I just recently bought a 1990 Volvo 240DL, It has run great and it has always been a dream of mine to own one. But about a month ago my right brake light went out completely. I replaced the bulb with a Sylvania 7528 and it came back and worked fine. But after a week my bulb failure light came back on only when I was pressing the brake, my right brake light was out again but it would light up fine when it was just my running light. I checked the contacts and cleaned everything I saw to see if that was the problem, I even swapped the left brake light bulb assembly to the right side to see if that was the issue, but the right side stayed off while the left side worked fine. I eventually replaced the cheap paper circuit with a new one and the minute after I did that the right side running lights worked fine but now my left brake light is out completely and none of my brake lights are turning on even the top one in the window. If anyone has had any similar experiences or can recommend some things that might be causing this it would be greatly appreciated!

 

tail light woes are common on these cars. every question and solution has already been posted here a million times already.... use the search !!!!
meantime as a comment you should try to use OEM bulbs and all the same brand as well.....

 

First make sure your lights"check" relay is working. It is the big double stack usually red colored one. If it's bad all three brake lights go out along with the cruise control. It's under the dash to the left of the steering wheel.

 

OK - 240 brake lights melt the tail lamp assemblies - cheapest fix - move the brake light function to the rear fog lamp position. the upper inner red lenses, a 2 minute fix, move the wire in the connector on the back of the tail lamp to send brake light power to that position. (yes your rear fog lamps will never work again!)

You swapped the left and right brake bulb holder - did you notice that one plastic holder was white and the other was black? The bulb holders are not the same, swap them back.

No brake lights? how about the fuse? Power goes from the battery to the fuse to the brake light switch to the bulb out relay to the 3 bulbs - easy to trace with a test light on that car.

 

Hi everyone, thank you for your help, it is greatly appreciated. I ended up buying a new circuit for the right tail light and replaced the tail light fuse and that seemed to do the job.

 

good you got them working. another help back there is to use copious amounts of dielectric grease on the bulbs and holders.