Headlights Driving in France
 

Hi. My 2018 V90 has LED headlights but I see no mention in the manual of driving abroad. With my previous Leon (also with LED headlights) there was a reference to ‘temporary tourist lights’ - nothing needed to be done previous to driving abroad. Do I presume the same goes for my V90? Thanks.

I have active bending lights.

I go to Settings.
My Car - Lights and Lighting - Exterior Lights.
Option is there to Select - Temporary R/H Traffic or Temporary L/H Traffic.

tem.

LED lights do not require any settings change, due to the light beam being very flat. If you search on the forum there are guite a few threads discussing this.

With LED Active Bending Lights, one has to adjust for RH/LH Traffic.

tem.

Tem. You probably have active main beam headlights which have an adjustment through the menu. I have active dipped beam headlights and they do not have that facility. Thats the point. If you read the manual a few times over the penny will gradually drop that there are two types of active beams, dipped or mains , but not both. The mains have a rh traffic option , but mine dont. They also dont comply with french law as mine failed a french mot. Yours would be fine. I have no clue if thats the same deal for led lights. I doubt if volvo would either as they told me my headlights comply with eu law and they dont. I had to replace them at a cost of 1800 euros to rh traffic ones.

Confusing.
I have Active Main Beam with Shadow Technology and have to select this every time I start the car. Done on the left stalk, without entering any My Car menu.

Before entering a Ro-Ro ferry on my way out of the U.K., I select RH Traffic for the Lights. It stays in this mode (with a notification, every time I start the car), until I select LH Traffic, on my return voyage to the U.K.

If you are talking about Adaptive Main Beam without Shadow Technology, then I prefer this.
Shadow Technology can be a pain, as it often changes the light pattern when it picks up low level road signs, when there is not another vehicle in sight.

tem.

Tem , if you look at the description of the whole active beam technology in the volvo online manual, it is clear that the description is , well unclear. This is because volvo have tried to discribe both systems on one page with no clear distinction between them. Volvo seem to do this a lot with their discriptions.
There are two types of active beam . Main and dipped. They are totally seperate systems with different headlight part numbers and software.
Main beam active headlights functions around the main beam , so you can literely drive with your main beams on all the time and not hack off the oncoming traffic because the radar blocks out part of the beam that dazzles oncoming traffic. Then there is active dipped, like mine which bends the beam around corners controlled by the steering wheel.
Active main has a function which changes the dipped beam over to rh traffic via your sensus menu as you have discribed. Active dipped does not. Yours would pass a french mot , mine got slung out. Why this difference? Because the bloke who designed it decided it was going to be that way. I dont know if you have a headlight leveling wheel below the dash next to the boot and filler cap buttons, but i domt, so i cant even drop the beams a bit to pass the french mot.

Looking at your signature......do you have the new model XC60 or the older one?

Keeping the terminology in line with Volvo's:

• Active High Beam: switches automatically between main and dipped
• Active Bending Headlights: headlamps point left or right with related steering wheel angle
• Adaptive Shadow Technology: main beam is on but a shadow is cast on other cars to avoid dazzle.

Afaik, the first one is standard. The other two are usually combined and are standard on the Pro variants or offered as an option, dependent upon model and model year.

One of the last of the old shape. The body shape may have changed but the active bending headlights have not changed in donkeys years. My point is why does an active main beam allow headlight unit for adjustment to rh traffic and active dipped headlight unit does not. It is actually possible to remap the software for it to do anything volvo wants it to do. The headlights point where the software tells it to point. Elk performance recently told me it was most likely possible to remap the headlight software if volvo wanted to do it. The problem is they dont want to, which is why i had to pay 1800 euros to change the units. Anyone reading the post would assume that active lights are all the same . They are split into active main beam and active dipped. They have different implications if you take them abroad. Active mains have a sensus solution and are easy to comply, active dipped do not and are a bit ch.