Ticking Full Beam

david g said:

Anyone had this one? When full beam is on there is a continuous ticking from the area around the centre console or heater controls (my hearing isn't good enough to pinpoint it better). The ticking is about 4 ticks per sec - sounds a bit like a relay switching but it is a bit fast ........ and it hasn't broken yet.
It makes no odds if the vehicle is moving/stationary or radio is on/off - dipped headlights or lights off = no ticking, full beam = ticking.
Whilst normally a advocate of my Dad's view that if it makes a noise it just means that it hasn't fallen off yet, in this case I am concerned something might blow and leave me in the dark.
Any suggestions what it is?

cheers
David G

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Dom-300tdi said:

David: Exactly the same thing happened to me a couple of months back. One of your headlamp bulbs will be on its way out - chances are one side will be noticably dimmer than the other when on full beam.

Buy yourself a pair of new bulbs from ebay, for about £6 including postage you can get some XENON bulbs with a 6000 - 7000k colour temperature which are not only about 30% brighter than the standard halogens, they also emmit a crisp white light rather than the dull yellow.

If you've not changed the headlight bulbs before, it's not a big job but you do have to remove the entire glass unit. Remove the indicator for easyer access, (just one spring holds it in place) then there are three plastic tabs which are rather stiff but if you rotate each one about 90 degrees that will free the entire headlamp unit from the car.

You may find the connectors are corroded/cracked as well though I didnt have any spares on me at the time so I made do with what i'd got and everything seemed sweet once the new bulbs were in.

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