The rear rear tail lamp assembly inside the trunk lid on my 97 960 has room for the rear fog bulb only on the driver side. This is the assembly that accepts the brake, tail, and fog bulb unit (at least on the dirver side). The passenger side assembly has a circular impression in the actual molding, where a bulb would be inserted, but is not cut out to allow a bulb to be mounted, although there are three bulb sockets wired in. (sorry this description sounds garbled).
Is it normal for these cars to have only one fog lamp on the rear? My 92 960 had one on either side.
Thanks
John D.

My 95 960 had the same situation: only one bulb, the other side had the gray plastic cover. I popped the slot cover off with a screw driver, and put in a bulb.

It is my understanding that the reason the one bulb is often covered is because laws in some states and provinces forbid having dual rear fogs. In Europe they often come with both bulbs, whereas in North America they tend to come with one. Apparently it is believed to confuse drivers behind that your are braking, when in fact it is the rear fogs on.

I believe that it makes me much more visible from behind, so I have them on (both) often. It is possible that one could get a ticket if they are driving in a locale where dual rear fogs are not allowed, but it is likely a solid defense that the 'car came that way and you have no idea how or what the bulbs are.'

FYI,

Dear 960 Brickster,

Hope you're well. I've found right-side (passenger-side) tail light clusters that (a) have the bulb opening (but not the hardware installed); (b) do not have the bulb opening.

Few peace officers will write a ticket because a car has two fog-lights. Most will not know that 940s come with single-side and dual fog lights. A few years ago, a safety inspector failed my car. He said the brake lights were "on" all the time. It was a gray, rainy day. When I tried to explain that the upper lights were fog lights, he took umbrage. I paid, left, and reported his error to the State Police, who run the vehicle safety inspection program. The Trooper then in charge had been a car fixer for some years, knew about the 940, and educated the safety inspector. Problem solved.

My 940s (93-95) are pre-wired for dual fog lights. Mine are in service. In one case, I used a hole saw and key-cutting files to make the bulb opening. I used hardware from a broken cluster. Otherwise, I simply found clusters set-up for the fog light bulb.

On days when rain/fog prevails and/or road spray is heavy, I use the dual fog lights. Every safety advantage should be used to the max.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

Yes, it is normal. The later cars only have the drivers side fog light. My 1993 945 has just the one rear fog.

John

Hmmm. Very odd. Wonder if I can cut it out so that I can mount a light on either side. Funny the wiring and socket are there but no hole. Must have saved Volvo all of the price of a bulb!
John D.

Yes you can, I did on my 98 S90. Super easy. I used a hole saw to cut the hole in the plastic and only needed a bulb. Now I have rear fogs on both sides.

DEWFPO
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1998 S90 083,228 and 1995 964 154,100

curious, I didn't notice unused fog light wiring when I was poking around in the back of my 940.

If you're contemplating making modifications to your rear lighting, this is a very worthwhile change:
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=187878
(you have to be logged in to see the pics)

Made a huge improvement in rear visibility, and has caused no problems with the evil bulb failure relay. Of course, I had to swap in a passenger side brake light assembly from an earlier car to outfit the 940, since mine had no bulb or socket on that side. But it was a 5 minute job on the 240.

John

John
Thats an interesting lighting modification. I wonder though if it might not work even better with a double filament 1157 socket, so that one filament is the fog and the second is the additional brake light.
John D.

I wonder though if it might not work even better with a double filament 1157 socket, so that one filament is the fog and the second is the additional brake light.

Yes, it is possible. Circuit requires a diode to prevent reverse current flow and to keep the bulb failure light "honest".

Someone, not me, has that circuit.

Good Luck,

Bob

:>)

JOhn
The interesting thing about this single fog light thing is, without the second fog bulb on the passenger side, there is a fog warning lite on the dash when I turn on the switch. When I put a bulb in the unit on the passenger side, the warning lamp turns off. Looks as though they used the 'bulb-out' warning lght as a notification that the single rear fog bulb is on!
John D.

That's mildly interesting. As noted by others, 940s (at least the later ones) only had a single left rear fog light. According to the green manuals, neither the 740 twin lamp nor 940 single lamp systems go through the bulb out relay. Oddly enough the 1995 940 manual incorrectly shows twin rear fog lights. For whatever reason it must be different for a 960, at least in 1997. In your case, if you remove a bulb and the fog lamp indicator goes out when the bulb out indicator goes on then there would seemingly be a significant impedance difference between the two circuits at the instrument cluster. You'd likely observe the same thing when any parking/brake/headlamp bulb is out. Does the indicator lamp in the fog light switch itself also go out when this happens? I suspect it would.
--
Dave -940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now