Bulb upgrade?

[swisstony]

+1 for hard to move, annoyingly both of my adjusters snapped when trying to move them. I think personally to a bad design of adjuster but that's another story.

Please learn from my experience and spray some silicone grease around where the adjuster goes inside the headlamp. You will have to firstly remove the headlight completely then un-clip and remove the white vertical adjuster. You want to get the grease in where the horizontal gear passes between the shaft and the headlight casing. There is a rubber o ring which got stuck in my case which in turn snapped the shaft.

All fixed now though thank god!

Hope this makes sense, if not let me know then I will provide some pictures.

[swisstony]

Originally Posted by swisstony

The only problem I'm having at the moment is sometimes the bulbs won’t start first time. I sometimes get one start first time but the other side may take 3 or 4 on off's to get going. All parts are covered by a two year manufactures warranty so I'm not to worried, but I will be sending an email today to hids 4 u regarding the issue. Let’s see what happens.

Originally Posted by jaygee

I'd be interested to know what HIDS4U say, do let me know the outcome of that.

A quick update of my correspondence with HIDS4U so far......

Hi Tony.

Thank you for contacting us.

I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing this issue with the HID kit.
Your vehicle have may have a very sophisticated ECU or canbus system and this is what will be causing the conflict with the headlights, we do have a relay harness that will eliminate this issue but will need connecting to both ballasts and to the battery. I have attached a diagram of the harness for you to see exactly how it connects.

Kind Regards

HIDS4U

See attached picture for recommended kit to be installed.

My reply.......

Hi,

Thanks for your response. I started looking at these relay modification kits as I to believe this would help the issue.

I don't however believe that it's the ECU system causing the problem, but that the internal headlight wiring loom isn't capable of supplying the instantaneous startup current required. This causes the voltage across the length of the cable to drop, which means the input voltage to the ballasts isn't high enough to be able to generate the high voltage so won't strike the lamp.

The idea of these looms is to remove the high current from the existing headlight wiring and transfer it to the new loom. The existing headlight wiring then only has to drive a pair of low current relays.

I do however have one question regarding this harness and how a bulb failure would be picked up. From what I can see you are simulating the headlight bulb being connected by two wire wound resistors attached to each ballast. If a headlight bulb failed I believe this wouldn't be picked up by the CAN BUS system because it's isolated by the relay and the resistors are permanently in circuit. Let me know your thoughts.

I do appologise if I'm teaching you to suck eggs but at least we are on the same wavelength regarding the harness.

Thanks,

Tony.

And I wait for the response......

[VenomS40]

I cant believe that people are going out there and adjusting their own headlight beams on the drive way....... You know the annoying driver that sometimes comes up behind you and the one headlight is brighter than the other and dazzles you...yes?

WELL THATS NOW YOU!!

If you do it wrong its an MOT fail when its MOT time. Do it by all means as its your life at the end of the day but you have been warned................. END

[swisstony]

VenomS40

I completely understand your annoyance with incorrectly adjusted headlights.

But believe that many people on this forum and this thread, myself included have noticed a significantly low and dangerous beam pattern on the drivers side V50 headlight.

I do understand that the beam pattern needs to be adjusted prior to an MOT and if it is significantly out then this would be an MOT failure. But I see no harm in tweaking the headlight manually to a sensible level.

I'm now happy with the adjustment of my drivers side light, I can actually see properly and its not dazzling any oncoming drivers. Although I will be getting the level checked at my next service just to be sure.

[benr7310]

after tweaking its advised that you pop to a garage and ask them to check, just say you think its out.. not that you've tweaked it.

99% of garages will test it free for you and only charge if it needs adjusting to be legal or in line

[VenomS40]

I agree as its shows up ever more once you've done the HID conversion. This is why I went and had it done by a MOT station and done correctly first time. Its only a £5........

If you get it done correctly you will see that the pattern is poor full stop, mine were pretty much bang on as it was but had them lifted a little to just within the legal limit.

Saying that hope your brakes are good or there may be people pulling out on you as you the car goes over bumps and people think you've flashed them.

Do as you wish at the end of the day

[Volvorforlife]

Originally Posted by VenomS40

I cant believe that people are going out there and adjusting their own headlight beams on the drive way....... You know the annoying driver that sometimes comes up behind you and the one headlight is brighter than the other and dazzles you...yes?

WELL THATS NOW YOU!!

If you do it wrong its an MOT fail when its MOT time. Do it by all means as its your life at the end of the day but you have been warned................. END

I suppose if your not capable of knowing if your lights are too high then yes better to get someone that know's how to do it. At the end of the day its not very hard to do.

[VenomS40]

Its such a simple process to adjust them and TBH I'd like mine a little higher too but to keep changing them to be on the legal side of the law.

If people still cant see well enough then perhaps you should go to specsavers? Or just #### people off all the time and drive around with your high beams on all the time....

[jepho]

Originally Posted by VenomS40

I cant believe that people are going out there and adjusting their own headlight beams on the drive way....... You know the annoying driver that sometimes comes up behind you and the one headlight is brighter than the other and dazzles you...yes?

WELL THATS NOW YOU!!

If you do it wrong its an MOT fail when its MOT time. Do it by all means as its your life at the end of the day but you have been warned................. END

Thanks for the warning. Is it too much to hope that you might give credit to other folk and accept that they may be just as intelligent as you? I was asking several questions, which have been answered helpfully, and I did not expect them promote your ire.

FWIW, if I cannot see properly in the dark and drive off the road, I expect that I would be far more annoying to other drivers whatever about a danger to them or myself and family. The issue of poor projector light performance appears to have been raised in several other places and I think it was fair to raise it in a way that would help me to understand the issues involved.

[jepho]

Originally Posted by VenomS40

Its such a simple process to adjust them and TBH I'd like mine a little higher too but to keep changing them to be on the legal side of the law.

You appear to be saying the opposite above.

Originally Posted by VenomS40

If people still cant see well enough then perhaps you should go to specsavers? Or just #### people off all the time and drive around with your high beams on all the time....

Nice...

I supplied images for the collected audience to make an informed judgement. I have never owned a Volvo before and all of the cars I have owned previously have never had this issue. The car I have now is relatively new and I would not expect the lighting to be so poor.

I can tell you that I would normally expect to see the cut off of the dipped beam at about the level just below the boot lid (so that they do not dazzle the driver in front nor the drivers of oncoming cars) and mine appears to be set to shine lower than the boot of cars which are about 10 feet in front of me.

I don't think this is where I am used to seeing the dipped beam cut off point and I was asking the forum list the general question as to whether this was judged to be the correct place. I was expecting the responses to be based in both knowledge of Volvo cars and their experiences.

I have found a document that gives some very specific advice on how to set up the headlamp beam axes and I will study it and see if I can improve the dismal lighting emanating from my projector lamps. I judge that the situation would be better if I use the existing light bulbs (Ring +120% xenon H7 bulbs) rather than moving towards HID bulbs which will not fix my alignment issue and may well dazzle other drivers because of their higher light output.

headlamp beam adjustment method