Cleaned the XC90 today

chrisnjulie · Oct 30th, 2009, 19:40

It wasn't nice enough to go to the beach today, but stayed dry, so I thought I'd better give the old girl a treat - as a family 'bus' it doesn't get washed much. Washed it with halfrauds advanced car shampoo, dried off and polished with autoglym silicon resin polish. Didn't come up too bad really

I haven't been happy with the lights since we bought the car, seem to get a very bright pool of light on the nearside and poor light elsewhere, so I decided to investigate today, and noticed that the o/s headlamp had been adjusted so far to the n/s that it had come off the end of the adjuster thread and popped the chrome plastic surround off it's lug inside the light unit! I had to take the whole light unit off the car (easy job, thank you Volvo), remove the rear cover and hook a piece of wire around the lug, then I was able to pull it and click it back into place. After that I wound the adjuster all the way back until the lights were pointed dead ahead and refitted to the car.
After it had got dark I took it to an unlit flat road to adjust the lights and what a difference - much better now and adjusted correctly to give a good spread of light, but I noticed that one of the bulbs had a milky appearance to the glass (although it still works), so I've just ordered 4 Osram H7 Nightbreakers from powerbulbs.com for £13.44 a pair delivered (so £26.88 in total), which I thought was reasonable. I'll let you know what I think of them when they arrive and I've tried them out............

longroad2nowhere · Oct 31st, 2009, 23:16

Hi chrisnjulie, let us know how you get on with the night breakers, as I have found in my s40 that the night breakers were great for the main beam but philips xtreme had the edge in the dipped beam.

P.s. very nice job with the polish, we use swissvax which keeps the car nice for about 3 months

Ta

chrisnjulie · Nov 1st, 2009, 11:05

That's interesting to note, wonder why one should be better than another on dipped beam? With the postal strikes I don't suppose the nightbreakers will arrive until middle / end of this week, but at least we've got some long dark nights to test them out.
I might just replace the 'milky' dipped beam bulb first so there is a good side-by-side comparison betweeen standard and nightbreaker, but having used silverstars in other vehicles I expect there to be a big improvement.

Anyone else got opinions on whether one bulb is better than another in a particular car?

PS - could mods edit title of this thread to read 'Cleaned XC90 and ordered Nightbreaker bulbs' please?

Oct 30th, 2009, 19:40	#1
chrisnjulie Volvo & Victory owner Last Online: May 16th, 2014 10:29 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Mid Welsh border View Photos By: chrisnjulie	Cleaned the XC90 today It wasn't nice enough to go to the beach today, but stayed dry, so I thought I'd better give the old girl a treat - as a family 'bus' it doesn't get washed much. Washed it with halfrauds advanced car shampoo, dried off and polished with autoglym silicon resin polish. Didn't come up too bad really I haven't been happy with the lights since we bought the car, seem to get a very bright pool of light on the nearside and poor light elsewhere, so I decided to investigate today, and noticed that the o/s headlamp had been adjusted so far to the n/s that it had come off the end of the adjuster thread and popped the chrome plastic surround off it's lug inside the light unit! I had to take the whole light unit off the car (easy job, thank you Volvo), remove the rear cover and hook a piece of wire around the lug, then I was able to pull it and click it back into place. After that I wound the adjuster all the way back until the lights were pointed dead ahead and refitted to the car. After it had got dark I took it to an unlit flat road to adjust the lights and what a difference - much better now and adjusted correctly to give a good spread of light, but I noticed that one of the bulbs had a milky appearance to the glass (although it still works), so I've just ordered 4 Osram H7 Nightbreakers from powerbulbs.com for £13.44 a pair delivered (so £26.88 in total), which I thought was reasonable. I'll let you know what I think of them when they arrive and I've tried them out............ __________________ VOC Member No 23700 Better to be over the hill than under it Current - 2006 XC90 D5 SE Geartronic, 2007 C70 2.0D Sport Past - 480 1.7, V40 1.8

Oct 31st, 2009, 23:16	#2
longroad2nowhere Member Last Online: Dec 12th, 2023 14:46 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Bathgate	Hi chrisnjulie, let us know how you get on with the night breakers, as I have found in my s40 that the night breakers were great for the main beam but philips xtreme had the edge in the dipped beam. P.s. very nice job with the polish, we use swissvax which keeps the car nice for about 3 months Ta __________________ We're all stupid; its the degree's that separate us

Nov 1st, 2009, 11:05	#3
chrisnjulie Volvo & Victory owner Last Online: May 16th, 2014 10:29 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Mid Welsh border View Photos By: chrisnjulie	Osram Nightbreaker bulbs That's interesting to note, wonder why one should be better than another on dipped beam? With the postal strikes I don't suppose the nightbreakers will arrive until middle / end of this week, but at least we've got some long dark nights to test them out. I might just replace the 'milky' dipped beam bulb first so there is a good side-by-side comparison betweeen standard and nightbreaker, but having used silverstars in other vehicles I expect there to be a big improvement. Anyone else got opinions on whether one bulb is better than another in a particular car? PS - could mods edit title of this thread to read 'Cleaned XC90 and ordered Nightbreaker bulbs' please? __________________ VOC Member No 23700 Better to be over the hill than under it Current - 2006 XC90 D5 SE Geartronic, 2007 C70 2.0D Sport Past - 480 1.7, V40 1.8 Last edited by chrisnjulie; Nov 1st, 2009 at 11:07. Reason: forgot summat

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