LED daytime running light for the Saab 9-3

A Saturday in September. IAA time - it's early in the morning. Frankfurt is still far from the usual hustle and bustle. A friend drives me past Saab Service Frankfurt, where I want to pick up a Saab 9-3 Vector limousine. The first Saab with the official LED daytime running light backfitting kit is waiting for me.

Saab 9-3 with LED daytime running lights

A few weeks earlier ...

By phone, Orio Germany logs in with me. In Eschborn, the former Saab subsidiary plans the autumn campaign and thinks about an LED daytime running light retrofit kit. Based on the Hella LED daytime running lights of the model year 2014 one works on a retrofit kit with TÜV certificate and installation instructions. The test requires a Saab 9-3. No Griffin, because there would be no problem retrofitting, but a facelift Vector from model year 2008.

I immediately like the action. For one, I can not stand the daytime running light retrofit sets from the hardware stores. They almost never fit the design line and spoil older cars. On the other hand, any action that keeps the 9-3 up to date is welcome. Saab drivers are looking for accessories, they want to treat themselves and the cars a bit. But they rarely find anything.

Mark owns an 9-3 Vector sedan, which now has to serve as a test object. He spontaneously takes her from Leipzig to Frankfurt. Installation, documentation and TÜV appraisal will be carried out by Gerard Ratzmann. It's almost like the days when the Hessian branch of Saab Automobile AB worked. Only that the actors today are Orio Germany and Saab Service Frankfurt.

LED daytime running light for the Saab 9-3. Design from one piece.

Back to Frankfurt. It's early in the morning and Saab Service Frankfurt is still closed. The keys for the 9-3 are stored elsewhere for collection. We are curious what the daytime running lights look like in nature.

Get the key, start Saab. Activate the parking light and the switch for the fog lights. The LED daytime running lights are lit. It looks like a one-off, fits the vehicle and the design line. Nicely done! The Saab is perceived as a current car as it rolls through the city towards the highway. Hard to believe what a small intervention can change.

In the afternoon it goes east, the next day the Saab Friends Saxony exit is on the calendar. The first participant of the tour, whom I meet on Sunday, comes with a Turbo X. He likes the daytime running lights very much; i think he would like one. Passed the test.

The question remains about the price. Heard, and this is not official, Mark and I have a course of just over 300,00 €. For a vehicle-specific, official Saab kit with TÜV certificate certainly appropriate.

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Erwin
Erwin
6 years earlier

Hello, there is about the self-built solution more detailed information. I think it's beautiful and would like to realize this on my 9.3 Convertible Bj. 2004.

Jack GT
Jack GT
6 years earlier
Reply to  Erwin

Hello Erwin,

for homemade solution there are the advantages and disadvantages listed here on the page below:
http://www.saab-cars.de/threads/led-standlicht.52412/page-4

The really huge advantage of the Orio solution is that the kit comes with TÜV certification, as Tom writes. This makes it the only fully-integrated, vehicle-specific LED TFL retrofit solution for the 9-3 that's legal. And then 300 € are completely ok, considering that a photometric certificate for admission costs 15t €.

If that were the case for the 9-3 II, I would buy it immediately.

LG, Flo

Marcus
Marcus
6 years earlier

That looks really good.
Too bad that most update sets from ORIO are tuned to 9-3.
For drivers of 9-5 I would finally wish something!

Jack GT
Jack GT
6 years earlier

A great idea - and it looks good!

Of course, it would be nice to have a corresponding set for the 9-3 II (up to 2007). Otherwise, the self-built alternative solution, which fortunately is easy to retrofit, must last even longer:
https://ibb.co/eMywnb
https://ibb.co/njZfDG
Let's see what happens. Have you ever heard of Saab enthusiasts getting an update solution from Orio?

Regards,
Flo's

Daniel
Daniel
6 years earlier
Reply to  Jack GT

What speaks against your solution? I think much more meaningful than that of Orio. In your case, even the fog lights work if I see it correctly. What offers Orio there is no TFL, at least in the text it reads like the exchange of H1 lamps against (multiple) LED. For 300 €? That's what you call money making.
I would also be interested in the legal side. In Germany you can't just drive around with NSW and the reversing lights don't light up with the standard DRL. So what is the upgrade kit then? NSW or TFL. I am already looking forward to the discussions with the race management who want to bring up a violation of the regulations for driving with NSW in good weather. No TÜV certificate is of any use ...

