Real proud of myself today after succeeding at replacement of a light bulb without shattering 25-year-old sun-baked plastic, I am.

But I had help. The help was in the form of a spare lamp to examine and practice on. Thought I'd share what I learned, since I feel as though I've learned this before the hard way and promptly forgotten it.



The idea is to push the heavy "catch" inward away from the cover without inflicting any force on the lightweight, sun-brittled cover. It really helps to see what's inside before beginning.



Oh, almost forgot... on reinstallation, mind the two tabs on the two tabs on the front top of the cover.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

Art, thanks for the details and pictures. On my next jy run I need to try to remove a 3rd brakelight cover as a test of my skills.
Your helpfulness is a gift to everyone.

Joseph in sunny New Mexico

Thanks to everyone for posting their experiences. That is what makes the Brickboard the "Volvo Collective".

Andrew

Hi Art,

I know what you are talking about with old plastic and the super tight clip inside.
I seen several them busted in the yards.
Luckily, I have never had to work on mine.

But a few months ago, I had to work on my third brake light of a new to me 1992 from the Wagonmiester in Lancaster Ca.

While looking at some pet worn spots of defroster lines I noticed the cover was slightly cocked. It was not engaged straight but was fairly tight. At least it was not busted.

From my practice of passing the junkyard ones, this one, the cover slip off without a big struggle.

I have seen where they made it in sections. Outside clips to remove the rear section, that your picture show, plus there clips to remove the unit from the lens on the glass.

While working with both parts in my hands I could not get the outer housing to engage straight onto the other part. At the same time the large clip puts a lot of pressure on the grooves between inner and outer housing.

At first my thought was to heat the plastic of the clip and weaken it. In trying to figure out how to apply heat to the clip I could see that the clip seemed to not drop into that slot at all.
It was not long enough to the hole.

I noted, On this particular light, the clip pushed downward on the inside of the outer housing so much it was really hard to keep things aligned while pushing it closed.
My outer assembly was just jammed on there, holding tight in the grooves on the sides, inside the housing.

Everything was under a strain but barely twisted enough that I noticed it.
I got out my old measuring stick a thin 6" scale and started checking things.
I came to the conclusion that the mold maker put the "screwdriver slot" to far forward on this unit.

In studying the plastics mold marks for injection points or the ejector pins. I found a fine seam line in the bottom groove.
If there is any kind of flaw or crevice in the mold surface the plastic will find it. Most of the time you see them as tiny circles.

After measuring a few more times, I decided that this unit was the victim of a mold makers change.
There was a pocket made in the original mold for a insert to make the space hole.
For some reason, the insert was a removed or placed in backwards on the inner or outer mold.
The ramp is in the wrong direction on the housings hole. It was not made to allow the screwdriver in, even though it works.

There was metal in there that got cut out at one time. This was metal in the original mold, that was removed to make the ramp molding.
With no insert in it, this allow plastic to fill the area forward where the insert ramp should have dropped into, from the inner mold half and stopped the plastic to form the ramp.

I think the ramp on the insert confused somebody in the shop or on blue print paper. This caused the plastic to fill a void and created a molding shift line.
I think it's also possible the clip mold did not get "its revision" if there was one, to make it to where the hole is now.
It comes down to One or the other. More costs to rework or more or less plastic cost.
Typically, a failure to communicate starts and ends it all.

I took my Dremel tool and cut the plastic back to that faint line. It's about 1/4 to 5/16 long increase of length, if I remember it well.

Now the housing slips on and that clip pops into the opening.

I still have to use a screwdriver to push up on the clip, as you said, it is very strong but the screwdriver contacts the clip by pushing straight up towards the ramp on it.

Now I don't know if all the taillights are made the same way or just this car.
It could be that it has a borrow part from another year.

Do they make after market lights for these cars or is it Volvo had several vendors to source, you got me?

I think the manual is telling us right. To insert a screwdriver it but the application point is off, forward of the clips step.


