Like many other auto manufacturers, Porsche is continuously upgrading its technology over the previous year's models and many auto buyers find Porsche cars appealing to provide all the features and thrills one may desire for a four-wheeler. Porsche features different designs, performance and tech updates across different models such as Taycan, Panamera, Macan, Cayenne 911 etc. If you are a Porsche vehicle owner for any model, you know the dashboard warning lights are just below the surface waiting for the right time to reveal themselves, but there is nothing to fear about, these lights, symbols and warning messages are there just to help you. Modern vehicles are now equipped with many advanced features and although a Porsche owner’s manual clearly shows what each warning light indicates but it may not clearly help you with understanding what may cause this warning. Reading this blog, you will understand what are dipped beam lights, what may trigger a check left right dipped beam warning message and how you can fix it.
What are dipped beam lights?
Located at the front of the vehicle, next to main beam headlights, these lights on your Porsche are called dipped beam lights which ensures increased visibility with its bright light pointed down towards the road to save other road users from dazzle. It is also known as low beam and may contain a halogen, LED or HID xenon gas bulb.
With many other additions, HID lights are also a new addition to modern vehicles which gives a stylish look to your vehicle that some other light bulbs cannot. These HID lights are also called xenon lights which produce a brighter, whiter and sharper light than a halogen bulb and are usually fixed to the dipped beam or lower beam in addition to the main beam headlights to produce a sharp and bright light. Ideally, these bulbs are assumed to work longer but being electronic equipment they may fail at any point of time and when it happens; your dashboard displays a message asking to “check left right dipped beam”. This warning can be promptly addressed if you know what may be the possible causes for this message and how you can fix them.
What does this error mean?
Most probably, when you receive this dipped headlight warning message it usually pertains to HID xenon gas discharge bulb which has failed and needs replacement.
Your Porsche car usually displays a sign of yellow bulb pointing down with a “X” on it to show a problem with dipped headlight. This sign clearly illustrates that something is wrong with the low beam light of your car and needs to be addressed.
Why does it fail?
Most common reason to its failure may be the completion of bulb’s life but there could be some other reasons such as accidental damage to the bulb causing it to fail to work. If you’ve driven or parked your car on a rainy or foggy area, then chances are, moisture settled in hampering its performance. However, sometimes it may not be the bulb and the xenon headlamp ballast module that may trigger this message for any of the reasons.
Symptoms of bulb failure
It happens in quite rare cases that both components fail at a same time. Usually the message is only for one side; either the left side or right side. Sometimes, you may notice the change in the whitish or yellowish color of the bulb turning into purple, which is a clear sign of bulb failing soon. If you do not pay attention to this change of bulb color then it will continue diminishing until the middle of the bulb turns black and is completely failed, so when you find something dark in the middle of the bulb, there is no doubt that the bulb has completed its life and needs to be changed.
But if you experience a sudden failure, then HID ballast control unit is to be blamed and in that case, you must try to change sides of the bulb from non-working to the working side to check if the problem is really with the ballast or the bulb. You might also notice the change in warning message. If it changes from “Dipped Headlight Left” to “Dipped headlight right” or vice versa then you know which component is the real culprit.
How to fix this error?
Fixing this error is quite an easy job. You simply need to replace the faulty one with a new bulb but finding the right bulb for your Porsche might be tough because there are so many aftermarket HID bulbs available which you can’t differentiate easily and end up facing the same problem with frequent intervals.
If the problem is not isolated to one side and the error on the dashboard still persists, it means you need to troubleshoot reasons other than faulty bulb.
Replacing a faulty bulb with a new one is an easy and cheap option but finding the right bulb is crucial. Xenons4u surrounds its store with many HID bulbs, ballasts and halogen bulbs where you can find the right bulb for your Porsche and if needed, get the bulb replaced expertly.
