[s-cars] Low beams not working - success

[weski at verizon.net]

Thanks all,

I'm up and running with all lights working.  I solved the problem by 
using a couple jumper wires and one by one plugging them onto the ground 
and a positive terminal on the headlight and the other end went straight 
to ground (engine) and the 12V terminal under the hood.  I was able to 
confirm all lights worked so that eliminated all bulbs and all wiring 
withing the headlight housing.

Then I went back to the wiring hardness and one by one did the same 
thing to see if I could get the lights turn one and it appears that the 
low beam positive terminal was not providing a full 12V but only about 
10V.  My solution was to relay it - use the 10V as signal to a relay 
with the relay pulling power from the terminal post under the hood and 
all is working again.

I'm not sure what would cause the voltage reduction in the factory 
hardness but that will be an investigation on another day.  Off to 
annual inspection and soon enough I'll hit that 300K milestone.

Paul

PS - with the seized lower headlight screws - they are recessed so far 
I'm not able to get a drill into there so I thought with the bumper 
removed there might be more clearance.  I'll have to try a drill 
extension and an ez-out and try not to break any of the mounting tabs.


On 7/23/2017 5:33 PM, Tom Green wrote:
> Paul,
>
> One headlight low beam working means the problem is not in the switch. 
>  The
> e-code headlights use H1, H1, H3 bulbs that have a ground wire 
> separate from
> any of the power feeds, and are all daisy-chained together with a 
> ground post
> on each of the bulb receptacles.
>
> First make sure the low beam bulb base is fully seated in the 
> projector receptacle.  Then check that the brown ground wire is 
> attached to the post on that base tightly with no corrosion.  The 
> ground wire will daisy chain from there to the frog light and then the 
> high beam.  You can probably check this with the housing in place.
>
> Access to the lower attachment screws is obtained by removing the 
> metal trim just below the headlight that has the washer nozzle 
> sticking out.  You may have that off since you see it rusted, but 
> removing the bumper will give you no more access.
>
> Tom
>
>> On Jul 23, 2017, at 11:13 AM, weski at verizon.net 
>> <mailto:weski at verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Tom.
>>
>> I was thinking the same thing overnight - how could a ground on the 
>> passenger side headlight cause an issue with the driver's side 
>> headlight and visa versa.
>>
>> Anyway - I had already replaced the headlight switch on the steering 
>> column two years ago when my high beams would turn on but not turn 
>> off unless I turned the lights off and back on.  Since then 
>> everything has worked great until recently.
>>
>> I did buy some new bulbs and that didn't make any difference on the 
>> passenger side but it did correct the drivers side so now my only 
>> issue is with the passenger side low beam.  Ground into the headlight 
>> is known good as evidence by the high and fog working.  I'll take a 
>> look at the ground lead for the low beam - maybe it has become 
>> loose.  Unfortunately I have to do this with the headlight installed 
>> on first attempt as one of the lower headlight mounting screws is 
>> rusted tight so if I can't figure it out with the headlight in place 
>> this will turn into a bigger project as I'll have to pull the front 
>> bumper off to get better access to the seized screw - not a difficult 
>> job but certainly more work then it should take to remove the headlight.
>>
>> It's progress.
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
>> On 7/22/2017 4:21 PM, Tom Green wrote:
>>> Paul,
>>>
>>> I suggest you disregard all the advice you have received, and 
>>> instead just
>>> replace the headlight switch (You know. the multifunction stalk on 
>>> the left side of the steering column.) I am confident we are 
>>> discussing a LHD USA vehicle despite the e-code lights installed.
>>>
>>> Does anyone really think both headlight low beams failed at the 
>>> exact same time and the high beams and fog lights still work?
>>>
>>> The headlight housings are easily removed so there is no reason to 
>>> try to repair them in place on the vehicle.  At 291K mi. they 
>>> probably could use a good cleaning and maybe a glass lens 
>>> replacement to recover the 20 to 30% light output you have lost 
>>> since new.
>>>
>>> For advice, you really need to go the Quattroworld UrS4/6 & S2/RS2 
>>> forum.
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>>> On Saturday, July 22, 2017, at 8:33 AM,"weski at verizon.net 
>>>> <mailto:weski at verizon.net>" <weski at verizon.net 
>>>> <mailto:weski at verizon.net>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Looking for some troubleshooting assistance with figuring out why the
>>>> low beams on both sides of my S6 aren't working.  What I've done so 
>>>> far:
>>>>
>>>>  * New H1 bulbs (E-Code headlights)
>>>>  * Confirmed 12V on bulb lead wire inside headlight assembly (turns
>>>>    on/off with column switch)
>>>>  * High beams and fog lights all work fine
>>>>
>>>> I'm at 291,000 miles and due for inspection in July and can't seem to
>>>> get my low beams working to pass. Suggestions for next step to try?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Paul
>>>
>>
>