1996 Volvo 850 one front marker light not working

Handysmurf · Post by **Handysmurf** » 05 Dec 2014, 22:24

Hello fellow forum members. I am new to the forum and own a 1996 850 wagon, automatic, non-turbo. I have done a bunch of work to it to make it into a reliable and useful car for myself (including an engine change), and I honestly love the car even with all of it's modest abilities.
I am currently having an electrical problem that I hope someone may be able to give me some guidance or solution in getting fixed. The right front (passenger) marker/turn signal lamp right next to the headlight is not working in the marker function. The turn signal of the same light is working fine. I tried changing the bulb first, and that did not solve the problem. I tried another bulb, I tried swapping the light from the other side just to see if the light itself was dead, and finally when I checked the circuits in the light connector plug itself I discovered that the power to the marker side of the light is not getting power, but the turn signal is working perfectly.
The light had worked perfectly in the past in both functions, and I'm wondering where the power for the marker side might be disappearing. I didn't see a fuse specific to that light itself, and I'm wondering if the headlight relay may be dying slowly, or is it a break in the wire itself somewhere, or something else that I'm not thinking of or have knowledge of.
Any hints or suggestions to fix this problem would be appreciated, and I hope my stay at this forum turns out to be incredibly informative. Thank you.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 05 Dec 2014, 22:37

Welcome to MVS,

From your picture it looks like you have some great looking projector style front lamps which were not factory. Do you know if the factory wiring harness was used with the replacement lamps? If the new headlight assemblies required splices when they were installed that is where I would start looking first.

I have had the stock OEM corner light sockets fail on a couple of my cars but I think that was on the 70 series cars in the fleet and not the 850s but I could be wrong - with a Volvo fleet as large as mine the repairs kinda run together after a while.

...Lee

Handysmurf · Post by **Handysmurf** » 05 Dec 2014, 23:24

Yes, the car now has projector headlights in it (one of the originals was cracked, so I upgraded), and they have worked perfectly since I installed them about a year ago, they plugged right into all the factory plugs. Both headlight assemblies work perfectly when plugged into the driver side of the car, and both have the same problem when plugged into the passenger side of the car. The problem is definitely in the car itself somewhere. As I said, I checked the plug itself for blinker and running light power, and the blinker pin flashes just as it should even using the test light, but the marker light pin is dead. I will try and test the marker power wire itself father back from the plug pin and see if there is power there meaning I need a new plug. Thanks

Post by **abscate** » 06 Dec 2014, 09:34

If you scour the web you can find a wiring diagram for your car - by agreement with Volvo, we do not host them here on MVS. Once you find that you can isolate the wires that take voltage to the side marker and start working your way back to the 12 VDC power source

Rbaratt · Post by **Rbaratt** » 07 Dec 2014, 06:24

This seems to be a good link for the 850 service manual, look in the system wiring diagrams pgs. 18 and 19 for the exterior lighting circuit:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... al#p349451