Hi everyone, I am having problems getting my HID kit to work on my 2005 S40 2.4i. The kit is 35watts @ 8,000k everything is all wired and set up already. The Hid stays solidly lit for about 10 secs, after that it starts flickering and on my dash it says a message about my low beam bulb is out. SOME ONE PLEASE HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the same problem also. I've heard many different responses such as buying a relay harness, a regulator, to having the DRLs turned off and having it flashed for HIDs. If you ever figure it out, please let us know!

Could be one or the combination of some or all.
Get in touch with John Sharp, at http://www.sharphid.com/, I’ve found this guy fully knowledge on HID and very supportive even if you didn’t buy your kit from him, he can also offer you some solutions.
Some owners said that no flickering when the lights are always in the "on" position.
Some owners just installed capacitors to fix the problem.

The problem seems to be the DRL's, but some dealers will not disable them, they say they are there for safety, some other dealers says it's impossible and there isn't even a option to disable them, this is bullsht, some other dealers turned off for free, some others will add a small fee, so check locally with your dealer.
Also some owners used the Military Base argument to force the dealer to turn it off:

You will need a wiring harness that takes power directly from the battery to power the ballasts. The cambus system in the S40 does not provide enough voltage, vauxhall astra 2006 is the same.
stay on for 10 seconds, flicker then off.
I ordered a wiring kit from ebay/china for £5 + £2 p+p, i've yet to install but should solve the problem.
i ordered 2x, one for mine one for the astra as we both have the same HID kit.
My HID kit worked fine in my old 2001 S40, but not in this one.
I'll let you know if it works - should do.

I got the same problem and here's what I found out. On the new s40(2004.5-) you got 2 issues to work out in order to get your lights working. The CEM is programmed to sense the load, and if it falls below 55watt range it gives you a 'LOW BeAM Failure'. Your HID's although it says 35watt, it draws around 45watt(3.5 amp) so you need to increase the load by around 10 watts. That could be simply done by wiring a resistor in parallel. 10 watts at 13 volt equals roughly to a 17 ohm resistor. I used a 16 ohm 20 watt, and that got rid of the low beam failure.
Unfortunately that's not all. The CEM on s40's w/ halogen headlights also has PWM(pulse width modulation) software for headlights. PWM is used to control voltage level at constant 13volts +/- .2 to prevent current spikes from alternator when the is engine is running. That's why you see your lights flicker. On my HID kit, it automatically goes into safe mode (turns off)when the engine turns on because of this PWM ****.

Solutions:
1:(best way) Go to the dealer and tell them to uninstall PWM sofware for the headlights from the CEM(don't let them tell you it's not possible, HID equpped s40'd have it disabled), and possibly to change the current sensing value from 55watt to 45 watt(or use a resistor)

2:(works, but not preferrable) Run a relay from the battery for your HID's(no more flickering), and use a 3 ohm 100 watt resistor(no low beam failure). You could have your relay switch from the socket. The reason this method sucks, is because you wasting extra electricity for the resistor which turn into heat. Plus you HID's that will add up to about 100 watts of power/ 1 headlight. This is more of a temporary fix or if you're worried about voiding your warranty. You could always remove it and have everything back to stock(pwm+55w sensing). In a long run,though, I would go with#1.

P.S. The Shunt Resistor FIx is not possible on S40's since everything is microprocessor controlled.

Well my HID bypass cable turned up from china (9 days not bad), and yes i get the same high speed flickering - PWM problem.
Works fine while the engine is off.
Soon as the engine is started, runs for 2 seconds or so, then starts flicking the relay at very high speed causing the lights to flicker too.
Getting frustrating now - i hate modern cars.
I actually thought the bypass lead would work.
Unless you get this PWM disabled - or bypassed - its back to the drawing board.

rushin actually knows how this system works and has posted the solutions. The headlamps do work PWM (percentage of time power is transmited to control the bulbs) ie pulse width modulation and the cem will check for correct circuit current draw and shorts and shut the circuit down if it senses that something is out of specification and thus put a bulb failure fault on dash.

Thoughts to circuit designers......

I'm wondering (more of a 2 fingers up at the dealership) if there anyway of bypassing PWM issue.

If you use a resistor, you can fool the CEM into thinking the bulbs are working problem solved - but PWM is still the problem.

How about using a capacitor to smooth out the pulses. My understanding of a capacitor charges and releases it energy over a slightly longer time. So if you pulse a capacitor, does it provide a constant voltage? Me thinking during its release cycle, the voltage has dropped and come back up again thus charging the capacitor again.
See what i'm thinking?

Any thoughts?

Would a 15 ohm - 20 watt resistor work to correct the bulb out issue?

Volvo (volvo slough - uk) refused to remove PWM from the car. They said this kind of modification is not endorsed by volvo and will not be done.

They did though offer to remove my SRS airbag service warning light for £29.50+vat - so about £35 including a full check of the airbag system - which i don't need because i know the system works.

So everytime your battery goes flat, you have to pay volvo 35 quid to reset the airbag system. Nice little earner for them!! don't worry, i'll be having words.

I did this yesterday on my 06 2.4i with the wiring harness you talked about. This is an extremely easy installation. At first the lights flickered when I tested them and I got the "Low Beam Failure" message on the dash. Since I have been reading on your posts I was sort of expecting it, so no biggie... So I turned off the car and left the switch in the O position which was were it used to flicker. When Im ready to leave I turned on the vehicle and I get no flickering, works like a charm and HID's look NICE. But I still get the message on the dash.... Anyone know how to take that $%@ off?

Great! i turned on the car and now the HID's don't come off even when the car is off LoL

Help anyone?

Has anyone tried BOW harness?

So far I know of (2) s40's that had success with it, but it does have a glitch(sometimes only one light turns on)

Check out the swedespeed forums for my posts(rushin_max)

I'm currently in the process of making my own relay harness and hooking up directly to the switch. The only problem with that is the BOW message will still be on. But I'm trying to find a fix for that too with DRL disable. I could use resistors, but seems like a waste of battery power.


The lights power through CEM, which has 2 trigger wires coming from LSM(light switch module). 1st for DRL, 2nd for Parking. THe third position(lights on) doesn't have a trigger wire, meaning you could disconnect the whole switch and the CEM will think the switch is in 3rd position "lights on", and therefore turn on the low beams. That's how CEM is programmed.
Now, we want CEM to turn the lights off completely, and that's where the DRL trigger comes in. You could go reprogramm your CEM to turn off the lights when the DRL is triggered(basically, disable DRL's). and then wire the HID relay harness trigger to the DRL position. That will be your new 'HID lights on' position. and if something goes wrong with the lights, you could always put back the halogens. IMO this is the best way to hook up your HID's without risking burning-out anything(like the windshield wiper motor).

Thats interesting, using the DRL as a trigger, never thought of that. Humm....

I snooped around the net and found out that if you take the light switch out of the dash there are screwdriver holes in the back of it. They are white and are switched to the position "locked" since they are two in my s40 I have to get home and play around with them to see if these do in fact disable the DRL's and allow the aftermarket HID's to be installed without the relay and be originally installed like they are supposed to being a true plug and play set. Here are some pics... I will keep you guys up 2 date with this...

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