Hey folks, I have a '91 740 sedan. The right & left brake lights are out but the center brake light (rear window) still works. The bulbs are fine. No bulb out indicator lit up on dash. It's pothole season here so the poor thing has been subject to a lot of bumps lately, something may have been knocked loose. Any suggestions? Thanks, Greg

 

First i would check the fuses just to make sure. If the fuses are not bad then un-plug and remove the rear tail light bulb circuit. I own the same car and have noticed that water finds its way into them and it may just need to dry out. But here is what i think may be wrong. I had somewhat of a similar problem with my right side tail lights a few months back and i took out the circuits and checked them out. It seemed like within the circuits a piece of metal was not hitting another piece and thus no power was getting to the tail light but to the blinkers etc. So try this, when you take out the circuits (they are behind those grey covers in your trunk) take the bulb out and see if you get a solid form of resistance from the little tab that the bulb sits on. Press it with your finger and see if it feels solid. If its kinda loose feeling that may be your problem right there. If it is loose you can simply use some tin foil and bunch it up into a small cube and wedge it in to help conduct the power. You may have to do a little prying but once you take the circuits out of the car you will see what i mean. I know you said both were out so im thinking it could be a fuse, so def check that first if you haven't already. I feel the pain with the pot holes too. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the reply, colgate. Yeah i did try to pry out the tabs for the bulbs since that has been an issue in the past but no luck. I also checked the fuses, etc. but that would have made all 3 go out anyway. It just seems weird that both went out at once but the center is still working. my thought was that there is some sort of loose connection between the relay and wherever the center splits off from the other two. but i will try your suggestions again. i feel like i should pull the fuse tray out and have a look at the connections below that if possible, i have just been really busy working etc...

anyway if you or anyone else have any other ideas, please let me know. i will post whatever i learn and if i get it resolved, so as to help anyone in the future if they have this problem. i kinda feel like it's related to all the jarring from the potholes but that is just a hunch.

 

I had the same nightmare bulb issues with my 940 wagon. Before ordering new lens assemblies, I removed them, and cleaned and adjusted all the contacts. Turned out that one of the lens assemblies was a cheap aftermarket replacement. Anyway, after doing all that, everything works fine now.

 

Thanks for the reply, Pillow. OK, I was cleaning and checking the rear light assembly by the stop light sockets and got it to intermittently work by shorting between the two layers just above the socket. I talked to the local Volvo guru and he suggested just putting a little piece of wire in there so that it's making contact with both levels, apparently he knew just what i was talking about, as usual, lol. I did as he suggested and they work fine now after a little tweaking of the picture frame wire i used. Also, the bad bulb indicator works again - it stopped working when stop lights stopped working.