98 V70 T5 Intermittent Driver Headlight

charleskennedy23 · Post by **charleskennedy23** » 08 Oct 2015, 00:01

Hi Friends!

Thanks so much for all the great advice! It alot of fun reading all the posts and learning about my volvo! I am 1 year in on my '98 V70 and this forum has helped me tremendously getting "Hagrid" back in shape.

Now to my current issue which i sure someone can help me out with right away. About once or twice a week (it has been getting more frequent) my driver's side headlight won't come on right away. When this occurs it might take 30-seconds and other times in might take 2-3 minutes before it comes on. WHen it does come on everything works fine. No other electrical issues.

Any ideas? It doesn't seem to me like this is a headlight issue, but maybe "Hagrid" is trying to tell me that he's about to go blind in the left eye.

Thanks for any help you guys can give!

Charles

Post by **jreed** » 08 Oct 2015, 04:44

Interesting problem! My experience has been that the lights generally work until the filament burns out, and then it fails all of a sudden. Have you had a chance to check the headlight connector and wiring to see if they're corrosion free and securely attached?

charleskennedy23 · Post by **charleskennedy23** » 08 Oct 2015, 07:39

Good suggestion...

charleskennedy23 · Post by **charleskennedy23** » 07 Nov 2015, 09:30

so I pulled the headlight and this is what I found... burned up wires going to the bulb! I replaced with a headlight I found at the pic and pull and everything seems ok now, although I am wondering a if there isn't something else wrong that cause these wires to get fried....

Post by **dosbricks** » 07 Nov 2015, 12:02

The problem is mainly age and the very high heat of the halogen bulb. The insulation gets brittle and just cracks off. Yours looks like they may have been previously taped, and the tape could not take the heat and just melted. If they had shorted, I think there is a relay that kicks, but I don't know for sure. You might check the other side to see what shape they are in.

Post by **abscate** » 07 Nov 2015, 20:58

Were the 1998s covered under the headlight harness upgrade recall?

Post by **dosbricks** » 07 Nov 2015, 21:36

abscate wrote:Were the 1998s covered under the headlight harness upgrade recall?

Good question. I never got a notice, but would like to get one.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 07 Nov 2015, 23:26

I'm not sure if it was a recall item or not but my daughter's '98 had exactly the same thing and I bought the revised harnesses and put them in. No problems after they were replaced.

The only trick is getting the old harness released if you don't remove the whole headlight assembly. I used a Dremel tool to cut the old connector out and then the new one just snapped right in.

...Lee

charleskennedy23 · Post by **charleskennedy23** » 07 Nov 2015, 23:35

where can I get the updated connector?

charleskennedy23 · Post by **charleskennedy23** » 07 Nov 2015, 23:35

where can I get the updated connector?