OK, after a long time (now) has passed without tail light problems on any of the 8 240's I look after, I can offer some opinion based on experience.

After one sickening waste of money on a replacement set for a sedan, I decided the aftermarket route was out for me. At the time, those lamps were labeled as "made in Taiwan" and cost about two-thirds the best Volvo price, or close to $100 each. With that experience, I learned what others have reported -- that you should toss the aftermarket bulb holders and stay with the Volvo-branded Cibie or Valeo, because the spring contact material is inferior and its plating makes a poor electrical contact material in a moist environment.

The flex circuit boards are not the root of the problem as many assume. Look closely at the the plastic that backs them up, both at the bulb openings, and at the tongue that accepts the card-edge connector used on the wiring harness. I don't know whether that plastic is inferior to the Valeo plastic, or just that the contact resistance is higher, making any plastic melt. No, it is not the bulb melting the plastic, it is the poor spring contact connections.

The real kicker is, the Volvo genuine lamps are seemingly made better in every way, and once you get past the $300-per-set extortion, they kick you while you're down, when you find out they leak. And of course, leaks cause poor contact, causing intermittent operation and melted plastic. I figure, even though these are made in some Valeo plant, they aren't production items any more, and as such no assembly workers are really that good at catching these hidden defects in the welds between the black plastic housing and the colored lenses.

So, I have purchased somewhere north of four new OEM sets, and now they all have holes drilled in the bottom of their lenses, and hard-wired bulb sockets, which as we all know is NOT how the Volvo gods intended.

I think now I could start with the Estonian-made product, knowing the defects, hard wire them from day one, and save a bundle. This applies even to the wagon lamps.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

It seems like a lot of suppliers are only interested in plugging the hole with a part, rather than making sure the part is of high quality. -Benski