Headlights being on all the time!

[Daim]

Originally Posted by SIAMBLUE

I was talking to Gatos the other day about this my Xenon ballasts have a life of 2000 hours and my lights are on all of the time, so at 10 hours a week driving they will last 4 years.



Gary.

That means I should be long on my 3rd or 4th set of them!?

My car is now 5 years old. I have NEVER turned the lights off when driving. I drive a day around 3 hours - at least.

So: 2000/3= ~666 days. Lets take the weekends (52x2) a year in the calculation...: 365-104=261. 666/261= ~2.5 years.

As I haven't changed them yet, and I can still see at night, I'd assume they work still

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Daim

That means I should be long on my 3rd or 4th set of them!?

My car is now 5 years old. I have NEVER turned the lights off when driving. I drive a day around 3 hours - at least.

So: 2000/3= ~666 days. Lets take the weekends (52x2) a year in the calculation...: 365-104=261. 666/261= ~2.5 years.

As I haven't changed them yet, and I can still see at night, I'd assume they work still

In my experience , the volvo BI-xenon bulbs last about 7 years on average .. that is when used as running lights ... The £25 ones on E-bay about 2 or 3 winters , not being used as running lights ..

[Daim]

Originally Posted by Clan

In my experience , the volvo BI-xenon bulbs last about 7 years on average .. that is when used as running lights ... The £25 ones on E-bay about 2 or 3 winters , not being used as running lights ..

I assume it is like with a normal lightbulb... A bulb will run for ever, if not switched off over and over again. So if I drive 1,5h a time with my lights on, they are fired up twice a day. If I drive 6x0,5h, my lights fire up 6x - so they would quickly say "bye bye"

[scoobysn7x]

Originally Posted by SIAMBLUE

I was talking to Gatos the other day about this my Xenon ballasts have a life of 2000 hours and my lights are on all of the time, so at 10 hours a week driving they will last 4 years.



Gary.

I you have a 2002 V40 there is a way to turn the daytime running lights off its in the manual, can't remember off the top of my head (something like key in position II light sidelights and pull the beam on something like that its definately in the owner manual), but I did it as I didn't want my HID's on all the time, I think its just the later model where you can't turn them off

[foggyjames]

The "Xenon" lamps (i.e. high pressure gas discharge lamps) are a type of arc lamp, so they experience the greatest wear when "struck", or first switched on. They do wear slightly when on, but 10 hours of continuous illumination is much better for their lifespan than switching them on and off from cold 10 times in 10 minutes. Daim's usage is probably relatively good for the lamp life. I've not heard a particular lifespan quoted for the ballasts before, but they certainly can fail.

I've had the DRLs turned off on my car, and hadn't remotely considered the insurance angle before. It's an interesting point.

As for the P1 C70...yes, that little screw turns the DRLs on and off. It's the same thing as the software change described for the C30...but a lot quicker and cheaper!

cheers

James

[kebab10]

Best way to get a good life span out of the lights is to buy good lightbulbs in the first place. Volvo dealer obviously, but I have found that Osram and Phillips make good bulbs. The "cheaper" alternatives from Halfrauds arent worth the money in my humble opinion.
And surely people buy Volvo cars for the safety features and DRLs are there for a reason. Live with it. Do you hear the Swedes whinging about DRLs.? No you dont.