| C6owners :: Forums :: C6 Support :: The Garage |
<< Previous thread | Next thread >>
|
Flashing Green Headlight Telltail |
    Please Register to enjoy additional Member Benefits |
| Author | Post | ||
gmerry
 
|
|
||
   Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Hi all, the green headlight warning light is flashing on and off. It turns out the passenger bulb is intermittantly not working. When I switch ot off manually, it seems to restart OK. Bulb or Driver? Regards G |
||
|
|
|||
C6Dave
|
|
||
  Member No: #1
Location: Northumberland |
Probably the bulb, wiring connection or the ballast in that order. | ||
|
|
|
||
|
gmerry
|
|
||
|
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Hi Dave, thanks for reply. Seeing that Bulbs (about £45 for OEM spec?) are cheap compared to labour, plan may well be to remove bumper, remove both light units and replace all bulbs while I'm at it (flashers etc). Then check all connectors and wiring for any signs of distress or corrosion and grease them up. Sammy, is this what you ended up doing? Regards G |
||
|
|
|
||
|
gmerry
|
|
||
|
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Hi all, 2 headlight bulbs ordered (D2S 4100K OSRAM) plus bulbs for the sidelights and indicators, but need to check if I need the mirrored varied WY5W. I'm contemplating getting a spare ballast unit before I start the job and have been quoted Euros 264 plus shipping for a brand new unit. It appears that many of the resellers of ballast units are offering 2nd hand repaired units so might not be very good value....... AL #1 307 329 100 is the part number according to this forum, or 6224J0 (for a car with directional headlights). These appear to be a unique fitment for a C6 unless anyone knows better. Regards G |
||
|
|
|
||
|
gmerry
|
|
||
|
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
More observations whilst driving to work / stuck in traffic. Very misty conditions so Autoheadlights came on by themselves. Both headlights worked fine (no flashing green telltale) and I could see both headlight reflecting off car in front of me. After about 6 minutes of operation, left light went out, so I switched to sidelights. After 30 secs, switched headlights back on manually and both headlights OK, no obvious colour difference. Then after about 2 minutes, left headlight flickered a few times then went out. Again, switching off, waiting 30 seconds and the turning back on, resulted in 2 steady headlights. I read somewhere that a failing hot bulb requires a higher voltage to maintain an arc, higher than the ballast can provide. So that seems to indicate the bulbs. I also read that running with a failing bulb will shorten the ballast life. Any truth in these two statements? Regards G |
||
|
|
|
||
eduardomaio
|
|
||
  Member No: #869
Location: Lisbon |
Well, mine did the same thing. First the bulb got a pinkish colour tone, then it would come up with the normal colour but the bulb would go out after a minute or so. For the orange sidelights I installed on mine Osram Diadem bulbs that are mirrored. Original ones were not orange. |
||
|
|
|
||
|
gmerry
|
|
||
|
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Headlight lasts for about 12 minutes when driving at 60mph. More cooling at high speed compared to stuck in traffic? Anyway, replacement Osram D2S bulbs arrived. But they are just in plain white boxes with the bulb within wrapped in foam sheet. Given that there is no branding on the box, have I been sold 2nds or fakes? Note that purchase was from an Internet Autobulb specialist bit not ebay. Regards G PS, supplier assures me that they buy in bulk from OSRAM and repackage in plain white boxes = 1/2 price compared to retail packaged bulbs in blister packs |
||
|
|
|
||
|
gmerry
|
|
||
|
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Update since last post: LH headlight has been operating intermittantly, sometimes good for 20 minutes, other times it goes out after 5. Also a bit of flickering. Finally got round to changing the bulb since nights are "drawing in" and headlights become essential. I followed the downloadable guide and would add the following:- 1/ Raise front of car, remove front wheels 2/ Remove inner mudguard liners (make sure you have a torx screwdriver to speed the removal of the various screws 3/ Remove bumper as per instructions downloadable on this site. I replaced the 5 watt wedge bulbs for sidelights and orange position lights at the same time as replacing the main bulbs. Removal of the complete headlight units is straightforward once the bumper is out of the way with two M6 screws on the top and one at the rear edge of the light unit accessed from below. All electrical light connectors were reassembled uisng special lubricant. I found changing the D2S bulbs pretty tricky as there is a large electrical connector (this is the ignitor) at the rear of the bulb and a grey plastic locking ring (retaining ring) which looks flimsy but actually requires firm pressure to get everything back together. Ideally a spare one of these should be to hand when doing the job!!! Anyway, reassembly was the carried out in reverse order, nothing too much to report (except one of the metal bumper screws that goes in to a captive nut welded to the bodywork snapped off due to corrosion and had to be hacksawed off, drilled out and retapped back to M6) Note, 2 people are handy for removal of the bumper to prevent any scratches and make sure there is a soft padded laydown area to prevent any scratches. Regards G PS, here is a link to the HIDOEM shop showing a picture of the igniter that sits on the back of the bulb (Red and Black Bosch Zundgerat) - Click Here - Here is another link for a UK supplier - Click Here - Bosch part number for ignitor is 1 307 329 076 although they are labelled AL PS2 I have checked the parts list for the lights and the retaining ring is NOT listed as a separate spare item, in fact not even shown on the drawing |