Andrei
Andrei
6 years earlier
Reply to  Daniel

Daniel, I think you're wrong. There are many vehicles in which the TFL are placed as standard in the secondary lights. In addition, more and more vehicles are on the market, in which the tail lights shine as standard also when the TFL is turned on (which, incidentally, also makes sense). From the legal side, there should be no problems there.

Daniel
Daniel
6 years earlier
Reply to  Andrei

Factory DRL with rear lights is not allowed in Germany, the TÜV can even refuse you the sticker. You can reprogram it, but it's actually not legal. But not who change with the "Sweden circuit" as you know it at Saab. TFL at NSW is not the problem either, but it was about either-or. In my opinion, this is not the case with vehicles that do not have this (Volvo, for example).

saab_owl
saab_owl
6 years earlier
Reply to  Daniel

What is the added value of this TFL kit anyway? Is it just a matter of giving the burners a longer service life by relieving the xenon headlights? Then I would rather keep the fog lights working and put the money back for the TFL for 2-3 sets of new xenon burners ... I also see the problem with general traffic controls with the mistake of TFL fog lights (see Daniel above).

saab_owl
saab_owl
6 years earlier
Reply to  saab_owl

PS: In many vehicles, the fog lights are at the same time also part of the cornering light, such as the old E-Class W211. Such a solution would have been more interesting in my opinion, if after installation of a module, after setting the turn signal, the respective fog lights would be controlled.

Martin
Martin
6 years earlier

Since I am looking for a daylight solution for the 9³ this is probably a good idea.
PS. In the original, the LEDs look even better than in the pictures

Greetings from Saxony

Andrei
Andrei
6 years earlier

Great thing, thanks for the report!
Will the retrofit kit also be available in Switzerland, as was already the case with the great atmosphere lighting?
Greetings from Zurich

kochje
6 years earlier

@ el-se. Thanks for this link

el-se
el-se
6 years earlier

:
Who hangs anyway since smartphone on the dashboard, gets over the following link a rear view camera for only 100 €, without stripping the entire car pulled and so ugly additional monitor must be installed:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00CANDS7W/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=B00CANDS7W&linkCode=as2&tag=funkrueckfahr-21&linkId=Y2T6MJJYLRVQSRX3

Jonny
Jonny
6 years earlier

What about the fog lamps, are they still available and in use or will they be replaced? Does the LED bar light up as it does on the back of the car?

I find suuper are always made so nice replicas for our Saabs

Arnold Altenhofer
Arnold Altenhofer
6 years earlier

Great report, I have been looking for a long time a solution for my 9-3 convertible, Bj. 2007, would fit the kit?
But I can also get something out of the solution from Matthias from Switzerland. The first choice would of course be the kit.
Arnold

Matthias from CH
Matthias from CH
6 years earlier

Nice that there is such a solution for the 9-3. Tom is right, the solutions from the hardware store or other accessory stores are not necessarily frugal.
Such thoughts I have made some time ago for my 2002 9-5 Aero station wagon. Also solutions from the internet did not satisfy me. Actually, it was all about, after my debacle with my xenons, to spare this, if they work properly again. Since we have to drive in Switzerland with light during the day and so come a few hours on the Brenner.
Our Saab garage has the right solution. With a brief intervention with the Tech2 in the electronics of the car, the front fog lamps (H1) were activated while switching off the main light and switching on the v. Fog lamp. Even the light logo on the dashboard reveals the function of the “low beam”. With newer lamps, the visibility in traffic is just as good as with newer vehicles, only no LEDs. (Christmas is coming soon.)
I like the fact that the Hallogenbirnen are cheap, I also have light at the rear, (forest and tunnel passages) and all other, normal functions are guaranteed.

Matthias

Andrei
Andrei
6 years earlier

As I understand it, this solution simply uses the fog lights as daytime running lights. Is this allowed by law ...?

kochje
6 years earlier

Maybe there is also interest to bring a rear view camera for the 9-3 and 9-3 cabriolet on the market?

Edgar Neumann
Edgar Neumann
6 years earlier

Top!!!

Saimar
Saimar
6 years earlier

Is the retrofit kit also planned for the 9-5?
Greetings Martin

alexander needs
alexander needs
6 years earlier

Hello Tom,
class! every official retrofit option makes our saabs more beautiful! saab drivers are not just car owners but small collectors ...
is it already possible to buy the daytime running lights?
lg from Lake Constance,
alexander