Headlights, yet again...WITH PICTURES 98 V70 99 S70

Post by **Eddystone** » 22 Jan 2019, 15:43

If you haven't replaced your headlight housings, you probably should. You may have followed my musings about headlights and my unwillingness to go outside and actually deal with them in the cold weather and my reluctance to spend any money. Thanks for putting up with that. Bottom line is that the replacement TYC aftermarket stock-style lights at $80 is the only rational thing to do. If you want to go beyond that, go HID or LED or laser, but if the housings are shot, any light source you put in them will be severely limited. Here are some pics:

Quite a difference in terms of reflectivity and focusing of the beam.

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It is, in fact, easy to see when headlights are bad from simply looking into the lens. I thought it might be harder to tell.

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You can see just a tiny bit of plating left far away from the bulb. There's no plating anywhere else.

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The TYC aftermarket headlight assembly has all of the stock adjustments and even includes a place for the headlight washer rest. It went into the car with little or no trouble. These are priced at $80-83 on the web as of January 2018.

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Here's the white fence test with a new left housing and an old right housing:

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: New Left, Old Right Both ON; oldplusnewBOTH.png (354.19 KiB) Viewed 4625 times

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: Old Lamp ONLY; OldLampONLY.png (392.59 KiB) Viewed 4625 times

Post by **matthew1** » 22 Jan 2019, 15:54

Oh my I live for comparisons, but if you have to wait til it’s dark and cold, I get it. At least can you do a daylight photo looking at the front of the car with the lights on?

Post by **Eddystone** » 22 Jan 2019, 16:36

matthew1 wrote: ↑22 Jan 2019, 15:54 Oh my I live for comparisons, but if you have to wait til it’s dark and cold, I get it. At least can you do a daylight photo looking at the front of the car with the lights on?

Fixed it, Matthew. Couldn't resist a test myself. This headlight loss of reflectivity is a major hidden safety issue that sneaks up on you slowly. Now, I have to order headlights for my V70.

Post by **matthew1** » 22 Jan 2019, 16:45

Post by **BEJinFbk** » 22 Jan 2019, 19:09

Nice Pics! And even though they don’t get into C70 jewels,
mebbe string these two posts together and sticky’em?

Post by **Eddystone** » 22 Jan 2019, 21:12

BEJinFbk wrote: ↑22 Jan 2019, 19:09 Nice Pics! And even though they don’t get into C70 jewels,
mebbe string these two posts together and sticky’em?

Well, I'd keep an eye out for the C70 jewels, but these are more than adequate for me. What's different about the C70? Just the lenses, or the whole assembly? C70 lights are much more expensive.

That lackluster right headlight has the 30% brighter lamps I just fitted a few weeks ago. The bright left hand headlight has the standard H7's that came in the headlamp assemblies.

Post by **BEJinFbk** » 23 Jan 2019, 00:00

The coveted '03-'04 jewels are completely different lamps (H11), reflectors and glass.
The output is much better and best of all, they bolt up nicely into '98-'00 S/V70's ...

And the aftermarkets aren't that bad:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=20 ... +headlight
Just be sure to confirm real glass covers.

WhatAmIDoing · Post by **WhatAmIDoing** » 23 Jan 2019, 13:28

Wow what a comparison... shows me I should really replace my headlights.

Post by **matthew1** » 24 Jan 2019, 21:24

Eddystone, thanks for posting your photos and thoughts in this and the "back story" topic. I made your account MVS Contributor rank.

Post by **Eddystone** » 25 Jan 2019, 01:38

"Eddystone, thanks for posting your photos and thoughts in this and the "back story" topic. I made your account MVS Contributor rank."

Thank you, Matthew. It's good to be able to contribute to the group. I have found lots of useful information at MVS, and connected with a few people who make my Volvo much more pleasant.

Perhaps, though, a some sort of trophy would be in order. For example:

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My son lives in Cleveland not far from the house featured in "A Christmas Story" and it is a bit of a tourist trap with tours and a gift shop where you can buy these leg lamps in various sizes and configurations.