[MDA]

Hi,

I have a 9-5 Aero (2005, with Xenon headlights) as its first owner (I always loved and will ever love this car...). But I faced an extremely weird problem a few days ago.

I know "follow me home" function of the headlight and I used it frequently and enjoyed it at nights in front of the door of my house. So let me repeat again: I do know how to activate this feature. But now, it does not work and I do not know what could happen...

I have gone to the repair shop and the guy tested the DICE with his computer and told me that the configuration of the DICE is okay. Also, the normal light-functions work without any problem which means the cabling, relays and fuses have to be okay as well. So, I am completely at loss...

Does anyone have a solution or just any tip or idea?
This forum is my last hope...


Thanks in advance,
Attila

 

[EdT]

How did the shop test the feature? Do they have a Tech II? Did they check all codes with a Tech II?

If I recall, the follow me home procedure includes having a door open. Is the interior light coming on as usual? Does the car know that the door is open?

And is the lighting stalk working properly? You can get high beams when the car is running?

 

[MDA]

Thanks for your quick reply!

Actually, I went to the specialist Saab shop due to another problem but I asked the repairman for checking this failed function as well if I was there. So he could not have too much time for very detailed investigation in this topic but, as far as I know, they have genuine Saab toolkit and test equipment as this was a dedicated Saab repair shop during "living Saab era".

Anyhow, thanks for your tips but, I am afraid, I am beyond these questions... As I know, everything works well and smoothly in my car except this "follow me home" function. Bloody strange and in-understandable...

Maybe I will take my car to the shop again providing them more time (for more money... ) for their specific technical investigations concerning this headlight problem (if they take it on at all...).

 

[EdT]

Well, you have to look at the prerequisites for the feature to work. As far as I know, car has to be off, door open, high beam stalk pulled. So the first step is to verify that each of those is correct, including the key cylinder popping up after you have removed the key. And of course the HID lights must work properly.

I suspect that one of these has stopped working. It seems more likely than the car's logic suddenly deciding "oh, the heck with it".

Did the feature just stop working one day (night) and never has worked since? Was anything done to the car before that, or anything happened to it?

 

[MDA]

Yes, your approach seems to be absolutely correct. Although, as I wrote, I did not detect these kinds of "pre-conditional" failures, I will recheck each of them again.


However, you are right, there was a preliminary story, indeed: the light switch went wrong (the headlight sometimes worked, but sometimes did not work but follow me home was wrong as well) and I needed to replace the main combined light switch located on the dashboard. Since that time, both the main beam and dipped beam work again; only "follow me home" is missing. This was the only one event regarding in this topic.

But I do not remember what could happened since the last correct usage of "follow me home" which was able to make it faulty...

 

[Mimmi]

Have you checked that you have "follow me home" enabled and that there is time selected?

 

[MDA]

This is a good question, thanks.

But I do not know where and how I can enable this function.
I think, maybe, these are parameters in DICE software which have to be set there; if so, I cannot check it but I hope the guy has checked this set up with Tech II in the garage.

Or, do you know perhaps how to set these switches somewhere else (if possible without Tech II diagnostic scanner)?

Thanks!

 

[Mimmi]

Follow me home is option of DICE and you need TECH2 for activation and change values.

 

[MDA]

Thanks for confirmation.
Next time, I will ask the repairman in the garage to check the firmware of DICE substantially because, as I have already tested, all the other "external preconditions" of using this function is okay.

To be honest, as a former programmer, I do not really understand how a working software parameter can be set without human interaction in such a way that the software continues to work...
Maybe, probably, a careless or accidental DICE reset during one of the previous service jobs?

Time will tell soon. Thanks again for help to everybody here.