Headlight dodgy connection
 

As I'm posting already, may as well cross another issue off at the same time.
This appears to affect both my CTT and the Gemballa so I can't believe nobody else has it. CTT is late-04 and Gemballa essentially built on an 03 CTT.

The headlight locking pins just don't seem to hold things quite as tightly as they should, so a hard bump can cause the headlight to move 1 - 2 mm out and that means **BEEP** Check dipped beam **BEEP** Check indicator **BEEP** Check left turning light.

Take out headlight, quick squirt of contact cleaner, back in, lock in, fine for another week or so.

Is there a replacement locking pin or a DIY fix I can do to keep things a bit tighter?

On a sub note, absolutely hooning the Gemballa late at night can cause the front dipped beams to get knocked out for half a second or so before they quickly reboot, self level and we're all good again.

I vaguely recall some sort of workshop campaign or recall involving headlights and securing them on the 955 series early models. A search on the NHTSA website by VIN# might be productive (or not.)

Useful to know there may have been some kind of recall.

Not sure that a recall will still be valid after 17 years though? Porsche centre may just look at it as a WTF? Also I'm UK based so NHTSA not applicable to me, sadly.

The recall covered replacing the 2011-2012 headlight locking mechanisms.

If your lights are sliding out when locked there's 2 possible options. 1) the lights aren't actually locked in place, meaning the metal loop is not behind the tab on the bottom of the headlight as designed. 2) the mounting tray is bad. The gears on these things strip easily when overtightened which from then on makes it difficult to apply the proper amount of torque to get the tab to lock in.

I had loose headlights on my car and after I replaced the trays the lights do not move a mm when grabbing them and pulling on them. Also light sanding and/or greasing of the plastic tab on the bottom of the headlight might assist in getting the metal loop to lock into place.

I was having the same issues on my 04 CCT. The problem was with the connection between the plug and the headlight assembly. Then I came across the video below. I followed the same steps - problem solved.

Thanks Chipster, I'll have to give that a go. Seems simple enough.

More than likely it is the short pigtail wire harness to the lights. It gets super brittle and will probably crumble in your hand. I have pulled the short piece out and completely re-spliced the wires on 4 different Cayennes. It fixes these issues every time. If the pigtail is not brittle then yes it is probably just the connection is loose in the back. One other trick is to use a small ratchet to get better leverage to snap it in. I used to use a nut driver and then realized I was not able to get enough torque to snap it in. While you have the light out open it up and look inside. The wires inside can also become brittle. I have reworded the internals as well but it is not as easy.

I had a similar issue on my 2004 S when I first got it a few years ago. Wires were in good shape (unlike MANY reports and photos on here; BTW, weird how some have that as an extreme issue and some have no issue at all), but due to imperfections in the fit of the whole assembly (from being removed, etc. improperly over the years), that plug connection was not solid. I forget exactly what I did to solve the problem, but once I identified this as the problem, whatever simple fix I did has held up flawlessly since then.

But I'm pretty sure I did not use all the methods in that video. Seriously, watch what the guy does around the 5 minute mark. How does he still have 10 fingers? :roflmao:

My issue was a bad headlight tray. The gear was stripped and would not allow enough pressure to engage.

I also replaced the pigtails as mine were seriously corroded. I removed the clips as seen in the video before installing them which made it much easier - and less likely to lose fingers.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...97f6ea42c.jpeg

Hi, Chip... Do you happen to have the p/n and ballpark cost for the pigtail you bought in your image. My '09 just showed up with the Check Dipped Beam msg, and I think I'll start with investigating that part. I know the p/n will be different, but it will help with further investigation. TIA! Tom

Update: just found the p/n I was looking for in another posting. Thanks!

I fixed the loose connection problem for the headlight of my Cayenne S using a glue stick. I realize that the headlights work fine when I remove them and apply pressure on the wiring harness from the back. I though, how can I apply this same pressure from the back when I reinstalled the headlight. I realized that the headlight assembly tray was flexing when the headlight assembly is pushed and loosens the connector to the headlight. I fixed this by wedging a glue stick between the back of the headlight assembly tray and back "wall". This keeps the tray from flexing when you push the headlight assembly back into the wiring harness. I hot glued the wedge (glue stick) in place. This fixed the flexing problem and established a firm connection between the wiring harness and the headlight assembly. Pictures are below.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...046a8c4850.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...67cc5efa9d.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...fdcaf6586d.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...2bb277ff6d.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...3f923447c0.jpg I hope this helps.

I had the same problem after polishing the plastic covers. I released and then reseated the lamp assembly, but with some violence the 2nd time; problem solved.