Headlight Headcase

[mkb]

I've been running the avant with one working headlight for quite a while.  When the left low beam went out a while back, I replaced the bulb but apparently the bulb was not the issue.  
 
I couldn't quite figure out what was going on.  I thought I had a short somewhere because anytime I would go over a rough road section, the light would suddunly come on - sometimes.  And it would stay on - sometimes.  More often than not, it would turn off.  I tried moving the wires in the wire harness in the headlight assembly.  Nothing.  I tried moving the two wires that connect to the low beam.  Still nothing.  So I gave up and drove with just my right low beam in a working condition during daylight hours.  I figured the worst that there was a short somewhere along the wiring deep inside some harness for I which I would have to remove a bunch of stuff to get to.  I didn't particularly want to troubleshoot this and was almost resigned to giving up and dropping it off to a local Audi garage.
 
Now I can't remember which thread it was, but it was a few weeks or so ago that someone had run into an issue and the collective list wisdom came to the aid and the issue was resolved.  But a key nugget of wisdom stuck with me in one of the concluding emails by Mike Arman.  It was something like this "...always look at the simplest solution first..."  Hmmm...I thought.  Let me take a look at that darn harness again.  So, as soon as I got home, I popped the hood, removed the inner headlight cover, and began moving the wires to the low beam.  As soon as I moved the top wire a bit, the low beam came on.  I could have swore I did this last time.  Why was it working now?  I looked at the connection a bit closer and noticed that it had corroded and so the connection was no longer tight.  Those words of collective list wisdom must have cast some wierd spell on that harness that day.  Sometimes it doesn't make any sense at all.  Or maybe I'm just
 getting old.
 
Anyway, I finally went to the local auto store, bought some wire, pulled the light, spliced in the new wire and connector and voila, the light is now working as good as new.  I no longer have to worry about getting home before it gets really dark, or leaving the avant and taking another car when it's dark out.  Like I said, sometimes it doesn't make any sense.  And I am getting old.
 
--
mohammed
08 a4 2.0tq s-line
99 a6 2.8q avant