2004 9-5 HID Xenon High Beam issue

[Maciejman]

I'm really hoping you Saab experts can help me out. I have a new to me 2004 9-5 Arc. The headlights are driving me crazy! I have found very little information on my issue. Foremost I do not have Xenon high beams and am trying to diagnose. Secondly I also do not have flash to pass (H7 Halogens do not illuminate) no matter what sequence I try(car on, car off, DRL's on, DRL's off), but the blue high beam light on my dash does illuminate each time I pull the stalk. The H7 bulbs have been replaced so it must be wiring or programming. I'll be checking wiring after I figure out the Xenon high beam issue. The Xenon low beams work fine, but do seem to aim a bit low. Here's what I know:

1. When pulling the stalk for flash to pass the blue light on the dash DOES light up, but no high beams come on(Xenon or H7 Halogen). This tells me from everything I've read that the Orange fuse/relay is not the issue since my blue dash light comes on.

2. When I pull the stalk all the way back for high beams on, after a few moments the SID comes on with a "front headlamp failure" message. The fog lamps are turning off when pulling the stalk back to engage high beams, the Xenon low beams remain on and do not get brighter.

3. Yellow and black wire inside the headlight housing does not lead to anywhere, just ends in a plug that I can’t find the female connector for. Also, the driver side has 2 black wires coming from a plug on the bottom right of the projector, but are also just hanging loose. I'll try to get photos posted when I get home this afternoon.

3. When turning on the headlights, the Xenon bulbs/projectors seem to go through the proper motions(down, up, then levels), however when it 'levels', it makes a fairly loud clicking noise and the light angle slowly creeps downward with each click. This noise lasts for about 5 seconds then stops. I found this video that has the same issue with the noise, but he sold the car before figuring it out. The end of the video when he gets out of his car is where you can hear it best. Since I'm a new member it won't let me post a link, but the exact title on YouTube is: 2003 Saab 9-5 HID Xenon Headlight Problems

I've checked all fuses associated with headlamps/brights/flash to pass and everything looks fine. Does anyone have any idea what is causing the Xenon high beams to not work? There doesn't appear to be a shutter in the projector housing to open for high beams and I have found very little info on how the Xenon high beams work in these cars.

I'm most concerned about getting the Xenon highs beams working but on another note I've just purchased the Bosch '666' relay that should allow the H7 Halogens to be used as high beam, but I'm now afraid this part may not help me since I can't get the H7's to fire at all. I think I'll leave the H7 issue for another day...

Is there anything that jumps out at anyone or anything you can suggest that might be the issue? I cannot find a wiring diagram for this headlamp set up so that I can figure out what the black and black/yellow wires are for. Both Xenon bulbs work on low, but do I need to simply bite the bullet and purchase 2 new non-fake Xenon bulbs? Could the ballasts cause the high beams to not work? Junk yard near me has been picked clean of all Saab HID headlight housings.

Thank you so much for any information anyone has!

[Maciejman]

Ok, after wasting almost an entire day here at work I think I just found something very interesting. I just found the link saabworld or saabnut created (http://saabworld.net/showthread.php?t=673) about changing the headlights, and it's broken into 2 different model year ranges. 02-05 and 06-09. The 02-05 range had a clip that held the HID bulb in place, and there is clearly 2 wires left of the bulb in the photo below that I believe are my 'random' black wires. Problem is I don't have that plug in my housing to plug them into, and I do not have a clip holding my bulb in place:



Now dumb luck or a light bulb going off in my head(pun intended) had me scroll down to read the directions for the 06-09 years and guess what... The inside of the 06-09 housing is what's in my 2004! How is this possible?!? Here's the 06-09:


This is exactly what the housing in my 2004 looks like. Turn to remove bulb(no wire clip), and you can see that the 2 wires in the top photo plugged into the lower left of the bulb are not present in this 06-09 photo-Hence why they are floating around in my housing not going to anything.

