'04 XC90 Headlight Downgrade bi-Xenon to Halagen

[brockster]

After putting a 1/2-inch crack in my passenger side headlight lens a couple of years ago, rain water eventually seeped in and temporarily shorted out the power converter for the bi-Xenon lamp. The easy/temporary/short-term fix was to remove the headlight assembly and dry it out thoroughly. Great...bi-Xenon lamp is working fine.
The car is a keeper, so I looked into a longer term solution. The 1/2-inch visible crack turns out to be about 4-inches long underneath the black rubber boot on top of the lens. I talked to the dealer about an OEM replacement assembly...$1300.00 installed (just the passenger side!)...or $1100.00 for the assembly without installation. Too much for me. A web search turned up the same assembly (I think) for $900.00. Still too mcuh. Then, someone suggested that I buy BOTH passenger side and driver side OEM assemblies for $500.00 total...which I did.
Installation went perfect!
All lights work perfect!
But....
The dashboard information screen says, "Headlamp Failure. Service Required"
The dealer says the internal processor is 'smart' enough to know that it's expecting bi-Xenon characteristics (voltage/current draw) but too dumb to know I changed to halagen lights.
The dealer knows of no way to re-program the processor so that it expects halagen characteristics.

Bottom line: I've got a set of used bi-Xenon headlight assemblies to sell at a great price to someone who thinks they know how to repair a crack (I'll post them for sale in another part of this forum)...and...I'd be grateful if anyone knows if the offending processor can be taught to look for halagen characteristics. Any ideas

[Flip07]

I am in a similar situation. Long story short, to keep cost down I replaced my bi-xenon with halogen and I get the same light with the same comment from the dealer. I was waiting on headlight costs to drop far enough over time to replace, or possible find a junkyard swap. Never have though, so the Headlamp Failure remains. Some day maybe....

[SheTriedIt]

So the dealer won't program tge "Xenon present? config field to No?"

Also, what did you replace? Headlamp and harness? Or just bulb?

Thanks

[Rattnalle]

So the dealer won't program tge "Xenon present? config field to No?"

Also, what did you replace? Headlamp and harness? Or just bulb?

Thanks

You'd need to change the car config. The dealer isn't allowed to and/or can't afaik. The only option would be a few home hackers who can do stuff like that.

[SheTriedIt]

Does anyone know how to successfully downgrade from xenon to halogen from an operational stand-point - will all the different light components work on the halogens per the harness - is the harness a perfect plug and play or adapter? If I install Halogen harness, bulbs and headlamp, will the lights work OUTSIDE, I don't care about an error message INSIDE. The xenon error would only be joining the tire pressure and passenger air bag error lights - I ignore those just fine...

I guess I can just order and return if it doesn't work, but I wanted to avoid all that - but I can't keep rolling with one headlight - it gets dark at 5:30 and I can't even make it home before dark.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[oragex]

Electronics are not dumb but they can definitely be "not smart". No way to reprogram any car light to remove the low voltage bulb warning.. I love this thread because I'm not in favor of expensive equipment that is not actually really needed. Good to hear a downgrade is possible.

[Rattnalle]

P2 xenon headlights are, at least the reflector style ones, a really great upgrade from the standard halogens. I'd never be able to go back and be happy with halogens again. They're definitely on the list of needed equipment.

[shiloh51933]

This is a good topic, I've been through this personally with our 2004 XC70 w/factory Xenon/Bi-xenon lighting. After hurricane Sandy the R/F Ballast module and the ignitor failed. So I had to repair the headlight because a new factory assembly was like $1100.00.
We love the lighting but it's expensive.
One of my customers owns a 2003 XC70 and he was looking for better lighting at night so I installed a Xenon HID kit for him, I also installed LED controllers with CANBUS which will supply power to the bulbs. CANBUS will prevent flickering and on dash errors and guarantee zero radio interference. I also installed a set of warning cancellors/capacitors to prevent on-dash errors that may occur with vehicles that have complex on-board computers (Volvo of course falls within this category). My thought is there's warning cancellors for upgrading to XENON/HID lighting. You should be able to trick the computer into thinking the correct voltage is present.

[cuhfs]

RESURFACING this thread. Has anyone "cracked the code" for avoiding or resetting the "Headlamp Failure. Service Required" warning trouble light ? Seems when you switch from the factory scratched up dim headlight to a clear less expensive brighter headlight / new non-OEM assembly it triggers the permanent warning "Headlamp Failure. Service Required" . I have seen online that the new assembly has different amps and no ballast and that is the reason for the triggered warning. Is there a workaround? OEM headlight assembly are $$$ and refinishing used ones have not been as good or as bright as the cheaper aftermarket ones. ANy thoughts are we stuck using dim OEM lights?

[ZionXIX]

Speaking as a person who has zero experience with this. Is there a way to increase the voltage/current draw to approximate the xenon lights to fool the computer. I just don't know where the current would go. Could the xenon parts be transplanted to the new assemblies? My standard lights have the rectangular housing for xenons.