240 dl 1990 tail light and turn signal problem

epeters9 · Post by **epeters9** » 02 Nov 2009, 06:08

Greetings,
Just found your forum and registered moments ago. Our daughter bought the 240 this summer. Just replaced circuit board on rear driver side. Previous owner had hardwired the parking light due to break in circuit board and slight melting around the bulb holder. However driver side rear turn signal will not work. Parking lights and brake lights do work now. Passenger side rear turn signal works, but parking lights and brake light does not.

Driver side front turn signal flashes exceptionally fast. Passenger front works fine.

I did try switching the passenger side turn signal bulb and holder with the driver side. No success. Also, unfastened passenger side grounds, cleaned, and reattached. No success.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Eric

Post by **billofdurham** » 02 Nov 2009, 12:19

Welcome to Matthew's Volvo Site.

I assume you have tried new bulbs in the passenger side parking and brake lights and that the front parking lights are working. Have you checked with a voltmeter or multimeter for 12 volts at the connectors for the non-working bulbs? If you don't have 12 volts at the connectors then you need to trace the wiring back until you find the point where there is 12 volts. The wiring for the rear parking and brake lights comes through the bulb failure sensor which means that the driver side and passenger side parking and brake bulbs have separate circuits. You can, therefore, lose one side and the other will still work.

The fast flashing of the driver side front turn signal is caused by the rear bulb not working. It does this as an indication that you have a bulb off.

Bill.

epeters9 · Post by **epeters9** » 03 Nov 2009, 08:12

Will check after work today and respond. This sounds unbelievable - nonetheless... Today the driver side rear parking/brake light now blinks when I put the left turn signal on. It blinks at normal rate, not fast like I mentioned in first post. It stops blinking (and green arrow indicator stops flashing) if I apply brake while turn signal is on. But, I didn't do any work to the car yet.

Post by **billofdurham** » 03 Nov 2009, 11:33

I have encountered problems like this before and have always found it to be earth (ground) related. I appreciate that you have checked the earths on the rear lights but a second look, especially on the circuit boards,
may shed some light (no pun intended) on the problem.

Bill.

epeters9 · Post by **epeters9** » 03 Nov 2009, 14:13

I will re-check grounds. Is there something I should do other than unfasten the ground screw, and re-tighten. The ground wires look clean. Perhaps, I need to sand the paint around the screw hole. I unplugged the wires from the circuit board and the issue of the turn signal going through the parking light was resolved. Also, I am getting juice on the turn signal wire - but not working at the light. It's a new circuit board, but maybe I should hard wire the turn signal?

Also, am getting juice on the passenger side brown wire which I believe is for the parking light and break light. Am thinking that it may be a problem with this circuit board also.

Thanks for the patience and the help.
Eric

Post by **billofdurham** » 04 Nov 2009, 12:31

I clean off any paint or rust and put a smear of petroleum jelly or dielectric grease where I have cleaned.

The brown wire is for the left rear parking light but not the brake light. The attachment is the wiring diagram for the rear of your car.

1990 240 rear wiring diagram..pdf: (674.14 KiB) Downloaded 838 times

Bill.

epeters9 · Post by **epeters9** » 04 Nov 2009, 14:16

Just finished. All lights work. Had hard wire the passenger parking and break lights and the driver side turn signal. When I thought I was done, I looked at the driver side parking light and realized it was too bright - like the break light was on. This was on the side that I installed a new circuit board. I took the bulb out and took a chance by grinding off the one stubb and turning the bulb 180 degrees. It actually worked - though I am still not sure why it had the problem in the first place. I really tightened down the grounds. Seems to be ok.

I knew I was no mechanic. Now I know I'm no electrician either. Thanks for the help.
Eric

Post by **billofdurham** » 04 Nov 2009, 15:14

Let's hope it keeps working. Thank you for the update.

Bill.

epeters9 · Post by **epeters9** » 05 Nov 2009, 12:06

Wow. Was just checking last post and caught my mispell - although, perhaps I did "break" my brake light.