My wife remarkedthat the headlights went dim when she was driving the car. True, they do seem quite anemic, to the point where we don't drive it at night. The headlight lenses are all sand-blasted and quite cloudy, but that has surely happened over time - not all at once. I put a voltmeter onthe carand the charging voltage is 13.5V - seems low, but otherwise the car has continued to start and run fine. At the time the headlights dimmed, the car was very low on fuel and hiccuped a couple of times - I attribute that to moisture perhaps, and nothing to do with the headlight problem. Is there something that could have happened "all of a sudden" to cause any of this? What do you think?

 

Maybe bulbs are almost ready to burn out.

13.5 is about normal.

 

I bought a 98 XC several months ago and as soon as I had to drive at night it was clear that the lights were dim. I first sprung for new PIAA bulbs thinking all would be well and it was not the case. After inspecting the headlamps it was clear that the reflective surface inside the lamps was not what it should be. Why I have no idea and if tech hasn't seen this before I guess its not common but I had to replace both headlamp assemblies. Problem solved. The reflective surface should be a nice chrome. On my old lamps the chrome surface looked like it was rubbed off and you could see a yellowish undercoat or maybe primer in some areas. If replacing the headlamps take extra care in removing the turn signals. The locking tab on the back of them is easy to break.