Volvo 240 Headlight

[jacksonb123]

One of the things I need to sort to get my 240 through its mot is the drivers side headlight tilt adjuster as the garage told me it is pointing to high and the adjuster is broken.

At the back of the light it has two brass threaded screws with a white plastic grip on the end which you turn. One is on the top left corner and the other on the bottom left.

I've had a bit of a look and it appears that the one on the bottom left is not working. The problem is that at the front there is a piece of white plastic that
should be locked into a hole in the reflector but this has slipped back a couple of mm meaning when you turn the adjuster at the back it just slips round.

Has anyone ever fixed one of these ? It looks like I might be able to have a go if I could get the light fitting out and remove the glass lense ?

Regards

Ben

[Mike_Brace]

The only sensible solution is replacement lamp - try Eurocarparts or GSF. The problem with these lights is the adjusters seize and tend not to free off. The retaining bolts normally have the nut seized on and the bolt is held captive in plastic. It is possible to remove glass with it in situ. The clips holding the reflector are guaranteed to break. Refglectors are generally past there best. Also the clips holding indicators on tend to break. If money is tight you may be lucky and get in from the front and remove reflectors (clips are available from Volvo) and you may eventually free the adjuster. This also gives access to the retaining bolts which can be drilled out if replacing. I have replaced the complete units on all 3 of my 240s and despite it not being cheap the relative ease of replacement and the improved lighting makes it the only sensible and time efficient option.

Mike

You have to remove the glass.
When you have done that there are 4 plastic nobs that holds the reflector.
You can change them and it shouldent cost much more then 5-10 Euros for these plastic nobs.

[jacksonb123]

Mmm, I'll give it a shot removing the thing and see what I can do, but I think I may need to find a scrapyard here in Coventry or maybe Birmingham. I had a quick look at GSF but £50 is a bit much for me this month, useful site for the future tho.

Regards

Ben

[Clifford Pope]

Over a weekend, needing the car, and with no access to any spares, I did once successfully bodge up a light in just the condition of yours.
The glass comes off quite easily, in my experience, and I have salvaged several from scrapyards. The clips will usually spring off, and I have never broken one.
Even if you did, you could space them around until you can get some replacements.
You can try and drill out the seized up metal bushes from the front, but I found they just heated up and then spun in a hole of melted plastic. Never mind, just get them out anyhow. Then I found new nuts that fitted the adjusters, and locked them into the holes in the plastic with body filler.
The clips on the reflector itself broke when I tried to remove them. I bodged them up too with body filler.
However, it worked, I got the lights adjusted, and it passed the MOT. I intended to get new proper bits sometime, but never got round to it.
That was about 3 years ago. I had forgotten about it until reading your post, so the repair has lasted well although not intended to.

[jacksonb123]

Quick lighting update here....
I phoned all the breakers in Coventry & Birmingham with no luck and so took the headlight out and attacked it in the safety of my own home. Surprisingly it all came apart and went back together with no breakages of plastic bits which was good.
It turns out that the bit of plastic that is meant to grip onto the reflector at the end of the threaded brass thing you turn to move the beam up and down had cracked and was spinning round in its hole instead of staying put.
I decided i needed Superglue quick but realised I couldn't drive to the shop as it was dark and one of my headlights was in pieces on my hall floor. I toyed with the idea of putting a candle in place and driving really slowly but thought better of it.
So I walked to the superglue shop, cut various tiny bits of plastic from curtain hooks and other random things and glued them all in place to secure the original broken plastic thing in a tidy ish fashion. Fitted it back in the car and hey presto I was now able to adjust the headlight downwards so it wasn't pointing directly into the eyes of oncoming drivers.
Job done, thanks for the info guys.
I'll also try not to write so much about small broken plastic things in the future.
Regards
Ben

[Mike_Brace]

Glad it all came apart ok - you were very lucky!

Mike

[jacksonb123]

Lucky this time but probably not in the future so those sites you recommended should come in handy. It was around £50 for a new light from GSF, most other places I saw 60-70.

Regards

Ben

[Casanova]

All.

I have just had the headlamp opportunity. Trying to get my MOT ducks in a row, as they say.

Managed to get two decent headlamps and made one excellent one out of them. As usual, the n/s headlamp bolts were spinning in the housings so.... I took the glass off, then the reflector and smashed the old housing in (was easy, so brittle), which just left the nuts and bolts.

Managed to remove them easily with a sockets and molegrips as it was easier to get on them with nothing else in the way. Had to loosen the battery and move it a bit w/o disconnecting it.

'New' headlamp now installed and looking very nice too.

Have Groton's poly bushes for the rear anti-tramp bars... will take a few deep breathes before I try those !

Cheers.

[jacksonb123]

Good stuff, sounds like you've got it sorted.

My 240 sailed through it's mot with my tidy little superglue/plastic fix which was good.

Ben