I recently bought a volvo s40 2012 and the high beams wont stay engaged, i looked trough the forums and nothing helps, i tried switching the lights to every position and it doesnt work. Also when i pull the stalk towards me, on the first position nothing happens, and in the 2nd where high beams should engage, it only flashes.

 

Does your car have bi-xenon lights (basically, projectors with a "flap" that moves to allow the light to extend higher when on high beams). If so, (IIRC) the "high beam bulb" is only there to flash when you pull the stalk. That's how my BMW 5-series wagon works. I'm not 100% certain about 2010 Volvos, but suspect this is what you're seeing. If so, just point the car at a wall and see what happens when you push the stalk to the high beam position.

 

There's 2 functions pulling back the turn signal switch. 1st position flash high beams, 2nd position switch to high (or low) (labeled 3 and 4 in the diagram)

 

Does your car have bi-xenon lights (or not)?

 

We have a 2005 model and when parked and one switches lights on , pulling on the stalk mentioned swithes between low and high perhaps with never models with HID lights its different the vwhicle must be started before ?
I have a vehicle with HID lights and they change fron high to low with only ingnition on