850 headlight upgrade?

[tryingbe]

I have a set of these, I wonder why I wanted for so long. Light pattern is 10x better than stock.

http://www.360tuners.com/93-97volvo850h ... fgodZk8HsA

[scot850]

I'm sure there are a lot of things that a legal some places and not others. For example the headlight/daylight issue. I forget that in the US and maybe Europe there is a screw to turn the daylight running lights off, but in Canada we don't have that! I believe you can remove the light unit and there is a switch on the back as per the US version also. Daylight running lights are a requirement here, but many cars run without them. We have no annual inspection so it is cowboy country here unless a policeman needs a few bonus points. We can fit a lot of the stuff, but the law and those who enforce it usually don't seem to care on points like this. I always like the angel eye lights and only ever got around to fitting the turn signal part purely as I had to replace them as they were broken when the car was purchased.

The car has since had so many parts fail that there has never been money to fit a set as a priority.

Neil.

[beigg]

I have a set of these, I wonder why I wanted for so long. Light pattern is 10x better than stock.

http://www.360tuners.com/93-97volvo850h ... fgodZk8HsA

Holy crap those went up in cost! Over 100 more than what I paid.

[shaker_chi]

I was in an accident with my 1994 850 (early version with the larger headlight lenses). I had to replace my headlight lenses so I went with the E code versions. I have to say that the lighting was excellent, but it was even better with the E code lenses. I wish I could say the same for my S70. I don't see how Volvo went from phenomenal lighting to the absolute worst. In my 850 I went through seat belt checkpoint and the police officer told me to turn my high beams off. Of course, they weren' t even on.

[BEJinFbk]

I was in an accident with my 1994 850 (early version with the larger headlight lenses). I had to replace my headlight lenses so I went with the E code versions. I have to say that the lighting was excellent, but it was even better with the E code lenses. I wish I could say the same for my S70. I don't see how Volvo went from phenomenal lighting to the absolute worst. In my 850 I went through seat belt checkpoint and the police officer told me to turn my high beams off. Of course, they weren' t even on.

Was he on the right side of the car? Remember that e-code low beams are
designed to light the roadside and signs on the right ( for LHD cars ), and
throw quite a bit of light up and to the right.

[misha]

...I don't see how Volvo went from phenomenal lighting to the absolute worst. In my 850 I went through seat belt checkpoint and the police officer told me to turn my high beams off. Of course, they weren' t even on.

They were not.European cars still have excellent lightening even on later 850s with H1 bulbs and on all later cars.Problem with U.S market headlights is because of different style headlight lens pattern which is kind of blurry.EU spec lenses are much,much more clear.

About highbeams that officer told you to turn them off.....that's what i'm talking about.EU spec headlights have strong & clear white light output.Road lightening is superb with them.

[kaneelschep]

I was quite amazed by the light of my volvo too. I drive a lot of long distances through the entire night. and experienced a lot of carlights wich are just not that great to okish.
My mothers 01 audi a6 definetely does not light that well. Allthough now I put factory xenon in it, it lights a lot better.
I have an '82 mercedes 500 sec too for fun. Once I drove a friends one who had the 'cool' American style headlights..
Complete and utterly useless in comparison to my eu mercedes lights. Just nothing! Its there but it just does not seem to shine forward in any usefull way.
So I asked around on boards and everyone seems to be wanting to get eu spec lampunits.
and Only the American ones seemed to be so useless.

I have always been wondering why this is? How can this be approved and all?! What is the difference in thought here?

[shaker_chi]

Is there an E code lense available for the S70. Seriously, they are the absolute worst headlights I've ever seen. I leave my highbeams on sometimes and nobody ever flashes their back at me.

[misha]

They claim that this is EU spec lens...but instead of Hella or Bosch...they are ProParts:
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo- ... 70-s70-v70

[DeathRex]

I tried out my 850 yesterday morning to test the lights and they looked awfully dark. Got a light meter from work and I tested a 2013 Beetle and the 850. The Beetle got a max of 80 lumens with the engine off, and the 850 only got a max of 32. Both cars positioned the same and metered at the same distance. I took the headlights out and removed the lens to clean it, wasn't dirty. The bulb has a slight bit of haze on it so I ordered a set of bulbs to test.
The glass has a bunch of small chips in it, that I don't think I can do any thing about except replace.