Difficulty w/ driverside low beam headlight.

Sprung Monkey

Original poster
Member
Oct 12, 2017
350
Al
Difficulty w/ driverside low beam headlight.



I recently swapped in a new passenger side low beam headlight , was carful to not touch the glass of bulb.



After swap both seamed fine.



Now the driver side is acting up so I swapped a new bulb and it’s intermittent whether it comes on or not.



Thanks for any tips SM
 

Sprung Monkey

Original poster
Member
Oct 12, 2017
350
Al
when you Guy's say pigtail are you referring to the wired connections behind the headlight?

I checked the lights and they where working. however this is a intermittent issue pulled assey. forward and the wires seam fine note I didn't disconnect any wire looking for dirt.

what do you Guy's think swap these relays like this man w/ the black SS
Thanks SM
 

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Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
:undecided: Do you have HIDs or regular filament bulbs? I can't remember with the Saabs.

A test you can try for the pigtail/harness, is when the light is working, reach in there and wiggle the wires. If the light flickers or goes out, then you confirmed it's a wiring issue. If you had a relay issue, both bulbs would go in and out at the same time. So if one stays on when the other goes out, your issue is downstream of the relay.
 

Sprung Monkey

Original poster
Member
Oct 12, 2017
350
Al
yes HID Excellent test procedure will get on it and report back.

I don't like standing around on the driveway between extreme hot and to be eaten alive by mosquitoes. it's a suit up spray down deal to be on the driveway right now.

there's a bit of a mystery w/ these head lights like if I start w/ trying on lowbean one or both may come on, usalley at least the pass.side comes on.
if I start w/ hi beam then switch to low chances of both low beams coming on are improved.

I don't want to be guessing are they on or off.

BLk shadow you're advice makes alot of sense, and thanks raven you suggest which of the 3 pigtails I'm thinking start at the low beam I ask because now adays w/ all the circuit sharing just CYA


what do you Guy's think of the fogs being used as secondary head lights bolted to hood like a off roader.

or do these type light need to be installed low under bumper to legally cruise around w/ them on
 

Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
You could very well have HID ballast issues. I just had one of my aftermarket HID ballasts fail a couple weeks ago, so I had to buy replacements.

Adding auxiliary lights can work, depending on which types you buy. There are flood lights with wide and/or tall beam patterns, spot lights with narrow but bright patterns, and lights that are somewhat in between. You'd also need to consider looks, if that's something that's important to you, and how you would mount them securely.

Edit: I'm not familiar with the Saab HID setup, so I don't know where the ballasts are located. But to test this issue, once you do find them, is disconnect them and swap one side for the other. If your lighting issue changes sides, then you know you've got a ballast that's on its last legs.
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
I am very familiar with the HID in the Saab. You likely have a failed ballast. Not cheap and I had developed a mod using cheaper ones.

Or you could use another type of ballast that has a wire and mount it somewhere else than on the housing.

Confirm first it is your ballast or bulb by swapping the bulbs from one side to another. If the same light stays out, it's the ballast. Check that 12v is getting to it too.
 

Sprung Monkey

Original poster
Member
Oct 12, 2017
350
Al
When this issues started I resorted to covering ½ the highbeam w/ duck tape.



Can I switch to regular headlights bulbs. I rarely drive late/early but would like to know I can rely on headlights to be working.SM
 

Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Can I switch to regular headlights bulbs. I rarely drive late/early but would like to know I can rely on headlights to be working

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Reading through Mooseman's other thread, it looks pretty easy to replace the ballasts. Much less work than bolting some flood lights to your hood. You just need to get a D1S version, like this...

 
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Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Yeah, you can't just stick regular bulbs in there. Order that kit and follow my thread I posted. There is some modding and soldering but not too bad.
 

Sprung Monkey

Original poster
Member
Oct 12, 2017
350
Al
when the highbeam is selected the low beams stay on in addition to the hi beams.



For a temporary repair since the lows stay on when hi-beam is selected (weird that the lows want to come on w/ hi-beam) remove the lows bulbs and just use the hi’s on there own.