||
|
|
|
||
Pappnase
|
|
||
 Member No: #1044
Location: Bonn |
Thanks for the info G Please let us know about the success of the operation since I have exactly the same symptoms every few weeks (it is OK in between for some reason) g |
||
|
|
|
||
|
gmerry
|
|
||
|
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Fingers crossed, headlights are working well. Proof of the pudding will be the MOT test. Regards G |
||
|
|
|
||
|
gmerry
|
|
||
|
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
It seems that the bulb retaining system for the D2S is shared with the Mercedes W 220 S class cars. Here is a link - Click Here - to a write up on changing the bulbs for the S class and provides a lot of details for how the bulb/retaining ring/ignitor assembly goes together. Its a very complicated design: for example, when rotating the ignitor anti-clockwise to remove the old bulb, the 3 wire connector is automatically ejected from its connection. Regards G |
||
|
|
|
||
|
gmerry
|
|
||
|
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Here is a picture of the grey retaining ring, appears to be same item used on Mercedes S class. To reassembly bulb, ignitor and retaining ring, I suggest that the 3 wire connector into the ignitor is connected up LAST!!!! regards G  |
||
|
|
|
||
|
magicands
|
|
||
  Member No: #1021
Location: Coventry, Warwickshire |
Did you disconnect the battery before undertaking the above work? | ||
|
|
|
||
smihaialex
|
|
||
 Member No: #1031
Location: Bucharest |
Hey guys, sorry to disappoint you, but... It's not the bulbs. Went through the exact same thing - left hand side bulb switching off, then back on if I switched the headlights from Auto to Off and back to Auto or to the On position via the lights stalk... Initially the problem seemed to go away if I disabled the directional function of the headlights, but I couldn't help but re-enable it and the issue got worse up to the point that disabling the directional headlights wouldn't be of any use anymore... Also went to my Citroën Service for this a couple of times, but they couldn't find anything wrong via Diagbox/Lexia and decided not to investigate further... They didn't see any reason to investigate physically, if Diagbox told them that everything was ok, even though it clearly wasn't ok. Their solution was to just wait it out - maybe it goes away all by itself. Naturally, I was completely dissatisfied with the situation, so, I did the only thing that I could think of and that I could actually do myself - replace the bulbs (sound familiar?!?)  I also took the opportunity and fitted the Osram Xenarc Silverstars instead of the OEM Osram Xenarcs. The good news is that the Silverstars are worth every penny - I was already happy with my lights, but after the upgrade I'm more than happy, I'm ecstatic - night motoring has never been my favorite thing, especially on the smallish, bumpy and crowded roads of Romania, but these headlights really give me the confidence I need for stress free night driving - I absolutely love them. The bad news is that, unfortunately, two weeks after fitting the brand new bulbs, the issue returned  This time, knowing the symptoms, I immediately disabled the directional headlights and never re-enabled them again in order to prevent aggravating the situation, and so far, so good, in the sense that the bulb hasn't switched off again (not even once).Still, I am not and will never be 100% happy about this, because I really enjoyed the directional headlights... I took the bumper off one more time and inspected the left hand headlight and bulb assembly thoroughly, and the only thing that I noticed is that the 3 pin connector fits rather loosely inside its socket on the bulb's base (the red square thingy) - it requires no force at all to uncouple when the bulb is in position. This, alongside the fact that the problem is made worse by the directional headlight feature led me to believe that it's a rather straightforward connection problem, but I haven't yet come up with a simple and elegant solution - it very well may be as easy as just putting a layer of electric insulator tape around the connector to make the fit more snug, but I haven't tried it yet because the weather here got really really crazy and I didn't get the chance to fiddle with it a third time... And yes, the entire operation was carried out with the battery disconnected (as the service documentation recommends). All in all it took 4h the 1st time by myself, taking it easy, and 2h the 2nd time (more experience, as well as the fact that the 2nd time I only took apart the left hand side headlight unit). After reconnecting the battery, I had to reprogram the windows, and the on board computer's settings (date, time etc), and the TPMS sensors weren't recognized (orange -- instead of green OK), but they got back online on the first 5 minutes of the first drive That's it, that's my story, hope it helps. Cheerios, Sam PS: yes, everything looks exactly like on that Merc... |
||
|
|
|
||
|
gmerry
|
|
||
|
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Hi Magicands, yes I lowered front windows, put a blocker over the boot catch and disconnecte the battery before starting work on the headlights. Regards G |
||
|
|
|
||
Go to page >>
|
|
 User Colour Key:Head Administrator, Administrator, C6 owner, Technical Expert, C6 Premier Discount Club |
|
Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Site Disclaimer | Contact Details | Warranty | Sitemap | C6 Insurance | Quick Facts | Re Call Info | Downloads | Error Codes
| Site and Graphics created by: C6Dave Forum Icons by Axialis Emotes by Seb | 
|
