XC70: Electrical Xenon ABL High Beam?

[Cubbington]

Evening all,

Hopefully someone can answer this, as I’m a little confused by my main beam operation!

Having removed the headlights at the weekend to replace the W5W sidelights with LEDs (Philips Ultinon + Philips Canbus adapters), and give the lenses a clean and polish, I asked Mrs Cubbington to flash the main beams so I could check everything was working as it should once it was all back together.

To my surprise, with the main beam flash, then the halogen bulbs light up, but I couldn’t see any difference in the light coming from the xenons...but I thought they are bi-xenons, doing both dipped and main beam, and the halogens are additional main beam? I noticed that one of the headlights also has a rattle - like something moving back and forth, which again I assumed was the projector lens.

I can hear a mechanical clunk from the front of the car when flashing main beam, and I assumed that was the sound of the projector lenses moving for main beam operation.

All seems to be fine, no errors on the dash, the lights nod up and down when the car’s started, and the active bending’s working, so is this how they’re meant to be?

I had noticed before checking this, that when main beam is on, the active bending doesn’t seem to work, or is maybe just masked by the output and spread of the halogen main beams?

I need to take the car out on an empty road to test the main beam operation, to see if it looks any different now, but I had assumed it was just being provided by the xenons, as it appears (or at least appeared) to light up the road for miles, whereas dipped beam is quite a short throw.

Cheers,

Nick

[Tannaton]

When in dipped beam there is a baffle which obscures part of the xenon beam to give the dipped beam cut off. When you activate high beam a solenoid moves this out of the way so the cut off is removed. The additional halogen bulb also operates.

The halogen bulb is there as some HID bulbs take a few seconds to reach full light output from cold, hence can’t be relied upon for momentary signalling.

[Cubbington]

Thanks Tannaton,

Apologies, I did mean baffles rather than lenses moving, so thanks for putting it correctly, and that’s what I thought should happen - you could certainly see that work in my old 5 Series’ xenons.

The Volvo xenons are on permanently with the sidelights, so I thought the flash would be with them, but understand why the halogens come on too.

I’ve just gone for a quick spin while the roads are quiet...and will expect a call from the local plod as I pulled up in a dark corner of the local hospital car park flashing my lights for a couple of minutes, looking rather dodgy!

The halogens light up, and I can see the cut in the beam on the xenons through the lens, but that doesn’t change with or without main beam on, and I can’t see any difference in main beam performance before I removed them at the weekend, so still confused, but guess I’ve not broken anything.

I’ll have a poke around at the weekend, and see if there’s something loose stopping the baffles from working as they should.

Cheers,

Nick

[apersson850]

It wasn't like that from the beginning, but after some software update, together with an "official" service at Volvo, my light switch functionality changed. Now the lights can go on as usual with the switch in the zero position, for for the bending lights to work, it has to be in the "on" position.
Also note that the bending lights don't work in daylight, nor when the car is at standstill.

You should get high beam from the Xenon lights too, not just from the halogen lights.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Cubbington

Thanks Tannaton,

Apologies, I did mean baffles rather than lenses moving, so thanks for putting it correctly, and that’s what I thought should happen - you could certainly see that work in my old 5 Series’ xenons.

The Volvo xenons are on permanently with the sidelights, so I thought the flash would be with them, but understand why the halogens come on too.

I’ve just gone for a quick spin while the roads are quiet...and will expect a call from the local plod as I pulled up in a dark corner of the local hospital car park flashing my lights for a couple of minutes, looking rather dodgy!

The halogens light up, and I can see the cut in the beam on the xenons through the lens, but that doesn’t change with or without main beam on, and I can’t see any difference in main beam performance before I removed them at the weekend, so still confused, but guess I’ve not broken anything.

I’ll have a poke around at the weekend, and see if there’s something loose stopping the baffles from working as they should.

Cheers,

Nick

Suggest you cover over the halogen part of the headlamp with a sock or something and then try. As post above pointed out the headlight switch has to be at II or ON otherwise main beams will not latch and ABL will not operate.

[Cubbington]

Thanks for the info and advice chaps.

Funnily enough Tannaton, I was going to simply pop the halogen bulbs out and see what happens, but I don’t need to...

I was parked up close to the side of another car earlier today and flashed the main beam on, and could see the xenon beam raise as I’d expect it to.

What I did notice was the spread of the halogen main beam does almost cover it, so again working as I’d expect, in as much as the main beam spread out on to the road must be identical...and why I was surprised at how good the main beam is, thinking it was just working from the halogen bulbs.

Just for reference, and taking into account aperrsson850’s comment regarding the change in operation with a software update, my switch is always left in position ‘0’, which keeps the xenons & sidelights on permanently, along with the active bending working at night.

So basically, I guess it’s all working as it should, just not obviously at first...I may still disconnect the halogen bulbs to test, just for peace of mind.

Thanks again for all the interesting info.

Nick

[apersson850]

Before the update, I could leave the switch in 0 position all the time too. The difference compared to the "on" position was that in daylight, the high beam would not latch with the switch at 0. ABL was working in both positions.

But after the update, high beam will latch in daylight as well as during the night in both positions. But ABL will only work in "on". Nowadays, I drive with the switch in "on" all the time, as I like ABL and it starts working when it gets dark by itself.

[Cubbington]

OK, with that in mind, I’ll leave the switch in the “on” position and see what happens.

Bizarrely, while on the surface this seems like the oldest technology-wise car I’ve owned for a few years, it seems like there are a lot of operational differences depending on what software updates have been done, and more so than my previous cars!

I might just take it to my local main dealer and ask them to bring the whole car up to date, so I know what should be going on!

Cheers,

Nick