Like the hi’s on there own won’t be as bright as both hi & low. This could be a decent alternative because I rarely drive in the dark and 2 I rarely use hi beams.



Edit: how hard can it be to have independent headlight bulb circuit and use regular bulbs.

I could slap the new fogs into mid-height of grill.



Haven’t read Moosemans thread intirely but will. I don’t mind spending extra $ for blastists/fancy bulbs ect. If they will last another 12 years how to know if the current blastis are oringle I haven’t thrown out the driver side low beam it’s probally still good should I continue to wear it down?



Since it’s probably the blastist I swap to test.



There seams to be a major price difference on blastis $33.at amazon $300. at GM

Am I missing something?



this car can nickel and dime you big time. Next time I go to the junk yard I’ll be looking for these headlight control/fan clught relays that are actuley module’s and spare HID blastis or are people already wise to these issuses.SM



blkshadow:did you post video about swapping relay/modules excellent infor.
 
Last edited:

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
when the highbeam is selected the low beams stay on in addition to the hi beams.

That is normal since it takes a few seconds for HID to fire and be fully bright, you don't want a period of no/low light while transitioning from hi to low beams. In fact, a lot of us mod our regular headlights to have the lows stay on for the extra light.

Like the hi’s on there own won’t be as bright as both hi & low. This could be a decent alternative because I rarely drive in the dark and 2 I rarely use hi beams.

I wouldn't recommend this as you would blind oncoming traffic even if you were to aim your headlights down. Hi beams scatter light everywhere.

Edit: how hard can it be to have independent headlight bulb circuit and use regular bulbs.

Like I said, impossible as there are no halogen version of these bulbs to fit in your housing.

Haven’t read Moosemans thread intirely but will. I don’t mind spending extra $ for blastists/fancy bulbs ect. If they will last another 12 years how to know if the current blastis are oringle I haven’t thrown out the driver side low beam it’s probally still good should I continue to wear it down?

They're not fancy bulbs, they are an exact replacement for your current bulbs. Stay with 4300-5000k colour temp for a bright white light instead of blue at higher temps. The ballasts aren't an exact fit for the housing but will work with some modding.

There seams to be a major price difference on blastis $33.at amazon $300. at GM

Amazon is cheap Chinese knockoffs, GM are, well, original, made by Valero IIRC. Do you want to spend $300 on a truck that will last you maybe another couple of years? Even if you were to replace them 5 times with the cheap Chinese ones every 2 years, you'd still be ahead. For the cost, I would replace both ballasts and bulbs. They do lose brightness over time as you will read in my thread.

this car can nickel and dime you big time. Next time I go to the junk yard I’ll be looking for these headlight control/fan clught relays that are actuley module’s and spare HID blastis or are people already wise to these issuses.SM

Good luck. These trucks are rare to begin with and only the V8 trucks had HID.
 

Sprung Monkey

Original poster
Member
Oct 12, 2017
350
Al
the bulbs are sold in pairs. the ballast are sold individually.

do you guys replace as needed or replace in pairs.
like it's just the pass. side light. so upto now I've started w/ just a bulb swap no joy then installed the driver still no pass. low bean.

I'll take a close look out the wiring + wiggle test will there be visible burntness?

as for the auxiliary lights bolted to hood doe's fuse box have extra fused port for such additions?
Thanks
 

Sprung Monkey

Original poster
Member
Oct 12, 2017
350
Al
woops I just reread MM advice replace all due to bulb weakening

I kindof like only replacing as needed. is it just the the bulb weakening or doe's the blasit weaken also
 

Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Everything wears out eventually. When my aftermarket bulbs/ballasts fail, I'll replace the pair, and keep the remaining functional older item as a backup for down the road when one of the newer items fails, so I won't need to buy replacements right away. IMO, this is a more important thing to do with bulbs, as they can color shift over time in addition to brightness changes. Only replacing one, and then the other some time later, may result in slight color variances between the 2.
 

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