11 replies to this topic

[Volvo Virgin]

Neighbor of mine stopped by with his S40. While the headlight housing itself seems fine, it appears that the internal assembly that holds the high and low beam bulbs themselves is loose and has excessive movement to the point that it would bounce around when he hits bumps while driving. He is also going thru bulbs every 6 months or so, which might be a result of wear and tear from being bounced around too much. I can adjust the assembly with the up/down adjuster, but I don't even see a side to side adjuster, and this seems to be where the excessive play is.

Step up S40 guys and give me an idea what's going on. I feel kind of clueless here, but it is quite a bit different from the S70 setup.



Rob

[MrWinkey]

Sounds like it's internally broken. The 80 series do this as well. Perhaps Forgotten One or 1 Clean(I believe) may have some secret inside tip that I may even be interested in!

[theForgottenone]

Sounds like it's internally broken. The 80 series do this as well. Perhaps Forgotten One or 1 Clean(I believe) may have some secret inside tip that I may even be interested in!

How you know I have the pictures

If I can remember correctly, see below pictures. I haven't adjust them in years. Maybe the metal spring that hold the bulbs in place is loose and need to be reshape again with a plier to have stronger hold.


Try the adjustment at the black screw top of headlight between low & high beam for left and right.


White knob for up and down

[Volvo Virgin]

How you know I have the pictures

If I can remember correctly, see below pictures. I haven't adjust them in years. Maybe the metal spring that hold the bulbs in place is loose and need to be reshape again with a plier to have stronger hold.


Try the adjustment at the black screw top of headlight between low & high beam for left and right.


White knob for up and down

Hey guys....thanks for that!! But the bulbs themselves are tight in the reflector assembly. It's the whole reflector assembly itself that is loose. The black screw on the top of the headlight housing that you mentioned for right to left adjustment doesn't actually look like it has a screw. Just a black cap that says "do not remove". After looking at it a little more before he left yesterday, it seems that whatever holds the reflector from moving right to left has shit the bed and is just letting it flop around from side to side.

Could it be broken internally?? What are the thoughts about fixing it without replacing it...even if it possibly meant affixing it permanently into position. Can't see anything actually broken or missing.

Rob

[garbergtsi]

i havent seen anybody fixing these....but it is a very common problem

[theForgottenone]

Hey guys....thanks for that!! But the bulbs themselves are tight in the reflector assembly. It's the whole reflector assembly itself that is loose. The black screw on the top of the headlight housing that you mentioned for right to left adjustment doesn't actually look like it has a screw. Just a black cap that says "do not remove". After looking at it a little more before he left yesterday, it seems that whatever holds the reflector from moving right to left has shit the bed and is just letting it flop around from side to side.

Could it be broken internally?? What are the thoughts about fixing it without replacing it...even if it possibly meant affixing it permanently into position. Can't see anything actually broken or missing.

Rob

You gonna have to take the headlight out and remove the lense in order to get to the fixture holding the buld. As far I can see, there only a glare shield in front of the bulb and everything else is hidden behind the bezel. Once you able to remove that, i'm sure you can superglue the fixture if need to be in a fixed position.

There are only four screw holding the headlight together. Some people can take the headlight out without removing the bumper by pressing it down locally at the headlight section and remove it. (Removing the bumper by two screw by the fender liner, detach the front lip with the underbody engine plastic liner and then you just pull forward)

i havent seen anybody fixing these....but it is a very common problem

This is my first time hearing this issue. I guess is more prone on older model.

[Volvo Virgin]

Hmmmm!

Thanks again guys. I'm kind of hesitant to tell him to just buy new headlights until I figure out what's broken so he can prevent it from happening again. If this is a common problem like some of you have suggested, any idea what is breaking exactly? As already mentioned, affixing them permanently is probably an option but I don't know if my neighbor could do that himself if it requires total headlight removal and disassembly. So I'm wondering if just the broken adjuster/component that is allowing this excessive movement can be repaired?????

Rob

[Volvo Virgin]

bumpity bump

[DonutsDemise]

i had this problem on my S70. for me, the adjuster broke so nothing was holding it back and it was pointing straight up. i drilled a small hole in the bottom of the assembly and drilled a long screw up to the reflector so it was touching it and adjusted it so the headlight was aimed right. i would suggest a cheap fix like this to hold it in place if you don't want to spend $200 on a new assembly.

Edited by 99deBAS70, 27 February 2008 - 03:12 PM.

[elc32955]

I just ended up reworking the headlights in my 2002 V40 for this same problem. I found that the both the side to side and vertical positioners were messed up. I pulled the headlights, found the black attaching piece that goes to the black gear on top (the side to side set) was broken in two. The weird thing is I couldn't glue it no matter what I tried, even the special "we bond ANYTHING plastic" permatex stuff didn't hold. I found that it was very brittle and broke extremely easily, maybe the heat from the H7's got to it finally and changed the composition, dunno. Anyway, I finally got torqued and tore out the whole piece, ended up using a nice long screw offset at an angle through to the location the positioning gear was formerly at. It's now preset only with the screw, but it's not going to move and it is nice & solid.

The vertical positioner ended up being broken at the socketed rear piece, treatment for that was to take the large plastic piece that the screw passes through and glue it to the rear of the light at the socket juncture. You can still turn the screw and the light will adjust up & down. I did my right side like that, found the left side broken as well so I have to do that one next week. BTW I made my mind up before I started that I was NOT going to take the bumper loose, eventually I was able to get the light free from the front and back re-installed when done.

It would have been so simple to make the side to side positioner a piece of light metal that would never fracture, and Hella/Volvo apparently chose not to do so. Shame on them for producing a design that uses parts that break so easily...

Take care
Eric

[theForgottenone]

I just ended up reworking the headlights in my 2002 V40 for this same problem. I found that the both the side to side and vertical positioners were messed up. I pulled the headlights, found the black attaching piece that goes to the black gear on top (the side to side set) was broken in two. The weird thing is I couldn't glue it no matter what I tried, even the special "we bond ANYTHING plastic" permatex stuff didn't hold. I found that it was very brittle and broke extremely easily, maybe the heat from the H7's got to it finally and changed the composition, dunno. Anyway, I finally got torqued and tore out the whole piece, ended up using a nice long screw offset at an angle through to the location the positioning gear was formerly at. It's now preset only with the screw, but it's not going to move and it is nice & solid.

The vertical positioner ended up being broken at the socketed rear piece, treatment for that was to take the large plastic piece that the screw passes through and glue it to the rear of the light at the socket juncture. You can still turn the screw and the light will adjust up & down. I did my right side like that, found the left side broken as well so I have to do that one next week. BTW I made my mind up before I started that I was NOT going to take the bumper loose, eventually I was able to get the light free from the front and back re-installed when done.

It would have been so simple to make the side to side positioner a piece of light metal that would never fracture, and Hella/Volvo apparently chose not to do so. Shame on them for producing a design that uses parts that break so easily...

Take care
Eric

Congrat on your fix. I still don't know how you guys remove headlight without removing the bumper..I couldn't

[MrWinkey]

That's funny this popped back up as I just fixed one of these today myself. It was on an 01 40 series. I removed the headlamps assembly. Popped the glass off , reached behind the reflector applied 2min JB weld to the broken adjuster(I couldn't get several types of plastic adhesive to work either) where it mounts to the reflector. Very simple and about 1/2hr to do. (not including dry time on the epoxy which was about 1hr )