In mine, the clip was spreading the housing slightly instead of clipping into the slot. It was jammed tight.
By inserting the screwdriver between the housing and under the prong of the clip, it adds even more pressure and its enough to "snap" dried out housings.

So on those junkyard specials, that have not split, I think you have to use the widest and thinnest strong screwdriver in your tool box. Do not use the housing as a fulcrum and lift that strong clip!



Now off subject and back to the rear defroster.

I have purchased some conductive epoxy from Circuits Works. It's a circuit board trace fixer.
I found it a OLD electronic store, hanging on a hook. It was like $30 for a real tiny tube of it.

The web sites prices for it is "now" have gone totally "out of their minds!" Must be an error!

I'll let you know how it works or not, if I ever get around to it!

Phil

I admire your analytical view of this third light problem. You must have been an engineer or technician in your professional life.

About the rear defogger repair, I went through this many times since the previous owner had the VERY bad habit of using the hand ice/snow scraper also inside the car. Some wires have been weakened.

I used Permatex rear window defogger repair kit with success. It cost about $8 here last time I purcased it. One thing is that once opened the tiny bottle tend to loose its solvent. And the conductive powder in suspension solidifies.

But I cheat and re-fluidize it. I use a few drops of acetone, lacquer thinner (toluene is better I would think) and grind the lumps until the mixture is fine paste. Then I use it and apply double coats on the broken defogger wire.

Works well for me.

Thanks for coming onboard about fixing those rear defrost lines.
Sorry Art, but he is a nice guy too!

I did not know there was another product out there for fixing them.

Guess, it makes sense that if someone has developed a solution for electronic board traces, an outfit like Permatex, would seize the opportunity to make a similar product. If nothing else they are akin to promote a product or products to fill their bubble pack packages for resale.

Sometimes, I wonder if they even make anything on their own any longer.

A lot of Loctite and Permatex products spoil right in the tube if ever opened. They just don't reseal. Guess its why, I don't look often or stock it until I get around to using it.

I think the product that I found will do the same thing as yours, EVAPORATE!
It comes with a tiny plastic stick that has a feathered edge. The whole thing is about 1&1/2 inches long.
By the time I get it all done, I will look like a permanent bobble head between the head rests. (:-)

I have used Circuit Works products before. It came in a pen you squeezed and shook the ball inside it. It also flowed from a spring loaded ball point tip.

They also sold a protective insulating liquid, that covers over the trace, made the same way. I web ordered it back say, 10 years ago, for about $10 for each tube. Tenths of an ounce mind you!
It's probably the reason I was surprised to find it hanging on a card! It Costs too much to stock!

Yes, the trick is maintaining a resin into flowing with the particulates fine enough and close enough together in the mix to conduct to each other. Either conductive or resistive material can be reduced into ionic proportions.

Just like in electroplating solutions I used in the Navy. The slip rings of auxiliary powered alternators get repaired and coated with rhodium. On top of that a thin film of gold to lubricate or wear into the carbon brushes.
The Navy had the bucks! In 1970 the rhodium was in a solution at $200 a pint! I couldn't even see the stuff in the bottle. Catalytic converters have since caused the price to be all over the map!

You wonder about me?
Yes for 17 years, I was a Stationary Engineer but that does not count towards a "gone to school" design engineer with an internship.

During my years, before the job above, I became a Journeyman Machinist. I worked for a couple small companies. Then I got hired into a large company where I cross paths with many talented and highly skilled tradesmen. We had our own "in house" engineers!
The company promoted collaboration as it made the company great. I loved working there.

I learned a lot and the projects were always challenging. I listened and paid my dues or homage to these older men that I watched retire.

This company was an exporter. We built whole plants around the world. We used to say, "From the ground up, including paper clips and toilet paper."

Unfortunately, during the mid eighties, the crooks moved into management.
It was purchased by parts of new management to clients from Canada and Europe. We had only one competitor in Switzerland so I don't know how many people got rich.
The company was split or broken down into pieces!
Retirements were diluted but I just did squeaked in my Ten years!

