The Audi Q5. Great vehicle. Performs well, looks really good. I had to replace the driver side headlight bulb on this vehicle, and boy was it a task! Normally, changing a headlight bulb on a vehicle is like a 10 minute job. If that. You pop the hood, take off the cap behind the headlight, replace the bulb, and Voila! But no, not on these! I started off the same way, by popping the hood, and trying to get behind the headlight. On these vehicles, it is physically impossible to do it the conventional way. Even tried removing covers and braces. Still no luck. Then I proceeded to remove the headlight assembly altogether. Even that you cannot do without removing the front bumper!!
Ok, now I am starting to get frustrated. I can’t remove the headlight the conventional way. I can’t even remove the headlight assembly without removing the front bumper. What do I do now? My next option is to go in through the wheel well. Of course when trying to remove the wheel, it was over torqued by whoever worked on it last, so my only option was to turn the wheel all the way left and remove the wheel well liner.
Ok, now we are getting somewhere. To top things off, there is a tool that comes with these vehicles in the trunk to remove the wheel well liner, and all the bolts that are holding the bulb cover in place. Once you remove the bolts on the liner, you can kind of tug on it get it out as pictured above. You do not have to completely remove the liner. Once you do this, you can stick your hand in through the opening and take off the cover behind the headlight bulb. Right below the cover, you will see a harness that goes to the headlight assembly. Remove that harness before removing the bulb to be safe.
Because we did not completely remove the wheel or the wheel well liner, you may not be able to get the best view of what is inside while loosening and tightening the bolts. Nonetheless, they are still pretty accessible so it won’t be that difficult. Once you remove the harness and the headlight bulb cover, you have to remove the Xenon / HID bulb by turning the bulb slightly counter-clockwise until you feel the bulb become a little loose.
Once you remove the bulb, replace it with your new bulb at the same angle that it was removed. Once you insert the bulb back in to place, turn it clockwise to lock it in to place. It would be pretty smart at this point to re connect the harness, turn on the ignition, and make sure the bulb is in place properly and comes on. Once you verify this, put everything back together and you are good to go!
The 2018 Audi Q5 is not the first vehicle that I have seen where the vehicle manufacturers made it unnecessarily difficult to change the headlight bulb, but definitely one of the worst. A lot of modern vehicle now have engineering that the average person cannot understand, like the headlights on some of the Chevy Malibu’s…or the Battery under the seat on some Ford Transit’s etc. Some of my BMW’s don’t have a dipstick to check Oil Levels anymore either. I am all for technology, and advancements, but some things should be left alone in my opinion!