Front turn signal bulb issue...

[Rascasse]

I am having a little 'challenge' with a front turn signal bulb.

The process is straight forward...... use the tool to release head light assembly. Pull the headlight. Remove bulb and replace.....

The problem I am having.... it apparently keeps unseating itself, as every few days.... POOF, it doesn't work, and I have to take the whole thing apart and play with it. Then it works again..... for a few days.

Has anyone had this issue? If so, what was the solution?

Thanks

[Loren]

:welcome:

It would be very helpful if you told us the exact model and year of your car.

[05CayenneS]

I have an 05 Cayenne S and have had the same problem. Once I pulled mine out and looked inside, it looked like something blew and you could see the burn marks. I pulled up the tabs on the bulb for better contact and have not had a problem in a few months.

[Bob_H]

I have an '02 C2 with this same issue. I've got it for the left front turn signal and right front lowbeam and parking light. My issue is the connection, and I suspect it's the modular plug where the entire headlight assembly engages the plug mounted in the fender.

For the turn signal, tweaking and cleaning the bulb contact definitely helped, but for the right side lowbeam and parking light, it's been a shotgun approach. I've cleaned the contacts, both male and female, for the modular plug. I've slightly bent the pins to improve the contact with the plug. I've fiddled and screwed around with it endlessly, and still every now and then I'll go over a bump or something and the headlight will go out. It's very frustrating.

Sometimes all I need to do to "fix" it is push down on the headlight assembly. I think it isn't engaging the plug very well. Next step I'm going to try is pulling the headlight assembly and doing something or other to brace up the female side of the modular connector inside the fender well. It's kinda wiggly in there, both fore and aft and up and down. The whole thing is a little plasticky and sloppily engineered, IMHO.

[rizzo]

04 Cayenne S and I have been having the same problem. Managed to break the mounting plate trying to get the lever to seat properly last time I had the assembly out.

Front right turn signal sometimes fails to energize and I get the dash alarm about check indicator lights.

Run over a bump down the road after a restart and they work for several days...

Try the cleaning as suggested here. Then try some profanity if you break the mounting plate like I did.

[wvicary]

Be sure the weather pack seal for the electrical connector isn't damaged or swollen causing interference when installing the headlight assembly.

[mudman2]

After MUCH investigation. When you remove the turn signal bulb you will see 2 contacts, they seem to be mounted on a ring, some sort of suspension maybe. Anyway what I found is one of the contacts no longer makes contact with the bulb.

I tried to remove the sub housing without success.

My last try worked. I got some silver foil from cigarette pack (not mine) and folded it up and wrapped it over the damaged contact. When you carefully replace the bulb it gives just enough extra contact to get it working again.

May work for you , may not

Cheaper than replacing the cluster

[PKN]

...I had this trouble endlessly. Indicato bulb stops working, turn off ignition, turn on asgain and works for a while. In sheer exasperation I changed the bulb and had no trouble since. A $2 fix for me

PKN

[Scarpoolla]

I was having the same issues with my left headlight assembly, however my issues also included turn signal, dip beam, cornering lights, highs and low beam). I was able to narrow the problem down to connections issues with the rear of the headlight assembly and the wiring harness that is situated at the back of the headlight tray that holds the headlight into place.

I was able to finally fix the problem by doing ALL of the following:

Clean all the contacts with a good contact cleaner. I sprayed the contacts (male and female) and let that sit. I next took Q-tips and sprayed them with contact cleaner and then scrubbed the male end contacts on the headlight assembly.

I next coated the male and female contact ends with dielectric grease via a Q-tip to ensure each male and female end had some on it.

I also bought a new turnlight bulb holder and new turn bulb. (I was having the most trouble with the turn signal from previous attempts to fix before I did everything detailed in this post). I also took a small wire brush and scrubbed the contact leads that touches the bulb holder when twisted in place. Also put a slather of dielectric on those contact leads as well.

I replaced the headlight gasket with a new one. Mine was falling apart and I felt this might help the assembly hold itself in place when locked into the headlight tray.

[mudman2]

Where did you get the bulb holder from ?

Edited November 10, 2011 by mudman2

[Scarpoolla]

Sunset Porsche via the Renntech Contributing memeber discount.

[mazingerv1]

I had the same problem before. it is something to do with the male and female connectors contact.

What I did was very simple, I inserted a short toothpick above and below the femaler connectors of the target pin.

this is to make the female connector gap narrower. The problem was then fixed.

[RandalJ]

I had the same problem for several weeks last year/early this year. It was intermittent (usually when cold, I thought), and it drove me nuts because I tried changing bulbs, cleaning sub assembly contacts, you name it. Thinking this through, testing with a DVM, I finally ruled out any opens or shorts through the headlight assembly. That meant it had to be in the wiring harness somewhere. I replaced the short wiring harness, to no avail. Later I was able to connect the headlight assembly to the harness socket with the headlight uninstalled, and everything worked. Turned out that the plug where that short wiring harness plugs into the back of the headlight assembly was not going in properly or just marginally. This was because the headlight mounting bracket was worn where the harness clips in, behind the headlight, allowing the harness (female) end to deflect back and up a bit when the headlight assembly was clamped in. I confirmed this when I reached that connector with a long ratchet extension, and was able to push it into the headlight receptacle manually. It's a pain to reach, and it's hard to get a good leverage angle on it, but if you persevere, you'll get it. You'll feel it "giv"e as the harness goes the rest of the way on. You'll have to remove the black plastic trim in the engine bay to get to it, and maybe the air filter cover on that side. Have not had a problem since, and it's been at least 7 months. I will not take that headlight out again unless absolutely necessary. Probably replacing the headlight mounting bracket would take care of it too.

[Aestivalis]

I've been having this problem as well. One oddity is that it would work find if I disconnected the harness and plugged it in directly, but it wouldn't work quite right just inserting the assembly and locking it. I figured that it was not seating correctly so I pushed it in a little further before locking it down. It worked fine after that, but I'm crossing my fingers that it stays that way.

[Dennis C]

There's a TSB on a related issue - I believe it's 9414. The bracket that holds the headlight in place becomes loose and the connection becomes inconsistent. The symptoms include a "shaking" headlight while driving. Mine gave me frequent error messages about my cornering lamps when I had the issue. The bracket needs to be tightened up with new fasteners, and the Loctite (medium strength) needs to be applied to the bolts to keep it from happening again. I had this TSB done to my Cayenne 4 years ago, and it hasn't had the issue since.

Edited November 28, 2011 by Dennis C

[carsen67]

Had this issue with my 05 TT, tried many of these fixes and what ultimately worked is taking needle nose pliers and bending the male ends of the socket connector upwards (slightly & gently) to make a better connection when seated back with the female receptical on the harness. I stopped short of plugging it in directly since typically you have to shave the clips off the wireing harness to allow the headlight to fit back in the mounting bracket.

[gllever]

Had the same problem and FIX as carsen67. Some time you fix the problem by mistake with a complicated process , KISS.

[khowell]

I had the same issue and fix as carsen67, also.  Those two tabs just appeared to be "flattened out" a little and all it took was a very slight bending each tab towards the center of the opening.