General: New HID’s – Why did I wait so long to do this.

[T5Terry]

Last year our 2011 C70 started to show signs of water ingress in the offside headlight. I tried all sorts of things to cure it and the best solution was to use Capt. Tolley’s creeping crack cure. I thought I had sorted it but we had a very wet summer here in Devon and eventually the water ingress started to increase.

Our autumn was very wet as was last winter so it got worse and worse. Then we had the wettest January, February and March since records began so the headlight ended up looking more like a fish tank.

I decided to bite the bullet and replace the headlight with a brand new one. Certainly not a cheap solution but one that should guarantee that the problem has gone away for the rest of the time we plan to own the car and probably much longer. The new headlight came with everything except the ballast, igniter and a HID bulb. All the other bulbs were fitted so it was an easy swap.

Now I had a choice. I could just put my existing, and old, HID bulb into my new headlight or I could purchase two new HID bulbs and install both at the same time. Yes it is more expense but the light output from the existing bulbs was really poor. No great surprise as the car has just hit 60,000 miles so those bulbs have been on for many many hours and HID bulbs do dim over time.

For me it was an easy decision as my previous car also used exactly the same HID’s but didn’t stupidly run them all the time. The light output from that cars headlights, despite being about 10 years old was way better so I knew that the C70 could probably do with new bulbs. Next decision was what to buy.

The OEM bulbs are the Osram Xenarc D3S so I could have gone for those but as I only want to do this once I decided to spend a bit more and fit the Osram Night Breaker Laser Xenarc. Utterly daft name made up by the marketing department at Osram who clearly want to associate a laser with this bulb. Doh...I don’t believe for one second that they will be up to 220% brighter but at least they should be as good as it gets.

I fitted them and the new headlight and last night went for a test drive around town as its the dip beam performance that had been truly woeful. Please excuse the pun but now the dip beams are brilliant. In fact I am gobsmacked at the difference and am kicking myself for not replacing the HID’s much sooner. I can’t see any difference between my old headlight on the nearside and the light output from the new one so that is a relief.

Honestly, if you think your HID’s burn brightly throughout their life then you are wrong. The problem is that an HID bulb can have a life of at least 10,000 hours before it finally fails. Over that time the amount of light the bulb can output will diminish but its very slow so you won’t notice it happening. Eventually, they can become dangerous because they just don’t output enough light.

Ring, a bulb manufacturer, recommends changing them every 5 years to ensure that the output is at an acceptable level. Well they would do. What they don’t explain is if this is 5 years of Volvo always on or 5 years of more standard use with them only being on after dusk. I suspect that its the latter so my C70 had used its HID’s for way more than their recommendation. Perhaps that is why the bloody things were so dim.

I did see advice online that says if you can see a colour shift towards a more blue/violet light output instead of the pure white then the bulbs need to be replaced. Mine did have some tingeing of violet so I should have realised what this meant. At least I now know what to look out for.

I am not recommending that everyone fits the rather expensive ones I went for as I am sure that the standard D3S from Osram or Philips will probably be nearly as good. I did check out various reviews of the D3S options and the ones I went for do review well but they ain’t cheap. I got mine from Autobulbs Direct (ABD) and I can certainly recommend them as a supplier.

Now I have seen plenty of stuff online about HID’s getting better as they ‘burn in’ but I have not found any source for this that I can trust. It may be true or it may not. If mine get any better than they already are then I will be one very happy owner and the costs will seem even less painful. If they stay the same then I will still be very happy.

One final tip if you really want to have the best lights up front. I have replaced both the W5W lamps in each headlight with the 501 Twenty20 12V W5W Flat LED Bulb in White from ABD. They have four very bright white LEDS on one side only so you do have to make sure that you fit them so they face the right direction. They can be fitted in the holder either way around as they don’t care about the polarity.

I now have bright white light on the front and the side markers and this makes the car much more visible when at junctions.

Put the same LED’s in your puddle lights and you will have really good light output from them as well. Its a bit fiddly to get to them but well worth doing. Trust me that we have had a lot of puddles here in Devon so they really do live up to their name.

Sorry its a long post but I want to try and help anyone else who may be wondering why their headlights are not as bright as they should be. Don’t do what I did and put up with lousy dipped beam performance. Replace those HID’s and once again enjoy driving after dark. I know we will.

[andy_d]

depending on reg (age)of the car ,, you Can request the headlight switch being changed so "OFF is OFF" and not 60% on , DRL=OFF , it is a Volvo dealer Only thing as its a software download and change to the car

check age/law on DRL V you car, then be prepared to "discuss" that with the service persons in some dealershi*s as Some will try the lie "cant do that its",, it isnt depending on age of car

[T5Terry]

Hello Andy_d'

Yes I am going to ask my local independent dealer if this can be done by them. They did confirm that they could install the DRL software update on my car when I thought I had tracked down the OEM DRL kit. Unfortunately, its no longer available but I swapped out my halogen fog lights for LED's and they are just as good and clearly visible in daylight.

So plan A is to get the Off position to actually mean Off and if that is not possible I will get the DRL software installed.

I will post another message when I can finally get the car over to them to see what is possible.

[andy_d]

Originally Posted by T5Terry

Hello Andy_d'

Yes I am going to ask my local independent dealer if this can be done by them. They did confirm that they could install the DRL software update on my car when I thought I had tracked down the OEM DRL kit. Unfortunately, its no longer available but I swapped out my halogen fog lights for LED's and they are just as good and clearly visible in daylight.

So plan A is to get the Off position to actually mean Off and if that is not possible I will get the DRL software installed.

I will post another message when I can finally get the car over to them to see what is possible.

now Thats something id be interested in, exchanging the fogs for LED DRL down low,,

i stuck with halogens for headlights but exchanged the projectors for "non frosted",

[T5Terry]

Hello Andy_d

I got my LED's for the fog lights from ABD, my preferred supplier because they don't sell rubbish. The LED's I fitted don't appear to be listed any more but the H8/H9/H11/H16 Philips Ultinon Access LED Headlight Bulbs (Pair) look very similar and they should work really well as DRL's and fog lights.

I have seen some people who report that LED's as fog lights are not as good as halogen because of the way the whiter light scatters off the water droplets. Since I fitted mine I have not driven in fog so I can't say if this is a problem.

What I can say is that the light output is bloody fantastic and way better than the H11 halogen bulbs I took out. Easily seen in bright daylight and now I can see the sides of the road at night.