2009 Astra - Headlight Failure

On-the-coast

Trying to help my son get back on the road before January 6th...  would appreciate some pointers from Vauxhall people.

2009 Astra Estate / Petrol / Automatic "Life"
both dipped beam headlights failed a few days ago (full beam OK).  Seems unlikely that both failed at same time (possible though), so went looking for fuses etc this afternoon.
1st Problem - no fuses exist for the headlights!
on further research the headlights appear to be controlled by some box of smarts via a CAN bus (possibly).
As is usual the bulbs are really tricky to get at, but they certainly don't appear blackened, so I'm guessing they are likely OK.

My advice is find a competent auto-electrician... but he's short of money, so we'll try and troubleshoot ourselves first.

If we can get one of the bulbs out, we'll check:
i) 12V to connector
ii) integrity of bulb
iii) and if there's no power to connector maybe we'll take a look at the full / dip beam switch

But beyond that (if there's computer controller) I'm lost.
I've heard hints of ways to reset the CAN bus / Controller - any thoughts?  Disconnect/Reconnect the battery?

And...  in case it's relevant there was some water in the fog light to the rear. We've drilled a small hole a few hours ago to let it drain out.  We can also take out the foglight bulb tomorrow, and clear that up.

Thoughts please.

EssexExile

I'd go on the Astra forum and see if there is any help there.

Lorian

They won't necessarily be black when failed. Its possible it's been driving on one light for a while and the second just failed.

fatbelly

Just get two new bulbs and replace them. They don't last forever and often blow in pairs

tedted

go to the wheel arch liner and you will see a square bit of plastic remove this to change the bulbs

Bigwheels1111

Both bulbs can go at the same time, could be that they are old or the alternator is over charging.

My Peugeot is 8 years old and only the rear stop light has failed, so at some point a few will go at the same time.

fatbelly

If it's a pain to get to the bulbs, try the ultralife type to avoid the problem for as long as possible

Goudy

This is common with some VX cars.
The switch itself if prone to failing.

Another culprit is cars get "fiddled" with and one such thing is fitting "uprated" headlight bulbs.
This can also take the relay out over time as the bulbs pull more power through the relay than what it's designed for.

On-the-coast

OK... thanks to all that replied.  We will at least try changing the bulbs today. I shouldn't have discounted the obvious solution so quickly - and take it from there.

Goudy

There's something else.

Have a read of this.
Headlight Problem | Astra Owners Network

On-the-coast

Thanks again everyone - and Happy New Year!
all sorted now.  (It was reading threads like the one above) that led me down a "dark path" of worrying about mystery problems.
Anyway both bulbs had blown, so dropping in two new H7's fixed the issue.
only took 90 minutes of working at the end of our finger tips in the darkness to resolve it. I hate vauxhall bulb replacements!  Still it was a good father/son bonding time... we suffered equally!