So... I'm left thinking the previous owner must have done some very strange changes. The 06-09 headlight assembly would not fit 02-05 models due to the facelift for 06, so he must have removed the HID/Projector 'guts' from an 06-09 headlight housing and put them in the 04 headlight housings I now own. Why??? I have no idea! I'm just glad I likely figured out what the heck was going on with this, and it looks like I need the guts from my model years back or new assemblies(yuck$$). Also explains why I couldn't really find any information similar to my issue. It was truly one of a kind!

At the very least I hope someone else can use this information if they are having issues. Now it looks like I'll be working very late tonight to make up for all the time spent on these forums. Thanks for everything you all post! I'll get photos up of my 'new' ride soon!

[Digger]

Andy, welcome to the forum.
Sounds like a previous owner upgraded the lights and didn't get the wiring or programming right. May I suggest you go up to the Tech Talk section and find the WIS and EPC for windows 10 and download some very useful stuff. You will probably be needing the wiring diagrams for the 04, the 06 and pictures of parts you might not have. When you know what you have and what you need Strandberg Auto is about a 2 1/2 hour round trip drive and if all you need are a couple of wire harness chunks, there are plenty of GM cars in the U Pull yards.

[Maciejman]

Hey Digger- Thanks for the reply!

I think 'upgraded the lights' is one way to put it. Darn near ruined it is another! I just don't understand why someone would put 06-09 guts in the 02-05 housing. Maybe there was an issue and that was the only thing available at a U pull yard. I live close to the East Bethel U-pull, but they only have 1 9-3 at the moment. Been to Rosemount twice in the last couple days as they have a few 9-5's along with a few 9-3's. Pretty picked over, although I did find a fully in tact dash panel with the working cup holder! The one in my car was the really dark colored one, so I replaced it with the cherry wood one I found. Nice find I thought!

In any case thank you for the heads up on getting WIS and EPC from tech talk. ( BTW can you tell me what WIS and EPC stand for?) I know my photos I posted above are from the WIS but I still don't know what it stands for.. Also thank you for the heads up on Strandberg Auto, and the reminder that many GM harnesses are likely to fit. Never heard of Strandberg before but a quick search and I was on their site. I'll check them out.

Thanks!

[nordwulf]

The high beams with the Xenon lights work by moving a shutter with a solenoid. It seems unlikely for them fail in both headlights at the same time but you never know. But as you mentioned, the wiring seems a bit strange so perhaps the previous owner made some modifications as Digger mentioned.

Here is some more information on how they operate: Xenon headlamps - description of operation.pdf

Digger mentioned downloading and installing the WIS. There are a few wiring diagrams and more information in there. It's an essential tool when doing any work on your Saab. Find more information here: http://saabworld.net/showthread.php?t=33310

And welcome to SaabWorld!

[Digger]

Hey Digger- Thanks for the reply!

I think 'upgraded the lights' is one way to put it. Darn near ruined it is another! I just don't understand why someone would put 06-09 guts in the 02-05 housing. Maybe there was an issue and that was the only thing available at a U pull yard.

( BTW can you tell me what WIS and EPC stand for?)

The Brass Era cars came with carbide generators to make the gas that lit the lights that burned almost bright. Somewhere around a hundred years ago, some of them young whippersnappers started taking them new fangled parts from newer cars and replacing lights that always burned when lit with light bulbs that burned out. You have to know that when those bulbs burned out, the next owner was wondering why someone would put that newfangled stuff into a perfectly good gas light housing. Me, I've always wondered what young whippersnappers had to do with cars.

WIS is Workshop Information system, EPC is Electronic Parts Catalog

[Maciejman]

Nordwulf- Thank you for the welcome! Also that Xenon operation PDF is a great piece of information- Thank you a ton for including that! I'll get into the wiring diagrams you also included when I have a bit more time.

Digger- Funny take on 'them young whippersnappers'! I like your style. Thanks for the clarification on the WIS and EPC!

