87 -- with the big bucket halogen bulbs.
One of my bulbs died on the Low. Hi still works. So I need to replace the bulb.

There was once here on the BB(I think it was here) a discussion about the Best for brightness- throw of the lamp - bulbs that were available. I did a search and cannot find that thread. So either a link to the thread, or a recom as to the best bulbs to get. Since one is gone out, I'm going to replace both---keeping the good one as a glove box spare.

Hi CB,

The factory adhesive securing and sealing the lens to the reflector body fails on all 1986+ big square headlamps with the crappy US DOT lenses.

Put a finger or three under the center bottom corner and lift up. Does the lens pull away, yet is secured some how by the top chromed plastic piece? Do they come apart? You'll have moisture intrusion. The 9004 incandescent bulbs get hot. The lenses will yellow on the inside (fluted side for the Fresnel effect used to cast the dog awful beam pattern). Also, the reflector material can fail, dimming the bulb. Moisture instruction can expose a hot bulb to cold water and the bulb can explode.

I've written several times how to rehab the awful 86+ US DOT Volvo 240 plastic lens / reflector body, and use UV-resist adhesive to secure and seal the lens and reflector body back together. I may try to search for it. You can to.

Unless you've already made this repair. This issue also effect 740/940 and early 850 headlamps with glass lenses, though less often.

The 1986 US DOT plastic lenses are garbage. The beam pattern the two headlight lenses cast are not well defined. Though change the alignment up / down and left / right helps.

Use of relays with fuses to protect the feed and load side at Mr. Michael Yount indicates will help a stock setup. Also, removing and bypassing the sometimes stupid bulb out sensor helps to bring more current to all bulb out sensor connected exterior lighting.

Dave Barton has info where you remove the bulb out sensor guts and solder the connector pins on the interior side of the bulb out sensor, and then replace the red shell.

http://www.240turbo.com/volvo240mods.html#bulbfailsens1

Next, HID makes for great heat in the reflect chamber and through the lens. These US DOT 1986+ plastic lens assemblies can take stock bulb heat yet I'd be wary of raising the wattage output is using incandescent halogens.

Though stock H9004 bulbs with good connection at the bulb connector at the lens assembly with a remote high current relay for each, whether or not you keep the bulb out sensor, whether or not the bulb out sensor works with a relay control voltage connection to each head light (should, if current draw is the same and does not make the bulb out sensor reed contact bend to light the dash bulb out light).

The other solution is using LED 9004 form factory bulbs, though these setups include a ballast and a relay for one or each head light. The LED bulbs are very white, or a Kelvin color temp you want, and most heat is dissapeted at the ballasts and the heat sink method. Though I'm unsure how much more heat they generate.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/

https://www.diodedynamics.com/

Diode Dynamics may not help you. You can find Auto LED lighting solutions even at Walmart now. Though quality versus price ....

And certainly, driving lights that project ahead in white or amber, some incandescent (Halogen) or LED type. These will use a remote LED and should also come with sealed fuse activated by a toggle switch on your dash somewheres.

Fog lights have a light baffle like the head lights do to cast a wide / low light pattern so as not to blind oncoming drivers. Useful in fog, usually an amber color light to pass through rain / snow / fog more so than some form of white lighte. Or can be white.

Though check you local motoring laws as using high wattage / high lumen bulbs may exceed what is permitted.

Questions?

Hope that helps you.

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

Hi Charles,

Try this set if you can afford it. I can't. Back then, it was $45 and bulbs were given by my friend. It's really bright and I loved it.


https://www.ipdusa.com/products/7662/106525-xtreme-white-headlamp-bulb-pair-9004



As always, thank you.

FYI. Not bad.

$24.16

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U1OL44G?ref=emc_b_5_t

I was looking at those on the web. Cheapest I saw was $70.

For now, I just ended up getting a "stock" (Wagner) 9004 bulb for $10 from Westminster Auto Parts (don't know who "owns" them now, but the same guys working there have been there for years.

I may regret not spending more, if I hit a deer tho. That would cost way more in damages, but for now just needed not to get stopped for a dead headlight.

Prob reconsider as darkness falls before 5PM and spend some on brighter bulbs. There are a ton of deer around here. Last year I counted 18 bedding down in the wild rhododendron on the hill behind my house...eating everything standing.

Many new houses on 10+ acres...NO HUNTING signs all over. Back in the day hunters would take 5-10 deer a season. Now those 5-10 just breed...and starve in the winter. They've stripped the undergrowth bare. The woods used to be filled with mountain laurel, but that is all eaten, leaving dead leaveless branches. They have radically altered the ecosystem. I haven't seen any tree seedlings in several years.

They even eat the rhododendron, the loss of which is now altering the stream banks...erosion.
But Don't Shoot little Bambi!

(minor Rant LOL)

Hi Charles,

I feel it all the time especially when it rain. A few years ago, I almost ran over a guy in Brooklyn.

I use cheap Walmart bulbs and leave it on high beam. No one has complains so far.

If I see wild animals on the road, I turn off light, slow down the speed and honk gently.

As always, thank you.

Close Encounters of the Deer Kind

The Hunt Valley Stag.

The most exciting encounter was in the early 90's driving my Green '80, 244.
I was coming back from NY after a weekend with parents. It was after midnight and I'd been on the road since about 7. Came down into Worthington Valley on Greenspring and just before Tufton, there stood, on my right a Huge 12+ point buck, looking like he was about to cross in front of me. I blew the horn and he turned, bolted, and slammed into a 5ft board fence, (thorougbred horse country here Hunt Cup valley), failing that route, he turned and slammed into my front fender, proceeded to run along the passenger side, folding back the mirror(no damage) then taking out the rear tail light assembly as he rounded the rear bumper and took off jumping the fence on the far side of the road. What a magnificent creature.

