Dipped (low) beam issues - HELP!

[esman7]

I can't find anything online that poses as a fair solution to this problem I've had for about 5 months...

My dipped beam (both left and right) goes out and I can simply bring them back on by putting the car in park, pulling up the e-brake and then putting it back in D. This fires up the lights again and they're fine... but why the F does this keep happening? It shouldn't be a bulb or ballast issue if they fire up just fine, correct?

I just really don't want to take my car to the shop to have them spend hours trying to figure it out and get back to square one.

Thanks in advance!

 

[michail77]

If it were one side I'd say it's the bulb. I had that happen. But for both to do it at the same time is kind of weird.

Do you have any kind of auto sensors?

Doing that with the parking brake usually only does that with the DRLs.

 

[esman7]

They are the DRLs (up here in Canada). No sensors.. everything stock except I replaced both bulbs about 18 months ago with aftermarkets.

I spoke to my local shop and he said he's seen it before and it's the bulbs... only thing is that it's weird that they'll still work. I realized it's not a filament that's broken given xenon, but how can they still fire up, but need to be replaced?

 

[michail77]

I had one bulb one time that had difficulty firing up but that was new out of the box. I'd have to switch them off/on a few times.

What brand are the aftermarkets? I usually use the Maxlux brand. They are like $35 for a pair and they seem to last me about 2 years. Less than OEM but even replacing them more often still costs less.

Both failing like that is strange because they are separate systems. Unless the issue traces back to a fuse or switch. Heck, given it's a VW it could be computer flakiness.

You could see if there are any unusual codes if you scan with VCDS.

 

[esman7]

Just an update for anyone else experiencing this issue. I called my local shop and my guy there said he's seen this happen a lot. It's the bulbs.

I bought a pair of aftermarkets 18 months ago and while they still fire up, they would fail. I found a pair of Philips D2S (made in germany) on craigslist and no problems anymore.