Weak Headlights - Contact Volvo

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by T5R92011

Did you ever 'get used' to the blue haze from the new projector cut off? I believe this is because these units have clear lenses so the light along the shutter edge has zero defusion.

I would be tempted to pull the old frosted lense from the original unit and put it into the new one if that haze got a bit too much. They shoud be interchangable as both 3" diameter.

However, they might be a different shape so not sure what effect that would have on beam focus etc.

No, I havent gotten used to it either, but I call it "rainbow effect" Although, it can be minimised after regulation, did you know that?

When you mount the projectors, do yourself a test jig similar to mine and see how the shutter screw fiddling can affect the cutoff



I noticed that you will never get it 100% as it will be more "violet haze" either close or far away, but I was able to minimise it as much as possible. Have a go yourself and experiment a bit.

btw - you may never get it perfect anyway as I also noticed that its something to do with H7 HID irregularity. I think its just "as good as it gets" sometimes. Compare the D2S cutoff for example (same projectors but in D2S flavour with OEM bulb)



I totally get you with your "frosted lens" idea, as I am not fan of this laser-sharp cutoff myself. Its like black/white and its not good for your eyes nor for dark driving, but its the aftermarket projectors' issue. OEM ones are designed better and throw more gentle cutoff line. Notice that even brand new cars with LEDs have a bit "hazy" cutoffs.
On the other hand, because of that you are less likely to blind oncoming traffic, as fresnel lenes with those projectors wont work well so I would advise against that action.
but if you still gonna try, please pic & post as I am interested in results anyway

[Pioneer12]

I have jumped to this last page 39 after starting at p1. If anyone has solved the problem in between tell me where please.
My problem is a fault of failure not of design. We have had the car since new 1999 Volvo S40. The headlights worked perfectly well on main & dipped for 17 years. All of a sudden the dipped beam dimmed. The blue main beam warning light lit dimly on dipped beam. I seem to remember reading somewhere that they have a central electronic control unit to do with day light running lights which can be a problem or perhaps some resistor. In the old days it was just a bad earth on my fathers 1969 Ford Capri when it was a week old! Any ideas?

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by Pioneer12

I have jumped to this last page 39 after starting at p1. If anyone has solved the problem in between tell me where please.
My problem is a fault of failure not of design. We have had the car since new 1999 Volvo S40. The headlights worked perfectly well on main & dipped for 17 years. All of a sudden the dipped beam dimmed. The blue main beam warning light lit dimly on dipped beam. I seem to remember reading somewhere that they have a central electronic control unit to do with day light running lights which can be a problem or perhaps some resistor. In the old days it was just a bad earth on my fathers 1969 Ford Capri when it was a week old! Any ideas?

Wrong car, you have 1st gen S40 with much simpler lamps and control units so any advices here wont really apply to yours.

[CliveRT]

Originally Posted by Viper_7

Well I think Volvo have it right by accident or by design.

Lights on vehicles are getting stupid.. There are more posts due to being blinded by overly bright headlights than those that are "too dim"

If it's not possible to use main beam then slow down. Hurtling around in winter on "lanes" is just idiotic imo, it's not a rally track.

So rather than driving to the conditions lets put some extra lights on the front so I can go faster, blinding any poor sod coming the other way and not being able to avoid any obstacle which no matter how good your lights are you'll still hit it.
They might not be blinding head on but they are are on corners, especially now new lights look around the corners to ensure they hit the oncoming driver square in the face!

While we are at it, lets keep the fog lights on too!

Keep the fog lights on? That would be illegal unless visibility was less than 100 metres. Putting dogs lights on will ave the same effect as the main point in your threat. You have failed to grasp the point of the leading thread, that these headlights on the V50 and other cars are not fit for purpose because they are to dim and therefore dangerous. Not having enough light is worse than to much light as we can not see where we are going in any conditions. It not about hurtling around country lanes blinding people, it’s about being able to see where we are going safely at night

[Clan]

Originally Posted by CliveRT

Keep the fog lights on? That would be illegal unless visibility was less than 100 metres. Putting dogs lights on will ave the same effect as the main point in your threat. You have failed to grasp the point of the leading thread, that these headlights on the V50 and other cars are not fit for purpose because they are to dim and therefore dangerous. Not having enough light is worse than to much light as we can not see where we are going in any conditions. It not about hurtling around country lanes blinding people, it’s about being able to see where we are going safely at night

if the lights are that poor the owner should get them renewed and/or raised to the max allowable limit , they were not poor when they left the factory . These cars are getting on now , 6 to 15 years old .

[mickaleen59]

Looking at this topic with interest, I admit to also skipping from page 1 to here. I too have a 2005 S40 with halogen bulbs.

What I got for mine from eBay is item number 183552071328
It's described as F2 LED KIT seller (lush-uk)
Believe me it's well worth your while checking this kit out!!!

I first fitted them to a Merc c-class and now in my S40 and I'm very happy with them, highly recommended!!!

Mick

[wg53]

Mickaleen59 - How long have you had the LEDs, I read somewhere they dont last that long? Tempted for my new C70 '08

rich

[T5R92011]

I had an Volvo S40 behind me on the way home from work yesterday...Looking in my rear view mirror it's headlights were on, but the output was absolutely abysmal, especially on the one side.

Possibly the worst headlight output ive ever seen, on any car.

[dme123]

My 2008 C70 had the worst headlights of any vaguely modern car I've ever owned, and I've owned some crap. I had it from about 6 years old. At the same time I had a 25 year old Jaguar XJS and the headlights were like minature suns in comparison, let alone anything vaguely modern.

Single worst thing about the car, and all the cleaning and polishing made very little difference.

[LizardOfBodom]

Its the combination of bad design and parts quality Putting the quality issue aside (4 year old cars already flaking the reflector coating and dust on lenses because of poor dust protection), the sole fact of using h7 bulb as lightsource in projector with fresnel lens - its pure stupid. Its a well known fact that projector by design will have lower light output than the same version in free-form reflector headlamp. So you either bump up the light source (use much better halogen bulb or HID) or stick to freeform reflector.

2003 S40 with H7 bulbs had 50% better output than my S40 with NEW projectors+clear lenses and the exact same bulb (NB Laser H7 - tested personally).

Glad to see most cars are much better these days and even those using projectors with halogen bulb produce much more light (Kia Soul / Toyota Yaris etc, that I had a chance to test).