'. Personally, I have never felt the need to have a Bluetooth connection to my car's headlight switch. After all, it's for switching lights on and off, much like toasters are for turning bread into toast. Some simple things are best kept simple.
The idea that you cannot upgrade your smartphone OS because some 2-bit Chinese company haven't updated the software for controlling your car's headlight switch is absurd. To my mind, it just highlights what cheap rubbish it really is.

Robin, please don't take this rant personally; I hope you know that I hold you in the highest regard and have every respect for you. My point is merely this: if somebody is thinking of changing to the auto-headlight switch, take a moment to appreciate all the advantages of the original and stick with it. :)

OEM parts to the rescue.

Cheers,

Tom
Click to expand...

No offence taken.. I agree! .. it was one of the first modifications I made in the year after I got my first A2 when there were a series of people here who got one and having jumped on the bandwagon I managed to get it when there was a discounted price deal. Having installed it I then found the controls to adjust the settings inpenetrable so once I'd managed to perform a "factory reset" I've never fiddled with it since. Found the auto headlight sensitivity to be not great - the one feature I did like was switching off the headlights while you start up to reduce current draw.

Finally, the fact it left me potentially in a situation where the headlights could have failed while my other half was driving or on the way to work .. for which life is far too short to put up with the associated headnipping .. means I am happy with function of the original and happy to revert.
 
The bluetooth version - once you get the app working on an ancient ipad/iphone like I have - is very good. It's easy to fine-tune the sensitivity and hence that removes a major negative of the non-BT version.

Mine switches the sidelights on when the ambient light is anything other than bright sunshine - which being LED are nice and bright and hence to my thinking would be a safety feature round here where there are lots of drivers pulling out of side roads straight on to fast A and B roads - This is the one feature I particularly like - ironically partly because of the fact my wife borrows the car fairly regularly(!) and the Touran she normally drives has this feature (hence she doesn't need to remember to turn the lights on manually - although I'm sure she'd berate me for thinking she might forget!).

Because of this and the fact that the switch only sits marginally further into the dash than would be ideal, I'm just about coming down on the side of being a proponent of this upgrade. Sorry Tom!
 
dj_efk said:
I'm just about coming down on the side of being a proponent of this upgrade. Sorry Tom!
Click to expand...
…until it fails in a way that causes it to set on fire, which I wouldn’t put past it!

On my A2s, the front fog lights double as DRLs, meaning there’s always light at the front of the car, irrespective of the setting of the original headlight switch. The only way to have no lights on at the front is to switch off the ignition. So, you don’t need the auto-headlight switch to guard against somebody not remembering to switch on some form of light at the front of the car; using the DRL function of the OEM switch does the same job.

Cheers,

Tom
 
dj_efk said:
You can DEFINITELY say "cheap Chinese rubbish" - because 95% of the time, it's cheap, it's Chinese and it's rubbish. It is what it is (never was that most-overused of phrases more apt here).

I am torn on this Tom - I'm very much in agreement on the software update thing - and it's disappointing that the switch doesn't sit quite correctly in the A2. I believe at some point I may revert back to original; but then I do like the automatic headlamp function and the look of the switch overall with it's chrome ring.

I shouldn't have sold the hard touch switch which I daresay @Dave M installed when he had the car however. I will look out for another for when the current one fails.
Click to expand...
I did. Could never get on with the auto light but father loves his. You pays your money……
 
My brother has recently bought a Toyota something or other - a hybrid electric, I believe - and he's very pleased with the function of the headlights which dip from main beam whenever the car spots an oncoming vehicle. As someone who always uses main beam in anything other than urban areas, I can see the attraction but, until I've lost the ability to operate the column mounted dip, I don't think it'd be worth upgrading!
 
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