Volvo Owners Club Forum - View Single Post

pierremcalpine · Sep 22nd, 2016, 18:59

Hi,
I recently upgraded my halogens to LED. Honestly, I opted to upgrade purely for looks - the yellowish halogen was giving off a pretty dated look to the car. I purchased the kit locally and was strongly encouraged to go LED vs. HID by the vendor. Apparently, LED is less prone to flickering and turns on instantly vs. HID (I have not used HID so cannot confirm either issue).

I purchased a package similar to this one:
https://absolutehid.ca/led-conversion-kit.html and it included CANBUS error cancelling gizmos. $160CAD.

The kit itself is very easy to install and the low profile cooling fins fit just fine within the headlight enclosure.

Lights worked great but I ended up getting a dash error message suggesting that my headlight was out. Worse - the dash message was not constant i.e. if you cancelled it out it would just come back a few seconds later. I did some troubleshooting with the seller - we tried using the lights without the error cancelling device but the problem just would not go away. Finally the vendor suggested that we replace the error cancelling devices with some 50W 8ohm resistors. The resistors were of this variety:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-H11-LED-D...VWDyWx&vxp=mtr.

The good news is that these worked, the bad news is that these mothers are hot, seriously hot. Melt-your-headlight-enclosure hot. Luckily, I realized that this was the case before any major damage could be done.

Let me emphasize, these puppies get very hot: DO NOT INSTALL THESE WHERE THEY WILL COME INTO CONTACT WITH ANYTHING EXCEPT METAL. For me this meant installing two little metal "L" brackets on the back of each light enclosure and then tie-wrapping the wires coming in and out to effectively suspend the resistors in the air space behind the light.

My driving is mostly city driving - as far as quality of lighting I do find that they light up signage and immediate surroundings more clearly. I'm not sure that they disperse the light as evenly as the halogens but that might just be me.

Oh - one final thing: the rubber gaskets that came with mine that seal the LED's to the light enclosure sucked. I took the rubbers off the halo's and used those instead. Unfortunately, I realized this AFTER I pushed the inner light enclosure right out of its housing...bit fiddly to get it back in place.

I have to admit, they do look much better that the halogens but installation is a bit trickier than "plug and play."

Sep 22nd, 2016, 18:59	#17
pierremcalpine Premier Member Last Online: Jan 3rd, 2024 14:43 Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Toronto Canada	Hi, I recently upgraded my halogens to LED. Honestly, I opted to upgrade purely for looks - the yellowish halogen was giving off a pretty dated look to the car. I purchased the kit locally and was strongly encouraged to go LED vs. HID by the vendor. Apparently, LED is less prone to flickering and turns on instantly vs. HID (I have not used HID so cannot confirm either issue). I purchased a package similar to this one: https://absolutehid.ca/led-conversion-kit.html and it included CANBUS error cancelling gizmos. $160CAD. The kit itself is very easy to install and the low profile cooling fins fit just fine within the headlight enclosure. Lights worked great but I ended up getting a dash error message suggesting that my headlight was out. Worse - the dash message was not constant i.e. if you cancelled it out it would just come back a few seconds later. I did some troubleshooting with the seller - we tried using the lights without the error cancelling device but the problem just would not go away. Finally the vendor suggested that we replace the error cancelling devices with some 50W 8ohm resistors. The resistors were of this variety: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-H11-LED-D...VWDyWx&vxp=mtr. The good news is that these worked, the bad news is that these mothers are hot, seriously hot. Melt-your-headlight-enclosure hot. Luckily, I realized that this was the case before any major damage could be done. Let me emphasize, these puppies get very hot: DO NOT INSTALL THESE WHERE THEY WILL COME INTO CONTACT WITH ANYTHING EXCEPT METAL. For me this meant installing two little metal "L" brackets on the back of each light enclosure and then tie-wrapping the wires coming in and out to effectively suspend the resistors in the air space behind the light. My driving is mostly city driving - as far as quality of lighting I do find that they light up signage and immediate surroundings more clearly. I'm not sure that they disperse the light as evenly as the halogens but that might just be me. Oh - one final thing: the rubber gaskets that came with mine that seal the LED's to the light enclosure sucked. I took the rubbers off the halo's and used those instead. Unfortunately, I realized this AFTER I pushed the inner light enclosure right out of its housing...bit fiddly to get it back in place. I have to admit, they do look much better that the halogens but installation is a bit trickier than "plug and play." __________________ 2003 V40 1.9T B4204T4, 197,000miles (sold but alive!), 2004 S60 2.5T, 160,000miles, 2010 V70 3.2, 125,000miles, 2002 V70XC 2.4, 175,000miles Click here for my x40 and V70 P3 repair guides Last edited by pierremcalpine; Sep 22nd, 2016 at 19:01.