Ok, like the title says........ Forgive the ignorance..... I finally got MOST of the hacked up wiring figured out and repaired. The grandsons car now has headlights, turnsignals, reverse lights and front and rear fog lights working as they should. My issue now is the brake lights and taillights. Can someone please tell me which bulb position is for the brake lights and which one is for the taillights? I would assume the brake lights would be the lower outboard light and the tailights the upper and lower inboard, or am I wrong. My manuals and research and kinda confusing/unclear.

Thank you

 

Taillamps - they are the small 5 watt bulbs, #67? and the 5w filament in the 1157 (with the brake light using the 21w filament) turn signal, reverse and fog all use a 1156 single filament 21w bulb. Parking/taillamps are in the two lower on each side (inner and outer) lenses. Brake lights originally in the lower outer (with the 1157 bulb) Note in the factory taillamps the brake/tail socket is a different color - one is black the other white. My theory is someone in engineering screwed up and reversed the connection on the right taillamp circuit board- so they designed a different bulb holder for the right? (white bulb holder on the right side?)

Many have moved the brake lights to the upper inner position, replacing the never used rear fog lamps (and where the brake lights were in pre 1986 cars) because the sockets/connections/etc to the brake lights melt after xx years.

 

Thanks Hoonk, That is starting to make sense. Do both the left and the right housings use a white socket for the brake/tail bulb? I would assume so. Right now the both the lower inner and outer tailights light up when the headlights are on, but the left outer one is much brighter than the right outer one. When the brakes are on, it is reversed, the right outer is much brighter than the left. I swapped bulbs and the sockets from left to right but no change. On the left it is almost like the 21w filament is lit when the tailights are on, and the 5W when the brakes are activated...any ideas?

 

Yes - back to my previous post - where my theory is some engineer made a mistake and designed the right taillamp circuit board wrong. And to fix it - Volvo manufactured the White bulb holder - with the wiring to the 2 filaments reversed.

A white bulb holder goes on the right side and a black bulb holder goes on the left side to the lower outer lenses where the 1157 bulb is with 5 and 21 watt filaments.

So - yes the brake light filament is powered with the parking light circuit if you use a white bulb holder on the left side. You simply need the black bulb holder for a 1157 for the left side. Sorry don't have the part number handy.

As mentioned earlier - nobody uses rear fog lights - and since there is two of them (that look just like brake lights), if used others might be confused and think they are brake lights. And if they are on all the time (a kid thinking fog lamps are cool!) the real brake lights might not be noticed creating a problem with car following you. IMHO

So - swap wires in the plug to each taillamp (is brake yellow and rear fog white?, it's been a while) - move the brake light wire to the fog lamp position, and either cut or move the rear fog wire to the brake light position. Have done that hundreds of times to get brake lights to work in melted 240 sedan taillamp assemblies. If you really want (or need) A rear fog lamp - just connect 1 - like most other cars that have A rear fog light. (yes some cars use 2, jaguars etc)

 

1372043 and 1372044 are left and right brake bulb sockets

 

Thanks Hoonk, That makes perfect sense to me and sounds like a simple solution to my issues. I had no idea there was a black and a white bulb holder for 1157 lights and only the right assembly gets the white one. I'm going to see if there is a dual filament black holder in the box of spare parts that came with the vehicle......otherwise I am going to rewire it like you mentioned. Thanks again

 

You will need a black holder for the left side even if you move the brake light position - with a white holder (in the left side) the parking light current is going to the brake light filament in that 1157.

 

Found a black bulb holder with an 1157 in with the spare parts. Installed it and it all works like a charm...thanks!!, I doubt I would have been able to easily figure it out without the tip....