General: Bulbs change slight help needed

[akash]

Hi all,

On the on going decisin to change my bulbs to the white ones... I decided to give it a go on Sunday.
Believe it or not, I managed to get to the sidelight ones after about an hour or so of cutting my hands and removing the tight cables.

So I've got the sidelights on.
The only issue is they are blue. I dont mean a tint, I mean BLUE. This isnt an issue really if the main lights are on (as always) but if you press the yellow remote button, it is only blue that illuminates.
Is this even legal?

Ok the main Question is now I'm trying to change the main ones for the Philips OSRam ones.
I managed to remove the cable that connects to the bulb but I cant get the bulb out.

Can anyone help me out here? I think its a metal spring clip thats got it in place but I've done everything so far without actually being able to look into the area as there is no room.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I want to do this while the weather is nice.

Thanks

[b1g1an]

Get yourself a mirror and all will become clear.

[akash]

hmm yes that would be the easier option... but given how difficult it has been just to do the side lights, i was hoping (especially from you) some insight based on experiance
It's always easier that way as opposed to experimenting... afterall, isnt that what these forums are here for?

Despite my constant nagging and possible annoyance in asking several times about the bulb change, I know you of all people have managed to do the change in the same release of car as mine so in posting this thread, you were the first one I was hoping would reply in relation to some help.

Hopefully someone else might have something better to add whether its from here or the other forums (fingers crossed)


btw: this is not an issue about being spoon fed or whatever, you give me a computer, phone, laptop, or any of your modern electronic items, I'll gladly strip it to bits and put it back together and it will work better than it was when released by a manufacturer.... this is not my forte, volvo will NOT help me wiht this "issue" so apart from you guys, theres no one else really to request help... thats why i paid the annual fee on here as a sign of appreciation!

look foward to other replies on this bulb issue.
Thanks

[Propofol]

I can sympathise with you regarding some of the somewhat patronising answers on this forum - which is a shame as I feel it's a fantastic reference, and most people are genuinely helpful.

If the lights are the same as my 02 V70 then the bulbs are held in with a wire clip. I think it likely yours will be the same.

Good luck.

[mhon72]

Originally Posted by akash

Hi all,

On the on going decisin to change my bulbs to the white ones... I decided to give it a go on Sunday.
Believe it or not, I managed to get to the sidelight ones after about an hour or so of cutting my hands and removing the tight cables.

So I've got the sidelights on.
The only issue is they are blue. I dont mean a tint, I mean BLUE. This isnt an issue really if the main lights are on (as always) but if you press the yellow remote button, it is only blue that illuminates.
Is this even legal?

Ok the main Question is now I'm trying to change the main ones for the Philips OSRam ones.
I managed to remove the cable that connects to the bulb but I cant get the bulb out.

Can anyone help me out here? I think its a metal spring clip thats got it in place but I've done everything so far without actually being able to look into the area as there is no room.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I want to do this while the weather is nice.

Thanks

The wire spring clip hooks into the back of the unit. You need quite strong fingers to be able to sort of push the latch forwards and then to the side to clear the hook. It may be easier to remove the clip from the headlight completely by unhooking it on the bottom where it hinges first. Hope I explained that okay.
I found removing the electrical connector was the hardest job as they were so tight. Anyone else with this problem would be well advised to remove the aforementioned clip first, and then remove the connector with the bulb still attached.

[Pooh]

Have a look at my thread

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=33916

This should answer some questions.

What kind of S60 do you have

[akash]

Thanks Propofol ... I was hoping later that I did not sound a bit too harsh on here! And thanks for confirming the clip... I was almost on the verge of going crazy thinking maybe I'm holding onto something that feels like a clip but really isnt... maybe that "disassemble car" button that undoes the car, and packs it back into volvo boxes! :-)

mhon72 Great! Im going downstairs now to give it a go... wish me luck!

Hi Pooh I did infact go through this thread the other day to see what / how things went. and it was that thread that gave me the final push to attempt the change again!
I think that summery fresh air along with it helped too (the one u smell first thing in the morning?)

