Sounds like "do what you can" and "don't expect this to go away".

Thanks to all for the responses. 33 degrees and raining right now, and just ran out for milk for the little guy. Of course you don't want to be out on a night like this at all, but it is for nights such as this that we buy the cars that we buy.

Dave

Contrary to some of the other posts, I have not found that new sockets plus dielectric gel is a cure for this problem. My 1998 V70R has yet to go the 5000 miles between services without one or both indicators developing that problem and my dealer has tried everything including new sockets and gooping up the bulbs with gel.

I just bought the glass base bulbs from IPD to see if that can cure it - I'll post in 6 months or so if I don't get a recurrence to confirm this is a cure.

Dave,

If you have the opportunity, replace both bulbs with the glass-base bulbs from IPD. You will eliminate the problem forever by doing so. The ground contact in both the original socket and the factory bulb are too small for the current, particularly when the socket ages and no longer makes solid contact with the bulb. Dielectric grease or Vaseline will keep moisture from contributing to the problem as well.

Regards,

Mike Harris in Sandy Eggo

Dave

The side that is blinking fast is the side that is burned out. I was told that there is a very slight gap between the bulb and the socket, it archs because of the air space and burns the bulb and the socket. It is corrected by inserting a new bulb in a new socket with plenty of die-electric gel put into the socket. He also put the die-electric gel into the other turn signal socket so it would not happen to that one. My dealer service representive in Albuquerque, said they have not had any come back once they have been fixed in this fashion.

Then also, there is the problem of the emergency turn signal switch which has been causing problems. They had my car for the day on that one. I don't know how long it took to fix. This problem renders both turn signals inoperative, except by pushing on the lever by hand. Both of these problems are well known to the service writers and technicans.

Victor Clark

2000 S70

Albuquerque

Dave,

You may indeed be paranoid. But you will have to find another subject obsess over. Once you replace the old socket assemblies you most likely will not run into the problem again. For additional piece of mind you could buy a heavier duty replacement bulb (through IPD) to go along with your new sockets... this might be over-kill.

My sockets failed within one week of another at 12K miles. Both bulb and socket were replaced in each case. To date, I have not had a bulb or socket failure and the car now has 49K miles on it.

OK, I give you something to stress over... if you have your headlights on all the time (daylight running lights) you can expect to get about 20K miles before the bulbs burn out. Instructions on how to by-pass the DRL feature are in your owners manual. I drive on a lot of rural two-lane roads and think the price of a headlight bulb is worth avoiding a head-on.

The high beam and low beam bulbs are interchangeable so if you get caught out and about with one eye, you can rob peter to pay paul until you get to a parts store for a replacement.

Happy trails,