Back then, NBC's Brain William's special called it, "The Fleecing of America."
He meant only retirement plans. It was a lot deeper than that! I saw it as the beginning of a big sell out!
I Was 35 back then. I learned to look past the horizon and focus on how the manufacturing was disappearing in this country.
A real personal wake up call! The picture was very ugly for my older coworkers and I did not want to be caught in that like them.


Luckily, America's diminishing freedoms still allow change, you just change with it!

This was just before NAFTA was on its "fast track policies." The Old man Bush disgraceful legacy!
This was before the Ross Perot third party spoke up. Before the Internet Dot Com era, that disguised everthing.
Trust me, I'm watching the upcoming elections ... see-saw fiasco! It's sick on both sides!

It took a three more years into Aero Space contracts & Cryogenic projects. I was the R&D department! Never saw a patent bonus as the company kept them! A little paperwork detail paragraph, I missed during hiring.
Turned out to be a lying company with a profit sharing scheme too! With that, I changed careers.
It was also sold to a French company after I left! They actually moved in and have grown in size!

If you can't beat them, join them! I went to work for a state government entity. Fiqured I was indirectly working for governments through contracts anyway?

I tried teaching the metalworking trade for about three years. But my heart was not in it for my students. I was passionate enough but I was realistic. I was trying to sell a promise of a good job that I did not believe in.

With this new vision or instinct, I fell back on my HVAC Degree, from my G.I. Bill days.

Along with my various experiences it was relatively easy to become a Stationary Engineer!
The teaching pay level was an equal crossover. Stationary Engineers are like the "top dog of mechcanics" in the realms of plant operations.
Journeyman Machinist and Millwrights all cross fields.

I now have a good early retirement, that started at 55 for me. I got everything I'll ever need paid for.
That's including five Volvos and a collection of my trade toys.

I didn't waste money on new cars, just on some old ones! (:-)
All five of them, for the same money of one low-end mid priced car of today!

I'm 66 and still moving but I'm pretty sure it's at a slower pace.

Thanks for your thoughts on the subjects.

Phil

To continue this stub on the subject of defroster repair, I'll mention some very old and possibly not relevant experiences. I have not attempted this repair on any Volvo.

In the 60's when printed circuits were just coming of age in industry, a vendor marketing to consumer repair shops, e.g. TV/radio repair, GC Electronics, provided small quantities of chemicals to help with the maladies of the new technology. One such chemical got famous. It was called Print-Kote Solvent. The solvent was marketed to remove another product intended to suppress arcing and moisture intrusion, called, ah, Print-Kote. But its "fame" is as an effective universal non-polar solvent, which I guess, if I remember the smell, was toluene.

Then they supplied a silver powder in suspension called Silver-Print, to repair circuit traces, but it was not so popular, because most circuit traces could more easily, effectively, and permanently be repaired by tacking a piece of wire over the broken portion. I can guess the outrageous price of this stuff now is not entirely due to a rise in silver prices, but lack of demand. Who ever buys a second bottle?

There are a few uses for this metal in suspension, one of which is exactly what you are doing. One gently polishes the defroster/defogger line around the break, masks it, and brushes on a few coats of copper or silver in suspension. I did this to a car long ago, and had temporary success. I say temporary because the breaks I were repairing were not due to an ice scraper, but simply the loss of the original metal across the entire grid. Fix one spot and another opens up when current is applied.

A friend uses this to fix modern keypad contacts which wear out, such as those you find in your TV remote control. In spray form it is used to create RF shielding in a plastic housing.

If you do manage to reclaim the defroster grid in your Volvo, please write it up. It is the alternative to replacing the rear window, which for any other reason never needs replacement.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Sometimes, the good you do does you no good. -Dr. Phil's way of saying no good deed goes unpunished.

Its a good thing these bulbs last 25 yrs!!

Thanks Art! You just reminded me of one more part to remove from my 92 245 parts car before I send it to the scrap yard in the sky. Just when I thought I had everything...