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I received the following via email from Ryan A and as usual, I’ve got no idea about this stuff, so I thought I’d post it here and the technically competent amongst you could provide any feedback you might have.
Here’s the email:
I am into car lighting and have recently installed an aftermarket HID kit in my MY07 9-3 SS 2.0T A.E. Apparently the Factory Saab Xenon HID package cannot be installed after-the-fact as I checked with 2 dealers techs.
The install went fairly well and the lights are definetly what I have been craving all this time (escpecially at the much higher rated 55W HID), BUT they only work when the engine is not running. If I turn on the engine, they lights go out after 3 seconds. I get the expected “Headlight/Foglight Failure” in the SID, but was wondering if there is anyway to bypass, reset the diagnostics, or fool the computer to keep them on so I can actually drive.
I’ll be checking with the supplier techs to see if the Warning Code eliminator really solves the problem or if its the quirkyness of the Saab electrical system.
Any help would be helpful as this kit would be a great X-mas present (to myself).
The lights that Ryan is trying to install are here. He got the 8000K DDM 55 Watt Slim Ballast HID KIT for the Lowbeams (H7) and Fog Lights (H3).
We’ve got a pretty good hit rate with tech questions here but this one could be tricky. If you can share some knowledge then I’m sure it’d be appreciated by Ryan and anyone else looking to do the same conversion.
11 responses so far ↓
1 The Fop
// Jan 6, 2009 at 10:57 pm
The reason you cannot install the O.E. Xenons after the fact is that there is a lot more to it than just the lamps. There are legal restrictions (in Europe anyway) about using Xenons that are designed to protect other road users from being dazzled. As a result all Xenons must be fitted with self levelling (therefore requiring the additional hardware for the levelling motors, level sensors etc.) and also pressure washers (as dirty lenses scatter the beam, increasing dazzle). Not sure if these legal restrictions apply to aftermarket – may be worth checking rather than find out the hard way.
2 mark_belfast
// Jan 7, 2009 at 12:08 am
Yup, that sounds right, my Chrysler 300c xenon headlights have self-levelling and power wash
Happy new year everyone, here’s hoping I can get a *new* model Saab later this year! If not maybe I’ll get a cheap, last of line 300C for keeps.
3 saabyurk
// Jan 7, 2009 at 1:01 am
I have no personal experience, but you might want to check out The Ultimate Aftermarket HID Thread at SaabCentral (if you haven’t already). There seems to be some good advice there, and you may need some tech II programming to eliminate SID messages.
4 Peter
// Jan 7, 2009 at 3:07 am
Another case of
“I checked with my Saab dealer but they don’t know what they’re talking about, so I wasted my money anyway – Please Help!”
Can’t do it. Shoulda listened.
Then he tops it off with “the quirkyness of the Saab electrical system”
arrrgh.
5 Tedjs
// Jan 7, 2009 at 8:49 am
Ryan is experiencing the issue as a result of the filament monitor in the underhood electrical center (UEC) detecting excessive current flowing through the bulbs. The UEC is actually more than just a simple fuse box on the 9-3, it is actually a minimum function ECU that communicates with the body control module (BCM) to turn the lamps on an off based on commands from the BCM.
The system is designed to alert the driver in the event of filament damage in a bulb. Once the electrical centre (UEC) detects a fault, it sends a bus message (over the “I” or instrument bus) which is used to display a message in SID. No way to get around that unless you could reprogram the software in the UEC.
And now for some Ohms law 101 for those of you that know a bit about electrical.
I suspect the bulbs he has installed are drawing too much current as they are working with the key on/engine off. And why are they working? Great question. When the key is on, the electrical system is running off battery power only (maybe 12.3 to 12.6 volts) – and there is not enough voltage (pressure) to supply enough current to cause the fault to occur. Once the engine is started and the generator kicks in, system voltage goes up to about 13.0 to 13.5 volts – thus causing the fault due to the increase in current flow through the circuit.
The ‘warning code eliminator’ is most likely a resistor that limits current flow through the circuit to prevent the fault from occurring. Weird thing about that fix – is that it would actually lower some of the voltage to the bulbs and they would be a bit dimmer than normal due to the way the circuit operates.
The Saab electrical system isn’t really quirky – it just has a lot of ‘tools’ it can use to monitor functions and alert the owner to a problem, but I can see how it would give some people headache’s…
6 swade
// Jan 7, 2009 at 8:56 am
Tedjs, you are a legend. Once again.
7 Scott
// Jan 7, 2009 at 11:28 am
I also have an 07 AE. I am interested in installing a set of these but am torn on what site to buy them from. There are a lot of different places to get them but all I read about is issues like these. I’m just wondering if anyone has a recommendation for where to get them.
8 Barney
// Jan 7, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Did you look at using the “lamp out” adapters or the relay kit which get around thebehavior of the SAAB system.
9 Ivan(MuzX)
// Jan 12, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Hi,
Ok, my car is a ‘99 Viggen, but the main problem could be the similar.
I’ve also bought aftermarket HID lights, my version has a digital “ballast” electronics that could simulate the load and characteristic of the normal light.
However, my mechanics who installed the light told that at the first time it also had some error messages, but using TECH2 diagnostic computer they could manage it.
My Saab fellows here in Hungary who installed the cheaper HID on OG9-3 or 9-5 without the digital “ballast” experienced similar error messages.
Maybe the 9-3SS electronics is more “sensitive” to the checking of the lights.
10 Abs
// Jan 20, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Okay, I guess I did not realize my question got posted, but here is the update. Thanks for everyone’s comments, especially Tedjs–always good to here some technical wisdom.
No luck at Saab dealership with reflashing the ECU. The longest and most expensive 3.5 hour car wash I ever had.
I got the lowbeam lights to work just fine on my own. Fog lights…are more hit then miss.
As Tedjs pointed out, the ECU current issues was corrected by pretty much a capacitor (I’ve read other people using a capacitor rather than a resistor–series, parallel, Thevenin Equivalence…) in a fancy housing. So, after getting the Warning Code eliminator from the the website, this solved most of all the issues.
The only issues are that the left (and only left) HID lamp blinks (very slow Strobe effect) once the lights are shut off even if the engine is still running. Definetly not something I or anyone else (i.e. the law) wants to have during any part of the day/night.
The HID foglights work perfectly on the initual burn. However, once switch off, then switched back on, sometimes only one side re-ignites. Chalk that one up to the UEC. I really no longer need the fogs so much since the Lowbeams are soo much brighter–they are for looks (when they work). Actually it seems I got a better projection of light with normal H3 than HID H3. The lens/housing was not designed for HID Lumen output.
To help minimize other drivers getting dazzled (as The Fop mentioned), I have slightly lowered my aiming of the lights. I especially did this after getting out and checking them as a passerby.
Sorry for the long post. I can follow up with some before and after pictures and videos later. Thanks Swade, can’t wait to see you new Blog. Cheers!
Abs
11 Frazer Findlay
// May 19, 2009 at 2:13 am
I bought a 2005 9-3 2.0t about 4 months ago and it has been running fine. However, I have got a ’steering wheel lock malfunction’ message on SID on two separate occasions (about two weeks apart), the last one about ten days ago. The lock seems to be working OK. The only common thing about the occasions when it happened was that the car had been sitting in a hot sun – though this might be coincidental.
Anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?