Alright, my passenger's side headlight got smashed a few weeks ago, and I just drove around like that for a while because I was a little lazy about getting a new one and also it makes my car look a kind of menacing. Now I've developed a strange electrical problem, I only have working running lights on the driver's side, and I don't have any dashboard lights. Though my turn signals and brake lights still work. Also the bulb failure warning light has gone out but it was on before. The only thing I've done recently is take off my steering wheel to make it not crooked anymore. Though annoyingly when I put it back I couldn't push it all the way on because the stud on to which it mounts kept pushing into the steering column, so now the horn doesn't work unless I push on the steering wheel.

Anyway, things I suspect: Bulb failure relay, stupid dimmer switch that needs to be jumped to get the interior lights working in like every Volvo*, and also maybe replacing the headlight might fix everything.

*I see 240s with little sticky lights stuck to the top of the steering column all the time. I always leave a little note to replace the dimmer switch.

 

I'm not completely sure, but remember the person who sold me my 83 240 telling me about some weird one-sided light problems after the steering column had been removed, and resolved (except the way the brake light on one side talks to the "you have a light out, dummy" light on the dash) after the steering column was replaced.

But that was a case of vandalism, drilled out ignition ... something about "once they get behind the dashboard, you never know."

I'm sure this is helpful and specific, no? The Volvo Expert in my family is asleep, and his official summation of the 240 of this era is, "Great Body, Great Engine, Gremlins in the Electrical." His little rant about the things he fixed on Volvos in the 80s includes a bunch of cases of faulty exterior lights, on just one side of the car. Usually taking apart a seemingly unrelated part, and putting it back together not quite the way it was to start, was involved.