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9-3SS w/ BI-Xenons - headlight high beams

In my new (to me) 2003 9-3 Sport Sedan I have the Bi-Xenon headlights, which are quite a nice thing as my night vision becomes worse with advancing age.

I noticed that there is a conventional high beam headlight bulb in the the headlight bucket, but this bulb never comes on. When I actuate the high-beam the pattern of the HIDs change as the cut-off mask inside moves, but the halogen bulbs do not illuminate.

Can anyone else with a SS and BiXenons confirm that these lamps are in fact supposed to light? I'll be dropping it at the deals next week for them to fix all the little things that I have found that are wrong with the car (under warranty) and I just want to know if I should add this to the list.

TIA,

Reply to
Fred W
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Don't know. Maybe post to saabcentral.com

Reply to
dan

Here's what they said when I brought the car in: The halogen lamp is only there for the "follow me home" feature. That is where the lights stay on for some delay period to allow you to get from the car to your home door.

They also said that it was impossible to program the Daytime Running Lights off if you have Bi-Xenons. That seems rather odd...

Reply to
Fred W

Not true, at least for the 2004. My 9-3 has the Xenons and I've the daytime running lights off since the 30-day check up.

Reply to
Shane Almeida

Thanks for the reply, Shane.

Do you have the BiXenons or Xenon low beams and halogen high beams?

If you have the BiXenons, does yours have the halogen lamps on the inboard side of the HID bulb too? If so do yours ever come on?

TIA,

Reply to
Fred W

Bi-xenon.

Each side has three bulbs: the xenon and two other smaller ones. One looks like just a regular round little bulb. The other one comes to a point and has a black coating at the end. The little round bulb is used for the parking lights and the follow-me-home lights. It also comes on whenever the xenon bulb is on. The other one never comes on. I tried the low beams, high beams, parking lights, and the follow-me-home lights and nothing made it light up. Not sure what it's used for. Maybe it's a backup if the xenon bulb fails?

Reply to
Shane Almeida

Thanks again Shane. That is exactly how mine are so I guess that must be the way they are "supposed" to behave.

I just wonder about that other bulb that never comes on. It really looks like a standard halogen headlight bulb and I, for one, wouldn't mind if there was a way to get that to come on w/ high beams (programming?).

Though the Bi-Xenons are much better than a standard low beam, and worth having for that reason, I'm underwhelmed with the high beams.

Reply to
Fred W

Really? Maybe I just got used to really weak lights before, but the quality of the light output from low- and high-beams with the bi-xenons blows me away. They were definitely worth the extra $500 or so.

Reply to
Shane Almeida

Well, the way I see it, the light amplitude (brightness) is about the same on low and high beam. When you switch to highs and the cut-off "gate" moves out of the way, the beam pattern just extends higher.

I think it would be nice to have that plus an additional lamp to make the high beam both larger and brighter. Actually, the best thing would be to be able to enable or disable the second bulb on the fly.

Reply to
Fred W

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