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240 high beams on ALL the time 200 1993

The gremlins are back.

After not being able to get the bright lights to click on on last week I cleaned the contacts on the silver relay under the hood and it seemed to fix the problem.

But, this morning I turned on the lights and when I tried to go from bright to dim, it would not switch, it stayed on bright.

I pulled the dimmer switch and heard the clicking under the hood from the silver relay. Also while the brights were stuck on, I pulled the dimmer switch back a few times and noticed the lights went off completely while I had the switch pulled back towards me. After about 3 seconds of holding the switch back towards me, the lights would pop back on in bright mode.

I played with it for a while, and then after a few minutes I noticed that when I pulled the dimmer switch back towards me, the lights would not die for a few seconds, but burned bright the whole time.

So I am stuck on bright now, the dimmer switch is inoperable. I pull it, the silver relay under the hood clicks, but it does nothing to the headlights at all.

Switch on stalk or relay inside the car, or something else?
--
93' 240 Classic Wagon 220K & 92' 740 Wagon Regina/Rex 90K








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    a typical problem ... and fix ... 200 1993

    This sounds exactly like a typical problem in the later 240s.

    On the '93s, there's a relay in the center of the dash deep behind the center vents (the ones under the radio). The problem isn't really the relay, but the relay's plug (or connector if you want to call it that). Because of the stupid way these later model year 240s were wired (the older cars kept most of the heavy wiring in the engine compartment, including this relay), there's a lot of current flowing through these plugs inside the dash, and they sort of melt and short.

    Art Bernstein, as I recall, has an interesting set of pictures of this problem, which is typical of these last 240s. You have to change the relay, and also the connector (which you'll find is burned or scorched). The fun is getting to the relay -- you can't get to it from the side (glove box) like you can the OD relay.

    As one who put high-wattage H4 bulbs in his car (with Cibie/Volvo Euroheadlights, of course), a priority was to use the relay method of wiring it so that only a trickle of current actually goes through the car's original wiring, including that relay in the dash.

    You don't need to have installed high wattage bulbs, however, to suffer this problem -- it's just that high wattage bulbs will exacerbate the problem and make it more likely.








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      a typical problem ... and fix ... 200 1993

      Before going through the hassle of getting behind the dash, make sure it isn't the passenger side under hood step relay. i had the same problem (permanent hi-beams) and just unplugged and replugged and abracadabra, all good.
      --
      "So many donuts, so little time." Said the hotdog.








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    240 high beams on ALL the time 200 1993

    I went to the pick and pull. I got another under hood silver relay and changed it out. It still did not fix the problem.

    I tore into the dash and located the relay in the dash. The thing was very hot and the plug socket was partially melted! I replaced the relay and all the problems are solved now.


    --
    93' 240 Classic Wagon 220K & 92' 740 Wagon Regina/Rex 90K








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    240 high beams on ALL the time 200 1993

    silver relay under the hood is still your most likely culprit. Take it out and disect it, checking for nat defects(bad solder joints) or just replace it. Pretty sure they used the same relay going back to the 140 series!







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