lighting problems

[ColdPass]

My '01 S40 doesn't put much light onto the road unless I use the brights. The lenses are clean, and the bulbs are fairly new, but they don't light up the road nearly as good as our other vehilces.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Also, has anyone installed aftermarket driving lights into the area where fog lights would have been fitted if our vehicle had that option?

I'd love to see how you installed them and what they look like.

Thanks!

[cstem]

I read a review (maybe consumer reports?) that said the lights were kind of weak. Mine are too, the hi-beams kick butt! I adjusted the beams up a little bit and that seems to help. Unluckily, I live in a large city, so I am rarely driving without the assist of street lights, but in the middle of nowhere it was dark!

[barbless]

Yeah we have a similar problem with our 05 s40. the brights are great but the low beams are dim. I'm working on the problem and it may be with the daytime lite sensor, so that it's like you're only getting the daytime running lites coming on at night. I'm new to this site so bear with me if I'm not doin it rite!!

[barbless]

So what I got is that the bulbs for low beam are a philips H11, 50 watt. That is if you don't have the zenon lites. There are very few options available for a better bulb, the PIAA H11 is the only one I could find. IT is expensive, like $100 cdn, but has double the brightness with the same wattage. Volvo isn't very co-operative to give information out on their cars. I called half a dozen dealers and shops to find out what was going on. The lites are on all the time and there are no daytime running lites, just the regular headlamps. I just installed a set of PIAA's in our car, they are much better.