Day running lights

[frenchfries]

Hi all

As you can see the day running lights (both sides) have overheated and the plastic casing is quite deformed. The bulbs were the standard 21/4 watts. Are the front headlight units easy to source?

[dragonflyjewels]

You can buy replacement lenses from joep - not cheap but exact copies in a different type of plastic which is more heat resistant. There is a thread somewhere about changing to LEDs with the same fitting. Are you aware that if you fit bulbs with wrongly placed pins, the pop up motors are disabled ? Likewise if the DRL bulb blows the headlamps won't come up.

[frenchfries]

Hello

Thanks for the heads up.

The bulb plastic casings are fine but the ones on the clusters are out of shape and seem to be part of the cluster itself. I will have a look at LEDs as it would solve my problem from a heat point of view especially if they cannot be placed back exactly as they should be (1 if ok the other one does not fit properly): Are these the LEDs you mentioned: https://www.amazon.co.uk/VANSSI-BAY15d- ... +watts+LED

If they are can they double up as parking/day running lights?

I will PM joep, thanks

[Ade]

Are you aware that if you fit bulbs with wrongly placed pins, the pop up motors are disabled ? Likewise if the DRL bulb blows the headlamps won't come up.

I've read this several times in several places over the years but never ever ever experienced a problem with pop ups when DRL's are blown, missing, wrong bulb wedged in, whatever.... They always work regardless

What's the deal there? Is there some difference on later cars with the later CEMs that makes them not work with DRL issues because both my 480's ('89 and '90) have never had the pop up function affected by DRLs. As it happens, one of my bulbs went yesterday and the pop ups are still fine?????? Also, when I took delivery of the black one, both bulbs were actually broken, filaments hanging in tatters, yet the headlights still worked.

[jifflemon]

Hello

Thanks for the heads up.

The bulb plastic casings are fine but the ones on the clusters are out of shape and seem to be part of the cluster itself. I will have a look at LEDs as it would solve my problem from a heat point of view especially if they cannot be placed back exactly as they should be (1 if ok the other one does not fit properly): Are these the LEDs you mentioned: https://www.amazon.co.uk/VANSSI-BAY15d- ... +watts+LED

If they are can they double up as parking/day running lights?

I will PM joep, thanks

I cannot praise Joep's work enough - I recommended EVERY 480 should order a set of the lenses as soon as possible (I'm actually considering ordering spares!). The quality is superb and he's a pleasure to deal with. Happy to vouch for him!

Be carefull with LED's; Resident electronics Guru Brinkie will be along soon enough to advise, but you have to be quite picky about the LED bulbs you choose, as some generate more heat than normal bulbs (the exact opposite of what we're trying to achieve)

[frenchfries]

That did not happen on my 92. Pop ups worked fine with a blown DLR

[dragonflyjewels]

In Sweden, DRL's are compulsory and Volvo have been trying for years to get the EU to make them compulsory as well. The headlamps don't operate with a blown or incorrect drl bulb to alert the driver to stop and sort the DRL (damn silly idea, but there we are) If you have a 480 where the pop ups work regardless it has been modified by a previous owner (much better idea). The DRL bulbs need to be 21/4 watts as they dim down when the headlamps are turned on.

[jifflemon]

Oh, and you could look here.....

But just before clicking, I should warn you.... it could start getting expensive! (in a totally good way though!)

[frenchfries]

Hello

Thanks for the heads up.

The bulb plastic casings are fine but the ones on the clusters are out of shape and seem to be part of the cluster itself. I will have a look at LEDs as it would solve my problem from a heat point of view especially if they cannot be placed back exactly as they should be (1 if ok the other one does not fit properly): Are these the LEDs you mentioned: https://www.amazon.co.uk/VANSSI-BAY15d- ... +watts+LED

If they are can they double up as parking/day running lights?

I will PM joep, thanks

I cannot praise Joep's work enough - I recommended EVERY 480 should order a set of the lenses as soon as possible (I'm actually considering ordering spares!). The quality is superb and he's a pleasure to deal with. Happy to vouch for him!

Be carefull with LED's; Resident electronics Guru Brinkie will be along soon enough to advise, but you have to be quite picky about the LED bulbs you choose, as some generate more heat than normal bulbs (the exact opposite of what we're trying to achieve)

I believe he is not a member but I found him on EBay and sent a message via Ebay. However, if you have an email address for me I am all eyes

[brinkie]

In Sweden, DRL's are compulsory and Volvo have been trying for years to get the EU to make them compulsory as well. The headlamps don't operate with a blown or incorrect drl bulb to alert the driver to stop and sort the DRL (damn silly idea, but there we are) If you have a 480 where the pop ups work regardless it has been modified by a previous owner (much better idea). The DRL bulbs need to be 21/4 watts as they dim down when the headlamps are turned on.

That is not how Volvo intended the operation of the headlights in your 480. If your headlights don't operate with a blown DRL bulb, you have serious other issues in the electrics, like a bad earth connection. The headlight circuitry is totally independent from the DRL, with earlier (< 1989) 480's having a blown bulb detection circuitry on the DRLs. Also there seems to be a myth about headlight popups being operated by the CEM; they aren't. It's all very plain circuitry with switches, relays and a couple of diodes in the headlight popup motor. If something fails to operate I would check on the relays, connectors (spray liberally with contact cleaner) and earth (clean the contact surface and tighten).

