SaabCentral Forums banner

Head light electrical problems

797 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Rand148 
#1 ·
My car is a 1987 Saab 9000, non turbo. I have been having some electrical difficulty with it in regards to the headlights. When I first got the car its high beams would not stay on without persistantly clicking the dip switch on the steering column. Eventually this problem grew into a situation where the switch would not even make the clicking feeling, but instead smoothly move from the off to on positions, and not keep the high beams on. They would remain on if you held the switch in the 'on' position, but as soon as you let go, the switch would sping to the 'off' position and the headlights would revert to low beams. I replaced the dip switch with another one that I had from a parts Saab and it worked beautifully until recently.
I now have the same conditions as before, no clicking noise on the dip switch and highbeams only activated while it is held, but now the low beams do not work either. I have tried replacing the round headlight on and off dial on the dashboard and the headlight relay, but with no luck. All I have now, light wise, is my parking lights and my highbeams, assuming that I hold the switch in the 'on' position.
I would change the dip switch again, but I do not want to have to pay for a new one every two months if the trend continues.
Any suggestions?
-Ben
 
#2 ·
Ben,

This is a common problem with the '87, as it uses an inferior headlight switch/circuit design compared to newer years. Also, I seem to recall that the combination switch for the high beam/turn signal is exclusive to 1987, so you can't just upgrade to the better style. The problem is two-fold. First, in 1987, Saab runs the headlight current through that combination switch. There is a headlight relay, yes, but it's before the switch. This seems to cause the contacts in the switch to wear much more than they would if the relay were after the switch. The solution is to remove the switch and make sure ALL the contacts outside the switch body are fully cleaned, to prevent excess resistance in the circuit. Use sandpaper, emery board, file, flat screwdriver, whatever! The contacts on my old '87 were badly oxidized and the switch actually started smoking at one point, bad news!! You also will want to clean the contacts inside the switch.

The second problem is that the latch for the high beam is a little cam inside the switch. The problem is that it's made out of a soft white plastic. It's a square cam, but after many years of use, it gets rounded off, and can no longer activate the high beams. Someone long ago suggested that using epoxy or something similar, you can rebuild the cam with tougher material back to it's original square shape (it's easily removeable from inside the switch). I completely forget how you open the switch, but I don't recall it being hard. The real pisser is that Saab (of course!) doesn't supply any parts of the switch, like the cam that wears out. You have to buy a whole new combination switch to the tune of $150-200. You can buy a used one, and if you're lucky, it's had much less use than your original one and will last a few more years. That's the route I took, and my '87 was still ok on it's second switch after 330k miles.

Good luck!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top