The trick is not to try to catch them, but to watch/hear where they land.

Is Hot Soapy Water The Answer?
 

The clips came orf under full control. Cushti. Now. How do I separate the lens from the housing without damaging the housing? There is going to be a real need for a wash anyway. Would a dunk and soak of the assembly in hot soapy water do the trick?



Having got this far the penny has dropped. The lens and housing are clipped together. The lens sits between the headlamp housing and the lens, on three small pillars. The reflector then is pivoted to adjust the beam. I begin to get the picture.

I had thought that the reflector was clipped to the lens....wrong again. Obviously wrong now that I try to think about it! :)


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Should "Lens" read "Reflector"? I'd completely forgotten how it went together, luckily I took some photos when I did mine.

It is the lens that I need to seperate from the housing. The clips are off. Now the lens seems sort of stuck to the housing....

The reflector is loose, inside the lens plus housing.


EDIT: I've sorted that now. On the left hand headlamp, someone had used sealant on the rubber seal between the lens and the housing. That probably seemed like a good idea to them at the time. Anyway I have by multi points of gentle leverage persuaded the lens to separate from the housing with no damage. ;)

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Talking about sealer

Attachment 107144

OK I will ask.

What sort of sealant is that, and why is that sealer and twisted wire there?

It's bath sealant - the same stuff they used to hold the number plate light in place and seal the exhaust joints.

Not sure about the twisted wire, I think that might have been fix No1.

The funny thing was when I took it for its MOT (without realising how the headlights were held in) it failed on headlamp alignment so I left it with the garage to fix, which they did, allegedly.

There's no way they could have adjusted the lights because they were jammed solid.

Job done. Many thanks for everyone's advice.

As I said, PlusGas applied regularly made undoing of the securing nuts very easy. Re-fitted with copper based grease so there shouldn't be any difficulty with those nuts in future.

The white plastic mounting clips that hold the reflectors on three mounting points inside the headlamp really didn't want to survive. Those mounting clips broke during removal and opening up of the headlamps. So a full set of three were needed per new reflector. I guess those new mounting clips are needed most times whoever does the job?

My reflectors came from charltonvolvocentre via eBay at a good price. And each kit included the reflector, full set of metal clips, full set of the white plastic mounting clips and of course the new rubber seal. A good kit at a good price by my looking around at prices.

I did use sealant. Tut tut tut. How else does one keep the rubber seal in place? I used silicone sealant on the headlamp housing side of the rubber seal. So that should not be any problem next time the job is done.

I explained to the new metal clips that they must not fly off while I was trying to fit them. Most of them complied.

I found the headlamp wiper stops are part of the headlamp assembly, serving as additional metal clips. I treated them to some Hammerite before re-fitting them.

There is a technique to doing the job easily. :)





If anyone knows that technique please tell me! This job is a handful, a headache! In future I want a nice new car and garage maintenance....please!




EDIT: Charlton Volvo Centre
Derek Twemlow
Unit 19 Abercorn Industrial Estate
Paisley
Renfrewshire
PA3 4AY

08442720152

Good kit. Good price. And they seem to know their stuff re 240s.


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Square rubber surround seal
 

I've always used vaseline, coated on the square section. Positioned.

Then trimmed to length so it butts up at the bottom. Clips replaced.

Seems to work well enough. Easy to take apart for the next time.

28 years of ownership from 1989.

Dab hand now.

Those white clips for ajustment are the biggest problem, together with the 3 10mm nuts securing the headlight assembly. The plastic always falls appart.

BrianH. 245 GL 560,000 miles LPG.

Rather than chrome tape , use chrome effect vinyl car wrap material , warm with hair dryer & SMOOTH into place , any ripples will affect beam pattern & may cause fail at test time ( MOT tester speaking ) Also be wary of using LED bulbs for dip use . Due to how the light is emmitted , it is likely the light will scatter & cause odd patterns on beam test machine , I know as I am failing many cars for LED dip beam & rubbish beam pattern . However LED in Main beam is fine as the light is not focused in the same way as dip beam is