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1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
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I wanted to write up my experience with the Orange relay that controls the Head lights. My 1998 Saab 900SE turbo had a random problem in cold weather with the minute you hit the high beams all headlamps going black and when you dim they would come back on. I first replaced the high beam headlamp relay. The standard relay that is in the car in about 10 other circuits. This was a $6 part. The problem continued and then I reached for the orange relay that controls the headlamps, a $145 part. I could not make myself pay that for a 1X1X2 piece of plastic with a circuit board on it so I ordered it from Goldwing used for $45 shipped. When I got the part in I installed it and then I took 3 small blade screwdrivers and an extra set of hands and carefully removed the cover on the old part. This contained a circuit board and that was it. I took a magnifying glass and examined the solder joints at the base of the circuit board and 3 of them had stress cracks. I had read on Thesaabsite.com that the failure was related to bad solder joints. I then took a fine sized solder iron and re-soldered the defective connections. This is a tight and tedious thing to do but any good old truck stop CB repair shop could do it cheap. I then examined the design and discovered that the long circuit board goes in a wide slot (too wide) in the orange over that snaps on the relay. This allows travel and vibration and creates the fracturing of the solder joints (in my opinion) I took some short pieces of electrical tape and put them over the slot(parallel on top) on the inside of the relay cover. This tightens the hold on the circuit board and may prevent future failure. Everyone may want to try this fix to save them $145. If you are not good with a solder iron (tight solders to each other) take it to an electronic shop. If you have the cover off they should not charge you $5 or $10 to do this while you wait. The electrical tape fix may prevent having future problems from a bad design. I have reinstalled the old relay and it corrected the problem. Happy Saabing.
posted by 63.173.118...
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