Hi all,
New to the forums so and fairly new to Volvos, so please excuse what I know is going to be a stupid question! I have recently acquired a used 2006 XC90 and it has Bi-Xenon headlights. I am perplexed by the operation of these and am trying to figuer out just what is the "NORMAL" operation so I can tell if there is something wrong. I am very familiar with Xenons in general, but mostly on Audis.
Anyway, as most of you already know, these headlights have FOUR bulbs when you look at them head on, the two outer bulbs are the Xenon bulbs and they have two inner bulbs which are straight halogen bulbs. When I turn the lights on, the outer Xenons come one just fine, put it on high beam, and the motors inside adjust the reflector so the beams on the outer bulbs move up, BUT the inner halogen bulbs DON'T come on. In fact, no matter what I do, I cannot get the inner bulbs to come on, I've tested them and they are perfect, but they will NOT come on, all that happens from low, to high is that the reflectors move on the Xenon bulbs. Is that what's supposed to happne on these lights?
Now, I know these inner bulbs are NOT the daytime running lights, those are in the lower part of the lamps.
OK, so that's one issue......here is the second one. If the car is NOT running, but the key is on, headlights on.....when swithching from low to high and back and forth, BOTH reflectors (that is both pass and driver's sides) move just like you would think they're supposed to. BUT, start the engine up and ONLY the driver's side headlight beam moves when changing from low to high beam!!!! Now, THAT doesn't seem proper to me.....that tells me that something is wrong. I have NO dash lamps on or messages in the center and no codes on my scanner when pulled.
I know this is lengthy, but I wanted to give everyone all the information available. I would appreciate ANY help anyone can give me on this perplexing problem. THANKS A TON!!!
Rob

 

In British Columbia anyway the inner lights are daytime running lights and only work during daylight. They turn off during darkness (how convenient) and only the B-Xenon tilt for high beam. Not nearly enough light so have you found any solutions for a brighter more effective high beam?