All in the light of a full moon. That was thrilling.

Damage: dented rear quarter panel. Rear tail light assemble detached at the bolt mounting points in the plastic housing and lay in the road. I retrieved it and with a roll of ducktape re-attached. The corner of one lense was chipped. This took about 10 mins and I was very disappointed that no other driver came down the road. I really wanted to tell just about anyone what had just happened.


Jumping Beemers.

Before I got into Volvos, I had a deer jump over the hood of that '68 1602 BMW. I was doing 35-40, saw it--a doe-- hit the breaks and horn. She kept going and leapt...Clean jump.

Life in Carroll County

Here is a story of a close encounter with an even larger animal!

Mid 90's I was vacationing in Maine. It was dusk and I was approaching Moosehead Lake. Come up over a hill and lo and behold what is standing right in the middle of the road but a full grown moose!! She was not moving so I stomped on my brakes and fortunately was able to stop about 20 feet from her.... Eventually she just trotted off like nothing happened. They say moose have a brain the size of a walnut - I saw clear evidence of that!

Moose legs are about 5-6 feet long. If I'd hit her she'd probably have ended up on my windshield and/or roof and that could have been it for me. Phew! Close call....

Saabs and Volvos were designed with moose, or whatever those big elk are called by the Nordics, to prevent intrusion thru the windsheild and into the cockpit. That was the main cause of driver/passenger death in moose collisions.

Google it

this was on the frontpage when I logged on just now.

Brick-pic: Moose -VS-Volvo

https://www.brickboard.com/GALLERY/volvopic.htm?id=1555

Impressive!

I wasn't driving a Volvo that day near Moosehead lake so it could have been curtains for me...:)

BTW - There is a legitimate reason it is called Moosehead lake. Never saw so many moose in one place in my life!

--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Keep those headlamps clear and those brakes in tune.

I'm sure you've heard this one.
haven't you, deer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GvNpKL3gSg

This is a good thread as our 240's don't have the illumination of modern cars especially the ones with LED lighting.

Not sure but how would a set of fog lights help? Does anyone use them with good results?

Yes - I mounted a set of Hella 181 foglights on the 240. Aimed as designed, they do light up the sides of the road nicely, but only throw light a short distance out in front. And that is their job.

If you want more down-the-road light, foglights are not the answer, but there are a number of auxiliary driving lights that may help. As others have mentioned, Daniel Stern's site has good info. (www.danielsternlighting.com) Poke around his site and note his comments on the "Superwhite" bulbs.
--
Bob: Son's XC70, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), 98 S90 (recently sold) and XC60. Also '77 MGB and four old motorcycles

If your buckets are faded and the lenses yellowed might not matter what you put in. But if they are in good to great condition then go with PIAA bulbs. Hands down the best 9004 on the market to light up the night.

I bought a pair of the Silverstars a while back and was very disappointed in their short life. A poor investment in terms of dollars per hour of use. Maybe they have improved, but they lost me as a customer

Higher wattage bulbs can overload the stock wiring and connectors unless you rewire to larger gauge and use relays, and can also damage your plastic headlamp assemblies from the additional heat. In your shoes I would just buy a new set of standard low $$ GE or Sylvania (or?) bulbs and make sure all your wiring connections are clean, tight and corrosion free - including grounds. If you really want brighter (well, the light looks different) bulbs, check out the Hella Xenon units at rallylights.com. Quality at a decent price. That and clean up your lenses if there is any yellowing or pitting of the outer surface.

Plenty of headlight restoration "kits" at silly prices, but I use 600-grit wet/dry paper on those plastic lenses followed by TurtleWax polishing compound with excellent results.
--
Bob: Son's XC70, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), 98 S90 (recently sold) and XC60. Also '77 MGB and four old motorcycles

I have been happy with Silver Stars - purchased at Walmart. BTW Walmart has a tremendous array of products on line with free delivery to stores.

For instance, you can buy most if not all of Lodge's cast iron cookware at Walmart on line - you could NEVER see them all at a store

I've used the Silverstar's as well -- but in my experience, there isn't a ton of difference between any of the DOT legal 55W bulbs. If you're serious about more light -- up the wattage. If you do that, be sure to re-aim the lights, properly aimed so you're not blinding oncoming traffic. And unless you want to melt the stock lighting/wiring components -- go to www.danielsternlighting.com and install separate relays/big wires for your lights. Increasing the V at the light bulb makes a HUGE difference in lumen output, even with stock bulbs. I run the Euro Hellas with 80w/100w bulbs and separate (4) relays for low beam and high beam on each side. 0.00V drop between alternator and the bulb - getting a full 14.5V at the light. BIG difference in light output with any bulb you choose.

so there's Sylvania
Silver Star zXe. and Silver Star Ultra High Performance

The Ultra $43+ a pair?
The zXe $55.

or Normal
9004s less than $5 from FCP...What's the 10X difference. Maybe I won't hit the deer or worse the black clad Human????

PS
As the Dark has decended on us at 5PM.

I drive this wagon minimally. But the big risk is Deer, on my max 50-60mph normal route. People in black...I'm doing max 40mph(no joke), and bikers(pedal)must be cool to not be seen.(I ride and don't understand this seeming Death Wish)
What ever happened to that Mick Jagger warning---when going at nite Wear White