touareg

This is what I did to fix my problem with loose connections. I converted the system from a cartridge to a harness like the 957s. Best part is this is reversible if you want to go back (have to spend a little dollars though)

Here is what you need.

1. a permanent marker.
2. A Dremel tool or something to shave plastic with (Sharp Box Cutter).
3. $35 plus shipping if you screw up.
4. Patience.
5. You can't blame me if you screw up your car.

So look in your manual and remove a headlight, with that bugger out of the way you will see it acts like a Nintendo cart you used to blow on (admit it, you know you did it). Except blowing doesn't work.

Set the light aside, you are done with it for now.

If you look you will see a white connector that the headlight mates to. You should be able to easily slide that out. Take the sharpie and write TOP on top of it. Bottom too if you think you need the extra help.

The other end of the cable connects to the actual wiring loom, depending on the side of the car, the whole plug will slide out to the left or right and you can wiggle the cable out from behind to get some slack. It is a black connector.

This part is up to you, either remove the cable from the black connector, or leave it in the car and make a mess.

Now is the part with the dremmel or knife, and the 20ft extension cord since you left it in the car.

You want to shave the WHITE connector's outside clips down to a rectangle so that it will clear its original mount for the headlight bracket. I.E. you do not want it to be mounted in place, you want it to easily slide in and out of the original mounting hole. (No comments please). You want the plug to still fit snug in the headlight itself. I then also put a zip tie to bundle the wires a little better.

Once this is done, plug the black connector back in to the small pigtail harness, but don't mount it back to the headlight bracket. Leave it loose, maybe zip tie if you see how it all goes together.

Now you should have enough slack to plug your dremmeled white end into the headlight and slide it back into the car and lock into place.

I have had this like this for almost 2 months and no more check dipped beam errors or flickering.

If you don't like it you can always go back to stock, just buy a new harness from suncoast. Part number 955 631 239 00, number 19 on the pic. 16 is what the headlight slides into, 18 is the loose bolt x4 people are talking about I believe.

stealthTT

I confirm that.
done the same thing last year. the main problem is with the ****ty headlamp support that keeps loosing the lamp and this fix the flickering or not working at all lamps.
Good thread!

medtech

So I'm assuming by the pics that even with this short harness you can still get ur hand in there to connect it?

touareg

Yes, with the passenger side you get a little more slack, with the driver's side (US) it is a little tight, but I can fit my fat hands in there. If you remove the pigtail, you can press it in ahead of time to see the fit that you get so you know it is in tight during re-assembly. It does fit pretty tight, and you can see the orange rubber seal just peaks out past the lip of the headlight socket. You cant see it in the pic.

TopGun2000

there is another quick and dirty fix. put toothpick tips behind the contact points inside the female connector to push the two points closer to create better contact. it works for me. i shouldn't take the credit. another member at renntech came up with this idea.

medtech

I went in to do this fix and found something interesting. The light assembly has 2 fins on the bottom. Both of mine had the same fin broken and bent over. I pulled off the broken fin and both lights went in fine. Now they are properly aimed and so far no errors.

touareg

Yeah, both sets of mine are broken on both lights, I assume they are merely guides to get you to slide into tray easier.

I still have problems, so did this fix instead. The other fix was at night when I drove home to shove the lights into the car before leaving, that worked for about 95% of my 24 minute drive home

medtech

The shove technique got me about 3/4 of the way home before one of the lights would eventually shut down.

scuzy

i am going to do this fix here. I tried the tooth pick idea and so far it's ok but this seems to work a lot better. So shaving the clips off hte side of this harness allows it room slide back into the head light housing correct? I tried just plugging in the hardness and it won't slide the light housing deep enough so i can log it in.

touareg

Yes, if you dont shave off the clips, and just plug the headlight in, it won't go back into the car. Unless you break the mounting bracket!

scuzy

another thing i notice is the hid connector inside the housing is quite loose will have to stretch the prongs to get a stronger grip so it does nto come loose from hard bumps.

Km1.8t

Is this repair still going well? I am having the random flickering issue along with the light going up and down randomly, no errors. I did read about lubing the seals and reinstall the lamp and it tried that with no success. Time to break out the dremel?

bigbuzuki

I had similar connection issues with my turn indicator lights.
I followed the advice from another forum member and carried out the following.
Remove the headlight assembly and slightly bend up the metal contacts in the headlamp socket to provide a little more contact pressure when reinstalled.
This procedure has solved the problem.

touareg

Once a while, one of the lights would reset still, but no where near as frequently as before. Last month I broke down and got new bulbs, as the old ones were kinda dim. This also seemed to make the shutdown even less, maybe 1x a month now. Was about 80 bux for 2 stock osram bulbs.

Km1.8t

Thanks for your response, I have tried everything suggested but still have the problem on the left front lamp. Maybe mine is not related to this issue and is the leveling sensor. I do not get the dipped beam warning only some fluctuation of the lamp up and down. I will update once I figure it out.