Having trouble sorting out a headlight / highbeams issue on my 1996 960. I'm hoping to sort that out for an upcoming inspection, and hopefully, one more year of driving.

Can anyone point me to a wiring diagram, specifically as it related to the left front headlight / highbeam assembly?

Many thanks.

KaiS

Hi KaiS,

See:
http://www.volvowiringdiagrams.com/

There may be green manuals with this information someplace. You may want to see the section on 1997-1998 Relays.

Also at Dave Barton:
http://www.240turbo.com/volvorelays.html

The relay location info is helpful if you have a failed relay, or a relay set into a socket on the primary 700-900 relay board or elsewhere. As corrosion can form between the relay termination pins and the socket slots that hold in place the termination spade at the end of the wire harness conductor.

See DeoxIT D, a dielectric treatment that can dissolve corrosion that inhibits current flow. Also, a wiggle or remove and replace of the relay from and back into the socket can help, yet if corrosion is advanced, where heat is persistent, the terminal spade at the end of the wire harness on the underside of the relay platform (or the earlier relay / fuse platform).

The same is true of the headlight bulb to socket connection. Bulb heat into the bulb wire harness socket connector can form corrosion. A wiggle or replace.

Also, do you have any unwanted moisture intrusion into the headlight reflector chamber? I'm unsure what year, and I'll guess you have glass headlight lenses, yet the grey adhesive Volvo used to seal the plastic (as with 1986+ 240, most of the 700-series series production run, and early 900) or glass (later 900 series) can loose adhesion and seal as it ages with exposure and headlight temperatures. You should not, or very rarely at worst, ever see moisture condensate inside the headlight lens.

It helps if you describe the symptoms / indications of the failure. So that others can help you in subsequent replies.

How many miles?

Questions?

Hope that helps.

MacDuffed.
--
Give your brickboard.com a big thumbs up! Way up! - Roger Ebert.

Thank you *very* much.

Will see if I can piece things back together the way they were intended...

KaiS

Hi KaiS,

Please lettuce know how you make owt.

You can use the search feature here on the RWD forum, when looking at the index for other articles.

Great biscuits and graveeeee. I forgot, yet again ... in the 700-900 FAQ, (Ctrl + mouse-click the FAQ to open in a new tab). Or copy and paste this link:

https://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900/ElectricalLightingHorns.htm

Read over this FAQ page. More info for you. Hope this helps.

Thank you,

Fresh Broccoli and Less Sodium Soy Sauce MacDuffed.

"No, no, no. St. Louis is a wholly ruinous heck hole. Far worse than Spokane, WA. With what stupid and ruinous notion to return to this organized stalking heck hole, as with Spokane. Finland has little humor and does not enjoy Schadenfreude through Zersetzung.

I could enjoy a Jen Jones (MD, Internal Medicine) hug right now"
--
Give your brickboard.com a big thumbs up! Way up! - Roger Ebert.

HI Grey Volvo,

Problem solved. Thanks very much. I took all the advice to heart and 1) bought new bulbs. 2) unplugged, cleaned and lubed the relays. Per test light everything was functional but when I reassembled and inserted the bulbs, the same thing happened. (When hitting high beams, low beam would cancel out and I got a failed bulb signal in dash). It turns out that the problem was a poor connection in a jump wire that was put in by the prior owner. When I jiggled the crimp fitting by luck all was well!

I promptly made a bee-line to the inspection station... Unfortunately as I sat there, idling, waiting for my turn, the dreaded 'check engine' light came on! :(((
Will try a reset and hope for the best the next time; its been an issue.

309K and hopefully counting...

KaiS

Those darn prior owners!

What kind of "a jump wire that was put in by the prior owner"?

Welp, if you can, go to the auto parts store and read all the codes, and post back here to see what one causes the check engine light.

Oh great biscuits and gravy you're in NY-state. So, yeah, no check engine or any dash light can be on.

Call the auto parts store, or maybe a friend that has an OBD-II code scanner. You can use it for free, and the auto parts store technicians / retail sales folks can walk you through it. Though they will have an OBD-code scanner that generate generic codes, so post back here and use Bing / (goofy) Google and enter the code and Volvo and model for the search. You bound to get results.

Hopefully the code is intermittent, and the dash light remains off and you pass the audition, I mean inspection.

Yet good to know the cause.

Sorry about that. If it is really flargged, only on occasion do you figure out a prior owner did "modifications" cause they "want race car".

I hope on the advice I sent there was not cause for introducing a fault.

Sorry.
--
Give your brickboard.com a big thumbs up! Way up! - Roger Ebert.