The car itself is the D5 163 2005 model... the one where they felt no space should be left between the light section and the engine components
So far, the side bulbs were easy to change because they did just pull out but the others i have not managed yet

I notice you had the philips blue sidelights. how "blue" are they? I'm finding my ones that I got in the pack from ebay too blue. Its almost got that boy racer feel and while I am 22, I dont want that look anymore lol.
I think on the legal side it SHOULD be ok... here is what the ebay thread said (and he has 31000 + feedback (its autobulbs direct?)

1 x H7 Ice Blue white pair (dipped beam)
1 X HB3 Ice Blue pair (main/high beam)
1 x 501 Ice Blue pair (sidelights/parking lights)

What does the K rating mean?
The K rating is a colour temperature NOT heat or brightness. The higher the K rating the bluer the bulb. Our 4000K bulbs are the optimum for maximum vision. Our 6500K bulbs are the optimum for the HID blue tint effect.

Are these bulbs road legal?
Yes. As these are UK supplied they carry the E mark where necessary for use in the UK and Europe. Many overseas sellers sell D.O.T. approved


I'm holding out on that once the yellow bulbs are out and the extra white ones (philips) are in, the blue should mix in more easily. But even without the yellow ones on, the blue is quite scary at night!

thansk again, back in an hour as long as i still have my hands

[b1g1an]

Oi, my advice wasn't remotely patronising and I'm sorry if you are dumb enough to take it that way.

Using a mirror was how I found out how to get them out and if you did the same thing you would instantly see how it works without lengthy descriptions which mean nothing until you do it yourself anyway.

I'll know not to waste my breath with any problems you two may have again.

[Propofol]

Nice attitude Ian. You may not be trying to patronise, but you can certainly come across that way with the way you word your replies.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

[akash]

Well success finally.

It took about 2.5 hours to do all in from the time the bonnet opened, to the time it closed.

This is a D5 2005 model so maybe some points might help others?

The first issue as you know was removing the clip.
Despite the appauling bedside manner that came across from ian, the mirror did help somewhat.
we could see the clip, but still not get it down deep enough (partly because it was an expensive swarovski mirror).
Anyway we finally did and got the bulb out. The main issue was getting the clip back in.
this is where no tools are useful. The clip itself kept falling down or just not holding in place. After over 30mins of trying different things like taping the bulb in place, taping the wires away, jamming a screwdriver so that the bulb would not move, I had an idea to try the passenger side to see if that was any easier.

The space here was evn less!
In the end, we removed the airpipe going from the front to the airbox.
we removed the airbox too (there are 3 plastic 4-prong clips) holding this down. Very tight to remove but it did

Once this was out of the way, the passenger side took no more than 5 minutes to change.
we saw the clip and proceeded into changing it.

Ok here I explain a few things
We compared the light from the silverstars from Philips and the upgrade kit from ebay. while the philips are branded and much more expensive (osram kit) they were bright but stilll yellow!
This was almost pointless and so I went for the bluey ones of ebay.

Despite having a camera to hand, it was pointless because today was so bright.

The upgrade kit is in - pretty much.
Unfortuntly, the S60 beam bulbs did not fit. Despite it being S60 bulbs, the pins in the plug were slightly out of place to the plug and would not fit. These are being replaced now i hope.

Once the passenger side was in, it still took us about 10mins to get the clip on the drivers side in.
To make it easier, there was a box in front of the bulb area but we thought it would be best not to remove it.
On taking the lid off, it had two silver "units" plugged in, quite large like the old style hard drives.
They were Bosch in brand but thats all i know... maybe ECU? who knows.
If this box was not there, things would have been MUCH easier.

Anyway all in all, succesfully in... I can understand why Volvo charge £170 to change bulbs - though they do NOT do non-volvo bulbs.
I'll take a photo at night to see how it is.

In brightness, I will know at night how bright they are compared to the last ones.

Its a shame the philips still gave a yellow colour - they were the silverstar ones. I would have prefered the blue tint with the same 50% potential brightness compared to stock.

Thanks again for all the HELP given here... it made things a lot easier, especially knowing about the clip and the number of them.
I dont think i would have personally removed things like the airbox but with someone helping too, it made sense.

now onto making my next post regarding the airfilter!