Both Headlights Out - Not bulbs, cannot find fuses/relays/control modules anywhere!

[canderman]

Alright let's get you filled in....

Driving the other day, and the light malfunction warning on my screen popped up. Got home and both headlights were out, just the lowbeams though. High beams, daylights, turn signals, and fogs all work.

My first thought was to check the fuses, since both went out at the same time. From checking the manual, online, back of fuse panel display, and all other sources, I still can not find the location of the fuse for the life of me! I said screw it and went ahead and pulled out every fuse on the drivers and passengers side to see if any were burned out, nothing. Came to the conclusion that there isn't a fuse for the headlights, and that they were either ran by relays or a control module somewhere else in the car. (unless I am corrected, which would be terrific)

Next check was to replace the bulbs. Did that and still no luck.

Would love to know the next move or if anyone out there would know the location to any fuse/relay/control module for the low beams?

Needed Info: It is a 2011 Audi A4 Quattro B8 Manual Transmission. My headlights are ran with halogen bulbs, not hid or xenon lights. I also do not have the auto adjusting/height adjusting headlights.

[BeerBrent]

I googled it and came across a thread on another Audi forum and guys replaced their headlight module or low beam LED control module to fix it.

[canderman]

Thanks for the reply Brent.

What did you search? Or do you have the link? I have been google searching for a couple days now, and this sounds promising compared to what I have found.

[canderman]

I googled it and came across a thread on another Audi forum and guys replaced their headlight module or low beam LED control module to fix it.

After hunting down your lead, I realized that my headlight assemblies are not for the xenon headlights but for the halogen. Meaning that my headlight assemblies do not have a module on the assembly itself. If that makes sense?

[choppstixxx]

If you have a Vagcom cable I’d run a scan and see what code it’s throwing. If both went out simultaneously I’d assume it’s something with the wiring or CECM that controls the headlights. Also I heard that sometimes the light dial selector (in the car) can also go bad.


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[canderman]

If you have a Vagcom cable I’d run a scan and see what code it’s throwing. If both went out simultaneously I’d assume it’s something with the wiring or CECM that controls the headlights. Also I heard that sometimes the light dial selector (in the car) can also go bad.

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Yes, I have a new light switch on the way. I am thinking it is that since every time I touch that switch the error code gets thrown up. Is there another way to test that besides going off a hunch?

Also do you know where I could find the CECM for my headlights and specific car? That has been my mission for the last two days and have came up empty.

Appreciate the help!

[choppstixxx]

Yes, I have a new light switch on the way. I am thinking it is that since every time I touch that switch the error code gets thrown up. Is there another way to test that besides going off a hunch?

Also do you know where I could find the CECM for my headlights and specific car? That has been my mission for the last two days and have came up empty.

Appreciate the help!

The CECM in the B8/B8.5 is under the dash, you gotta take off the lower plastic panel under the steering wheel. It's wedged back there, looks like this:

[BrewDude]

Came to the conclusion that there isn't a fuse for the headlights, and that they were either ran by relays or a control module somewhere else in the car. (unless I am corrected, which would be terrific)

I find this hard to believe. Anything electronic will have a fuse as a safety device. I count no less than 3 locations on the driver side panel that have fuses associated with the lights. However, this was from a quick Google search and I can't view the link to verify if it's correct or not. You can try here: http://sbarquitectura.co/schematics/...-fuse-box.html

Your owner's manual would be more adept to showing the location of the fuses instead of pulling every single entire fuse you can find. Also just looking at it is not a surefire way to know it's bad, multimeter comes in handy to check resistance.

[canderman]

I find this hard to believe. Anything electronic will have a fuse as a safety device. I count no less than 3 locations on the driver side panel that have fuses associated with the lights. However, this was from a quick Google search and I can't view the link to verify if it's correct or not. You can try here: http://sbarquitectura.co/schematics/...-fuse-box.html

Your owner's manual would be more adept to showing the location of the fuses instead of pulling every single entire fuse you can find. Also just looking at it is not a surefire way to know it's bad, multimeter comes in handy to check resistance.

I am having trouble understanding it as well. My manual does not help at all for this, the only mention of a fuse with the words headlights are for the "range control" feature. Which I do not have, and the slots are empty. Here is what my manual pretty much looks like for fuse locations http://www.audihowto.com/audi-a4-b8-...tion-amperage/

I tried going to the link you mentioned but they want me to sign up for a membership, etc etc. The multimeter to check resistance is a great idea though, I wasn't aware that a fuse could "appear" fine and not be.

[canderman]

The CECM in the B8/B8.5 is under the dash, you gotta take off the lower plastic panel under the steering wheel. It's wedged back there, looks like this:

Extremely helpful, thank you.

This would be on the more advanced of what I have worked on when it came to car electronics, so forgive me for all the questions haha. Would you replace the CECM (the pictured you showed me) as a whole or would there be an individual module attached to the CECM that would be the culprit for the low beams not working? Granted that this is the issue, of course.

[Reciprocity]

It's the whole unit. Unfortunately its not plug and play, you'd have to drive to the dealership to get component protection removed.

[BrewDude]

Maybe a more concise owner's manual can be found here:

http://ownersmanual.audiusa.com/

I have looked for the past hour trying to find anything about halogen headlights with no luck, most information is geared to xenon or individuals swapping out halogen for xenon.

I would say if you're tech savvy to disconnect the headlight itself and check for power to the connector for low beams. That would isolate if it's the headlight assemblies themselves (longshot) or something inside the car that's been mentioned already.

[BeerBrent]

Did you ever figure this out?

[a4audi4fun]

Headlights typically come with an automatic circuit breakers rather than fuses. If a fuse blows, power is lost and the lights go out suddenly;not a good thing if driving at speed at night. With an auto circuit breaker, power can be cycled to allow you to see enough to drive to a safer location before stopping. Sorry don't know where the circuit breaker is located though.

[Smac770]

In the B8.0 halogen, as the OP had, the lamps are directly wired from the J519, no fuses or relays. Interesting part is the low beam lamps are on a separate ground from the other lamps. Who knows why. The two ground wires join together at the harness. Some reason for running a 1.0 and 1.5 instead of a 2.5? Or maybe along the idea as previously noted, it's a safety mech in case one driving lamp goes out, you still have the other on an isolated circuit.

The J519 is fed 12v for the lamps via fuses, not breakers. There's not really a direct break down of which J519 fuses feed which J519 outputs. But if I had to guess, panel C (left end of dash), row 3, fuses 8 and 10 would be the starting points. Both 30A, but not sure if that would be left and right lamps or high and low lamps.