Ok so yesterday the wife went to leave for work and came back in and told me she had a Headlight out.
I said ok I will look at it later. She proceded to work.

Today I put in a new bulb but still nothing. I said ok and checked the fuse for the L/S lowbeam which was out.
Fuse was blown. Install a new fuse and try. The fuse blows right away. I look closely in the headlight.
I see all the insulation on the wires cracked and falling off.

So if you run into this problem as well here is how you fix it.

I had a spare assembly in the garage with no glass because it was broken but the wires were the same way.

1.Remove the headlight assembly from the car. There is 3 10MM screws holding it in. But first you need to remove the parking light.You will also have to remove the plastic trim under the headlight it just pull straight off.

2.Once the light os out of the car using a table,cart, or tool box tray remove all the clips holding the glass to the assembly. It will look like this.



3.Once the glass is off then you can pull the crome assembly out. It clips into the black part.Once you get it apart you will see how it goes back in. It will look like this. (Except I already took the harness out)



4.Next you will remove the harness from the headlight assembly it is held in by little clips on the plug.
Then you will need a real little screwdriver like an eyeglass one.Using a flashlight look in the plug closely where the little notch is one of the side you will see a metal tab from the connector.Use the screwdrive to push the tab in and release the connector and slide it out of the plug.





5.I had to use a couple different sizes of heatshrink. On the Yellow and white wire it was the same size.
You slide the heatshrink over the terminal and slide it all the way to the other connector. Then use heat to shrink it. You might need to use 2 pieces of it.
For the brown wire since it is shared between both connectors I removed the terminal from the bulb side of the plug. Then I had to use a little bigger size of heatshrink because the terminals are a little bigger.It doesn't have to fit 100% tight (It would be nice to have it) but once you get the wire all full with it and secured back in the plug it can't go anywhere.I had to use 2 pieces on the brown as well. I shrunk the first piece then slide the second piece over the first a little and shrunk to help hold it tight.

You can see from the pics how bad the wires really were.

Here is a few pics of after. (don't mind the different colors thats all I had at home on such short notice)







When reinstalling the terminals back into the plugs you might have to adjust the little locking tab on the terminals.
Then reinstall everything including the light back into the car.

Hope this helps someone out there.

 

I have this problem and blame Volvo for using cheap wire. any silicone based insulation will NEVER dryrot and fall apart. All i did to temporarily fix the problem is use electrical tape and duct tape over that to keep it all safe and sound until i have time for the real cure, what you suggested. id go a step further and double heatshrink for good measure.

 

If I had extra laying around I would have done the same but the last wire took the last piece I had.

 

Hey Tech.
I hm having a similiar probelm with my passenger low beam. When I took the bulb out my wires looked much like yours so I wrapped with electrical tape and put it all back together. My fuse never blew but my plug connector was black on one side when I first took it out. Burned pretty much. I am attaching a picture. Think my plug is ruined or should I look at heat shrinking the wires even though the fuse is still good? Bulb still will not light and it is a new bulb.
Thanks,
Rob

 

Wow that looks fried. Let me see if I have a harness.

 

I am adding this to the sticky thread at the top.

 

I broke one of the pins where can i get a couple?
What are they called?

 

They are called terminals radio shack or dealer.

 

Thank you for the instructions,
I seem to have a similar problem with my passenger headlight (both high/low beam wires cracked bad), the high beam always works but the low beam would rarely turn on. Before the light went out the first time the bulb icon in the dash would show up at random times while the lights worked. I spent around $60 replacing everything inside my passenger headlight, however after a couple of weeks the headlight went out again. I checked the wires and they seem fine, nothing melted, crack or burnt. All the fuses check out ok. I heard that it could be because the bulbs are not volvo brand but I'm not sure if that could be the problem. Any advise would be appreciated

Thanks again for the guide, its much cheaper than getting a new headlight.

 

If you spent $60 in parts then no it is not much cheaper than a replacement lamp. Besides metering the wire, or at the very least removing the insulation to inspect the actual conductor how do you know it is good? Most times I read about non Volvo brand bulbs is that a Higher wattage bulb is used, which pulls more current than the stock wiring can handle, leading to wire failure.

 

How much would a replacement lamp cost and where could I find one (online I'm assuming)? I went to a local Volvo shop and they wanted $100 for a used headlight off a wrecked 850 and the Dealer wanted double for a new one. I currently don't have a test light; a day or two after the light went out I unplug it and pulled it out to see if there was any melting/harness fused to the bulb, but it still looked the same as the day I put it back in. I'm definitely going to check out the wattage for the bulb. Got them from O Reilly's.
Thanks for the advise.

 

$60 seems an average price on Ebay, but that is high IMO for a used assembly. Forums are a good thing since many members have spare parts that are just lying around. I myself have an old set, but only good for C70 and other similar models. Changing the wiring to make it good should cost very little, otherwise replacing the complete assembly is easier and more economical(this is provided the wiring before the lamp is good).

 

i was checking out my headlights to see how the HiD kit i recently got would be connected - pulled off the passenger cover and bulb and found nearly BARE wire for most of the viewable length of the connector harness.

So the heatshrink tubing seems like a great and obvious solution to not having open wiring but what has caused these problems in the first place? crappy sheathing or short/overpowered? I have only had the car for a short while but have had o problems with the lights and they are always on (DRL)

 

Crappy shielding/insulation from the start.

 

yes cheap wire ! it seems volvo gets a premium price for the car but uses the cheapest garbage to build them ! tech is also helping me with my problem , obviously he has alot of patienace! i would rather own a pinto that explodes on contact ! or even a YUGO !

 

it also seems everyone has to use those AFTERBURNER head lights ,not a good choice for stock wireing !

 

volvo uses cheap garbage for wire ! if you are half blind and need those afterburner head lights use a relay type set up and use the existing wires to power the relay ! stock wireing will not support those blareing blinding afterburning lights

 

will do. So heat shrink shielding will fix the problem permanently?

 

20/18 heatshrink applied to them all. DDM HiDs look great, i need to make the appropriate size hole in the back cover though so i am protected.
thanks for the write-up. it would have taken me awhile longer if i hadn't had these instructions. took me about 2.5 hours to do the uninstall, wrap, hids, reinstall.

 

use thhn wire to replace ,acid proof !