Xenon lights - low intensity and inner lamps not working

[900Aero]

Aren't the inner headlights for the high beams? the outer ones are the xenon, but for high beams it has to be halogen therefore 2 different sets of headlights.

des

No, the inner were not for high beam. (they were for the 9000). They are for Flash to Pass with Xenon lights. Some people (me included) made a mod at the headlight relay to turn on the inner halogens with the xenon high beams. This worked very well at night.

[damontl1235]

No, the inner were not for high beam. (they were for the 9000). They are for Flash to Pass with Xenon lights. Some people (me included) made a mod at the headlight relay to turn on the inner halogens with the xenon high beams. This worked very well at night.

This is exactly what I want to do. I have a 2008 9-5 with no wiring harness set up for the inner lights. I want to fix them up to go on with the high beams.

What do I need to get and how do i do this? I have read in a few places that this is the way to go, but have not really looked into it yet, due to other things to fix first. But, I would appreciate any information that you can offer... Thank you!

[900Aero]

I just used the guts from a Fog Light kit my son bought. He had the wiring, just needed the lights, so everything else was left over. It has a relay to turn the lights on, I tied into the wire that activates the high beam on the Xenons to energize the relay to turn on the inner halogens. I used the fog light kit instructions for wiring power and ground and the relay from the fog light kit, it was not difficult at all.

[alanm123]

Frank, You were right, the bulb was not seated correctly. I re seated it and the intensity came back, but to make sure i need to remove the headlamp and fix it correctly. Thanks for your help.

Five years later.....
This was the answer to my search regarding dim headlamps on a 2008 9-5 I bought recently. I'll have to try re-seating my xenons. But I'm curious about why you say you needed to remove the headlamp to do it? Was removal required to re-seat the bulb properly, or was it just a matter of removing the headlight in order to get a better view of the problem?

[zetareticuli]

I recently bought a 2008 9-5 as well and had the same problem. In my case the xenon bulbs had never been changed and were full of deposits leading to a low light output:



As soon as I changed them, the light output was much better. To answer your question about accessing the bulbs, it is possible to get to them on the driver's side by removing the battery and on the passenger side by removing the hose connected to the mass airflow sensor. However, there is so little room to work that it is easy to break a bulb when removing them. It's actually easier to remove the front bumper shell and then remove the headlight assemblies completely. Here is the YouTube video I used to guide me:



I also found another YouTube video which shows you how to remove individual headlights without removing the shell completely:



I used the former method as I also installed a cold-air intake filter at the same time. Its a good idea to check whether your parking lights (small bulbs between the inner and outer lights) need to be changed as well when you remove the headlamps. Also, check that both your high beams are working. The shutter on the passenger side was stuck and I was able to free it once the headlight was removed. Hope this helps.