Has anyone had this happen?

I was walking past my XC70 last week and with the way the light hit the tail lights I noticed what looked like a crack in the rear lense. I went to look closer and sure enough, there were actually hundreds of small cracks on all parts of the rear lenses including brakes, reverse - everywhere. My car was scheduled for its service today so I thought I would bring it up. Service manager let me know that I am just out of warranty (4000 km) for anything to be done and good luck!

There are no points of impact or even scratches on the lenses and I have been using the "touchless" car wash through the winter. The failure mechanism looks like what we learned about way back in engineering school and is known as "Crazing" which occurs when parts are not properly cured and internal stresses remain in the material. Since I can't explain it any better here are some photos.

Has anyone seen this before? Any luck getting Volvo to replace the lenses?

thanks for your thoughts.

Maybe since you got the car used there's no real way to answer - but we've noticed where I work that many kinds of hard plastics will craze if they come into contact with alcoholic solvents (ethanol, antifreeze, etc), unless washed off within a few seconds. Maybe that happened at some time in the past.

I also had spotting and damage on the dash of a car from using "Armorall" and not wiping it off right away (within seconds). The damage wasn't really evident until the next day under sunlight illumination - then it was very obvious. Don't know if that would affect the lenses or if someone in the past might have used it or something similar on your car.

thanks.

I pretty much figured that past history was unknown but wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something to accelerate the issue. There are a few spots on the dashboard that are evident under the right lighting conditions as you mention. I use 303 on the dash and vinyl surfaces.

Anyone else tried the glue solution? The tails on the XC70/V70 are pretty large and I am not sure I can clear the whole thing in one shot. Also - how does this stand up over time? Does it make the issue worse later?

thanks.

Peter.

I had the same problem on the front signal lenses our "88 745 GLE. I was worried because our '90 745 GL lost a lens after a rock cracked it, I think that air pressure inside the lens blew it off.

Because I make plastic models, I painted the lens with Testor's plastic model glue, a clear liquid that is thin enough to seep into the cracks. It comes in a small bottle with a brush like a nail polish brush. Some say that it is merely acetone (nail polish remover).

This method made about 80% 0f the cracks disappear and made the lens look clearer and smoother on the surface. I think that this is the process used in TV ads for a liquid to repair scratched plastic eyeglasses.

Personally, I use a small paintbrush because the brush picks up some of the plastic that it is used on. I clean the brush with more glue brushed out on a clean paper towel

WARNING - Give the lens a generous coat by working decisively and quickly.

DO NOT re-brush areas that you have painted as the plastic has been melted, and brushing will cause blemishes.

Try a small area before going whole hog.

Leave the lens alone for quite a while to allow the solvent to dry.
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'96 855R,'64 PV544 driver, '67 P1800 basket case, '95 855, '95 854, the first three are mine, heh, heh, 415,000 miles put on 9 bricks

Crazing is also caused by using an ammonia based product such as Windex. Only soap and water or plastic cleaner should be used on the tail lights.
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1998 Volvo S70

thanks - I haven't used windex on them but I purchased it used from a dealer a couple months ago and who knows what happened to them before. Only cleaning since I had it was with a touchless car wash - are there any chemicals there that could cause a problem?

not sure where the photos went... second try.. they are uploaded to the library just now and the thumbnail doesn't look like it worked.