A bit of an update from yesterday. I've now figured out that my 2 loose wires are for the shutter operation. These are what you see plugged in left of the bulb in the 02-05 image above. The 06-09 projector that was put in my housing has a different plug style and location (bottom right) for it's shutter operation, which is why the previous owner could not plug this wire in and simply left it- explains why I have a loose wire and no high beams(no power to shutter). I guess I should be glad he left the wire loose and didn't snip it so that I can now bring it back to normal!

No that I had a chance to get the projector out of the housing last night, here's a great shot of how he had to further modify this thing to make it work in the 02-05 headlamp housing. Look at all of those washers for spacing!!!


So this morning I've been calling all of my local salvage yards trying to find projectors out of an 02-05. Problem is they're hard to find. Everything online is the entire HID headlamp assembly and everyone wants $200+!!! I seem to have tracked down a couple around me for much less, but one of them is 2 hours north of me while the other one is 2 hours south of me(sigh). That's a lot of windshield time, but hey- worth it to get my car back to normal!

I'll update on how everything went once I get proper parts and swap back to normal. Thanks again for everyone's help! It's now no wonder that I couldn't find much info on issue, it's truly a one of a kind issue I've come to figure out!

Thanks all! More to come!

[nordwulf]

The headlamps including the projectors were only sold as complete units. When finding used replacement parts, make sure you get the Xenon headlamps because they the halogen headlamps are quite different and don't have a projector. But I am sure you already researched this.

The new price of $410 doesn't seem too high compared to the $200+ used. Good luck!

https://www.jimellissaabparts.com/sh...category=19607

[Digger]

Stop looking at ebay for lights and go direct to the yard http://car-part.com/ When you get what you need bring pizza and I'll program them to the car.

[Maciejman]

Stop looking at ebay for lights and go direct to the yard http://car-part.com/ When you get what you need bring pizza and I'll program them to the car.

First thing first- What kind of pizza do you like?

I must say that website is gold for looking for specific or hard to find parts. Thank you for the link! It was fun to browse through- however the prices there for HID headlamps weren't any better than ebay.. Most still wanted 200+.

After calling about every junk yard in the state I found an HID assembly at a salvage yard about 2 hours away that didn't want $200 bucks for it- only wanted $30! I was told the reflective surface was peeling in the Halogen side but all I needed was the HID projector out of it anyway. So up bright and early on Saturday morning to get down there at 8 when they opened and I had it in hand. On the drive back home I decided to swing into a U pull yard to see what they had left. I had been here a couple times looking for other random small parts but at those times I didn't yet know what was causing my high beam issues so I wasn't looking for HID's. They had 4 9-5's, and one of them had (1) HID assembly left on the car- Jackpot!!! $21 The lens was so cloudy that you could hardly tell it was HID but again, all I need is the projector.

Fast forward a few more hours and I had the proper projectors in my headlight assemblies and had working high beams again! All for $50 and a tank of gas! AND- I have an extra working ballast for backup, plus didn't need anything programmed to the car(but I'm sure I'll need something eventually so if the offer still stands, I'll bring the pizza!)

Now- I still have a couple issues. Most important- when turning the lights on they go through the up and down check, but then they still slowly creep down for about 5 seconds like they did before. While driving last night the light is clearly pointing too far down- I could not see very far in front of me at all. Had to have high beams on to see well. Could faulty or out of line level sensors cause this? Have you heard of this happening before and if so do you know what the fix was?

The other issue that I'll save for a rainy day is that I still cannot get my halogens to flash at all. Not sure whats going on here but I'm not too worried about it since I now have high and lows. Also, I got the Bosch 666 relay and tried it out, and it basically reversed my HID lights. If I remember right I lost my HID's all together when trying this relay, and then they worked fine again after putting the orange relay back on.. You can only plug it in one way so it wasn't backwards or anything. Very strange. I'll be sending the part back.