Joolz999

Thanks Stevey and Mark for help and information. Even tho' I'm a long time mech engineer and car/bike enthusiast I never got well acquainted with all things light related - so I’m learning a lot here. I've done some googling and looked at the headlamps and am pretty certain they are reflectors not projectors. Can't see anything wrong with the silvering in the headlight generally - nothing peeling off etc. They have the little glare cover (?) over the bulbs – can’t really see the condition of that but have never had a problem with them in any other car. We tried the new dip set up again and think the GT200 bulbs have made more of a difference than we first thought and also the lights are still too low – so am going to adjust up a little more and see if we can get to something that we can live with. I won’t be fitting LEDs anytime soon – I understand a lot of the cars that half blind me these days (the ones you flash and they then blind you completely when showing they were actually on dip) are running AM LEDs that aren’t compatible with the headlights and throw light everywhere ?! Thanks for all Joolz

Hi folks, Once again trying to fix/improve things on GFs 2016 Q5. She said the dipped headlights were poor and when I drove it I agreed – definitely not very good. Certainly no better that my 04 Focus and worse than my 02 V70. The main beam is fine It has normal H7 bulbs and a thumbwheel to adjust the level. I wanted to try adjusting the headlights up so I removed the plastic top cover and found what looked like two adjusters on top of both headlights – both were 6mm female hex’s – one white (circled blue in pic 1) one black (circled blue in pic 2) The white one adjusted the entire headlight up and down – so I’ve adjusted it up a turn both sides and it has improved things a little (no on-coming drivers have been flashing us – so I’m happy it’s not too high) I tried adjusting the other (black) adjuster but little happened and as it was quite tight to turn, rather than do any damage I let it be. I’ve replaced the dip bulbs with a pair of Philips GT200 H7s (seem to get good reviews) – again it’s helped a bit but not much. When I removed the covers to remove/replace the dip bulb I noticed inside both headlights there is a shaft that has a male hex on the end – it looked like another adjuster (circled blue in pic 3) – but I didn’t know what it’s for and let it be. Hoping someone has some useful experience/knowledge on Q5 headlights and can help: 1. Anyone else found the Q5 dip lights to be poor and did you fix it using the existing headlamps and H7 bulbs ? Are LEDs worth a try – I’m not keen to upgrade to HID etc at the mo. 2. What’s the black female hex adjuster on top of the headlights for ? I guess it’s for left/right adjustment ? 3. What’s the shaft with male hex behind the dip bulb cover ? Does it (for example) adjust dip bulb up/down separately from the main bulb ? Many thanks Joolz

Thank you Mark – very helpful. I can see now why I was confused – it’s the GF’s car and I actually thought it was an SQ5 – somehow from the reading I’d done I thought all post 2012 facelift Q5s were actually known as SQ5s. Now I re-read the info I can see the SQ5 is a different & sportier version. And I can now see the gearbox should be the 7 speed S-tronic you note. It doesn’t half confuse me tho’ all the diff codes and options – why doesn’t the info with the car simply say what’s it’s fitted with in plain english somewhere – rather than only giving one codes to decipher ?! I thought the 8 in 8RB refers to 8 speed - can anyone tell me what the 8RB 0BY code refers to ? It means I can breathe easy as we had a local mechanic change the gearbox oil & filter and I saw he had used “dual clutch gear oil” (PN G 052 529 A2) and was worried it was the wrong stuff thinking the car had a CVT Tiptronic box. Is there a simple way to tell the difference between a Tiptronic and S-tronic when sitting in the driver’s seat ? For example – are the controls physically different etc ? Thanks Julian

Hoping someone can answer what I hope is an easy question. Car is a 2016 Q5 3.0 TDi - the VIN info in the service book shows the gearbox code is 8RB 0BY (pic from service book attached just in case I've used the wrong bit !) I've looked and looked online (and tried VIN decoders etc) but can't find that gearbox code anywhere to confirm for certain which transmission the car has. From the googling I've done I would assume it's got the 8 speed tiptronic - but there seem to be quite a few variants/options (such as a 7 speed DSG) - so wondering if anyone confirm for certain from the code above ? Thank you Julian

Thanks Sofa - very helpful - I have to admit I didn't know you could dispense adblue at garages - but then it's not my car - so I've never had to find out ! Jools

Thanks for input guys - just to follow up - GF took car to garage and the guy there managed to glug in another 2 litres or so (same container, same spout) - he thinks it's now full and the warning msg has cleared itself. She even took a video which showed him doing the same as me ?! So I'm left almost as confused as when I started - although around 4/5 litres for 4,000 miles sounds about right. Maybe it was an airlock in the tank that needs a bit of driving to clear it ? So far the worst of it is a slightly bruised ego - which is a lot cheaper than a sensor replacement I guess ! cheers

Steve - thanks for speedy reply Yes I did see some threads on sensor failures - just didn't think they were likely relevant. I mean as far as I understand the sensor reset the system last time it was refilled (i.e. the prev warning msg in Oct 2023 disappeared when it was refilled) and the msg it reappeared recently which seemed to makes reasonable sense - so didn't have sensor as prime suspect. But what's really puzzling is by sensible calcs the car should have used around half a tank since last refill yet I could only put in a very small amount ? I find it hard to credit that Audi would design the system so that a failed sensor is supposed to prevent the tank from being filled ? And further I wouldn't have thought a sensor failure would even be capable of preventing refilling ? I like to try & understand what's going on and why - but of course - it will likely have to have some diagnostics to see what's flagged. Thanks

Hey folks – be great if I can get some help/advice from the forum with an adblue filling problem. My GF has a 66 plate Q5 – she recently told me the adblue countdown message (which started at 1,000 mile to go) was saying 400 miles so I decided to do the refill assuming it was easy job ! Her records aren’t that good but we think it was last filled by her garage around Oct 2023 since which she’s done about 4,000 miles – of which quite a high %age are short journeys. From the owners manual, various forums etc I think the tank is 23L capacity and it should have used around half a tank, so I got a couple 10L Greenchem containers. I’ve been fixing and mending me own vehicles for many years, mainly older cars but I’m happy to tackle major jobs, cambelts, suspension work, welding up etc and thought this would be routine task. However when I tried to fill using the standard spout that comes with the containers about 1L went in and then it starts to overflow up out of the filler inlet hole and down thru’ the drain hole in the filler panel onto the drive. I tried inserting a thin tube to see if I could dipstick the adblue tank (and find out if there a non-return valve or other in the neck) – the tube went in ok (no valve I could feel) but the dipstick thing didn’t work (seeing the liquid was unclear). I then tried decanting the adblue into a smaller bottle and pouring it in (slowly) using the supplied spout as a funnel (it seemed like there could be an airlock problem with the 10L containers given there’s no air-admittance function) - but the same overflow thing happened and I couldn’t get anymore in. After that I switched the ignition on & the 400 mile msg was still there – then it switched off and started and ran the car & the same msg still present. I read the Q7 has a two tank system with one of the tanks being higher than the filler which has caused filling issues but no one says this is a Q5 problem. The manual refers to a “hose” to screw to the container (which defo looks longer than the supplied spout) but I’ve seen youtube vids of people happily filling a Q5 using exactly what I had – i.e. a 10L container with the supplied standard spout. I guess the obvious problem is a failure of the warning system/sensor – but it has counted down the miles in a sensible fashion. Online info indicates 9,000 miles per 23L tank – so at 4,000 miles I was expecting the system to be around half full and thus to need about 10L ? So frustrating that simple tasks are problematic on far too many modern cars……. Thanks for any input Cheers Joolz