When I bought my 2009 JCW it had the HID headlights. They're pretty nice but over the last month or so I've been having an intermittent problem with the driver's side headlight not working. At first I could simply wiggle the wires or tighten the back side of the headlight housing unit and it fixed the issue. The problem has became more persistent. While I was still living in Indiana I took it to a shop I normally use, which does a great job. They could not get it to duplicate the issue (of course). They checked all the wires and everything appeared to be fine. We have since moved to Washington DC and now I don't have a trustworthy shop to take it to. The driver's side headlight has only worked one day in the past week. Any suggestions? Keep in mind I am not very savvy on headlights or any type of electrical wiring.

Or, is there a good shop in the DC area, Alexandria, VA to be more specific, that won't try to rake me over the coals?

 

I once had a similar problem with one of the front parklights in a '98 GTI. I fixed it by unplugging the connector, shpritzing it good with contact cleaner, and then packing the connector with dielectric grease. End of problem! Hopefully yours is similar... moisture ingress and a bit of corrosion.

Cheers,

Spridget

 

Unfortunately its not that easy. I stopped at Autozone and got some cleaner and some dielectric grease and its not working...argh. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

Have you tried having someone else turn the lights on/off while you manually plug in the bulb connector/connect at an angle? I once had an issue where the car side of the connection's plastic was slightly melted/disformed and the metal contacts would touch, but only sporadically. I also tried dielectric grease and cleaning the contacts to no avail. In the end I fixed it but slightly bending on the metal tabs inwards and haven't had a problem since.