[brinkie]

I believe he is not a member but I found him on EBay and sent a message via Ebay. However, if you have an email address for me I am all eyes

I will PM you his e-mail address, won't display that in the open as the spambots will pick that up.

[dragonflyjewels]

That's really interesting, my info came from the mechanic who looks after our 480's, and used to work at a Volvo Main Dealer when they were current. I'm wondering if the cars here in the UK might be different ? We've had the same lack of pop-ups on 3 of our 480s in the past. Number 4 hasn't been with us long enough for a drl to fail yet. If it did turn out to be a wiring fault it would be great to get them all sorted.

[Alan 480]

Our first 480 had bulb failure on teh front DRL, but seems to ONLY be on teh rears on teh 93 version.

front bulbs were only lasting about 6 months at a time (or felt like it)

can't notice pop-ups not working cos use to run most of winter without the DRL as teh headlights were always ON, being this far north . . . .. .

[Gmac34]

I recently swapped my rear brake lights and front DRL's with these:
http://www.ebay.it/itm/311272270815
single positive contact model that I used in the front
http://www.ebay.it/itm/391362901718
double positive contacts model that I used in the rear (Uk driver probably need this in the front as well)

didn't bother to replace the turning signal lights as they don't get very hot anyway.

I think these are the brightest LED lights that can be found with this fitment, I'm very happy with the results for the stop lights.
DRL are fine too, a little too white for my taste, but at least they look bright enough to be a DRL without cooking the plastic.

As usual with Chinese stuff, one had bad soldering joints and hat to be resoldered in order to work properly (not all the LED were lighting up).

[brinkie]

That's really interesting, my info came from the mechanic who looks after our 480's, and used to work at a Volvo Main Dealer when they were current. I'm wondering if the cars here in the UK might be different ? We've had the same lack of pop-ups on 3 of our 480s in the past. Number 4 hasn't been with us long enough for a drl to fail yet. If it did turn out to be a wiring fault it would be great to get them all sorted.

It might be caused by the infamous "dim-dip" feature present on UK cars. I will look into the schematics later this week.

As usual with Chinese stuff, one had bad soldering joints and hat to be resoldered in order to work properly (not all the LED were lighting up).

I wouldn't buy these in the first place, the circuit boards are not in an enclosure so it will be very much susceptible to moisture and vibrations.

[Gmac34]

That's really interesting, my info came from the mechanic who looks after our 480's, and used to work at a Volvo Main Dealer when they were current. I'm wondering if the cars here in the UK might be different ? We've had the same lack of pop-ups on 3 of our 480s in the past. Number 4 hasn't been with us long enough for a drl to fail yet. If it did turn out to be a wiring fault it would be great to get them all sorted.

It might be caused by the infamous "dim-dip" feature present on UK cars. I will look into the schematics later this week.

As usual with Chinese stuff, one had bad soldering joints and hat to be resoldered in order to work properly (not all the LED were lighting up).

I wouldn't buy these in the first place, the circuit boards are not in an enclosure so it will be very much susceptible to moisture and vibrations.

There isn't much choice if you want a powerful LED, the ones with an optical lens are not good, I had a set in the back and they would project a round shadow as the rear cluster is too narrow, these are much better and look stock.
Don't know about moisture, but I had mine on for a while, washed the car many times, and also gave them a proper stress test on nasty roads.
Apart from the one whit the bad joints (that was faulty out of the package) none had failed.

[dragonflyjewels]

A parcel of replacement lenses arrived from Joep today, and I'm so pleased with them, every bit as good as I was hoping. We'll be using them on all of our 480s as soon as the budget allows.

[dcwalker]

I have never encountered a problem with the headlights if a DRL fails. What I had always understood was that the headlamps will not function properly if you do not use the correct DRL bulb - ie 21/4W with the correct offset to the pins.

I know they get hot, but personally I've never seen quite such a mess as yours were, french-fries!

David

[jamescarruthers]

The heat will be from corroded connections where the bulb goes, causing high resistance. They're rather difficult to decorrode. If you have white clusters, the bulb holders are available I believe. If you have orange clusters, the holders aren't available. You can fit later bulb holders, but will need to change the electrical connector on the car to suit.

I'd sort the high resistance part out before you splash out on new lenses and cook the too!

[Gmac34]

The heat will be from corroded connections where the bulb goes, causing high resistance. They're rather difficult to decorrode. If you have white clusters, the bulb holders are available I believe. If you have orange clusters, the holders aren't available. You can fit later bulb holders, but will need to change the electrical connector on the car to suit.

I'd sort the high resistance part out before you splash out on new lenses and cook the too!

yep this is the big problem, volvo could have used more anti-corrosion materlias, at least in the contacts that are exposed that much, I almost had fire in the rear cluster as the earth pin was quite corroded, noticed it only thanks to the LED's as the drop in voltage (caused by the bad connection) would make the stop light flash along with the indicator lights (LEDs usually turn off completely under a certain voltage while a normal bulb would look just slightly dimmer).