I have a 1989 Volvo 740 with the 4 seperate halogen headlights and wanted to know whether the composite headlight(no-foglight) from a 1990-up 740 would work on my 89 model year. If so, can I just swap out the headlight or do I need particular parking and turn signal lights as well. If not, are there any alternatives that lean towards composite headlights for my model year.

Thanks in advance, Matt

The hood and grille went through a drastic change from 89 to 90. I have a 91 744 and the lights have been a sore point with me since the car was brand new. It is easy to overdrive the lights at very slow speeds. I agree that 4 sealed beams would be the way to go in both ease of retrofit, and cost. I believe Hella can be a source of pigtail adapters if necessary. I wish I could find a source of better lighting shy of E-codes.

Hope this helps.
--
D.P. Mulvey in Central VA.

If you are looking for better illumination, don't do that. The '90+ 740/940 headlights are a serious weak point of the car. There's not much you can do to upgrade the '90+ units, and they haze and yellow as they age, getting slowly worse.

OTOH, with the four separate sealed beams, you have many bright and economical choices, and independent aiming of high and low beams.

That's not going to work without some major surgery; pretty much a new front clip.
When the new lights came in (with or without fogs doesn't matter all that much really, that's mainly a matter of 2 plastic trim strips and in some cases a different grille) that also introduced a new hood, new fenders, and different sheetmetal behind the lights, plus probably a bunch of small parts. And yes, the corners are specific to the headlights you use: the early ones, the without_fogs and the with_fogs all use a different corner unit.

Your options are basically the H4/H1 quad lights, or going to the early european style lights which are pretty big and use an H4 bulb for mains and highs. That would also mean going to euro corners for the early type.
This picture shows a car with the lights I'm refering to here. No connection, just an easy source for a picture. I'm expecting it to disappear in a week or two.

If you want I can probably find you a set of those relatively easy. They're extremely common.

Bram

I don't know about the composite lites from a 1990. They had a redesign of the front end and I think the fender/hood/grill etc were changed therefore I would not think they were compatible. Other successful options would be to go to an E-Code headlamp conversion from europe and they are composite type. You will need a new set of side markers too to get everything to work. Hope this helps if you are looking for better asthectics for your car. If you are looking for better/ brighter lights only check out the H4/H1 sealed beam conversion. I have done this and it is a great lighting upgrade but looks are another with this set up!!

Tim