when i start my volvo up and turn on the low beam lights, the high beams will come on and be a little dim, but when i turn on the high beams, it all works fine. in the process, my main light relay ( fuse # K ) feals warm. where should i look first?? any ideas??

respectfully,

Volve

I've check ed out the wiring and got my low and high beam lights to work perfectly again. but I'm still dealing with a relay that's a bit warm to the touch. i replaced it with a replacment relay and it wasn't as hot as the other one but it still felt warm. any other ideas of where to look??

Have you cleaned your grounds? Look behind the headlights inside the fenders.

Sounds like the relay could be bad but I've read were these mid 80's 740's tend to have bad/crumbling wiring insulation. Could also have a short somewhere.

I've largely disassembled my 1986 740 GLE (a clone of Volve's car) and I only found crumbly wiring at the exposed end of the harnesses. Any part of any harness that was sheilded from the heat by the volvo black tubing is perfect.
However, the plugs towards the front end if the car are rather brittle and the exposed wires broke down here as well. I pulled the front light arrays from my car and the headlight plugs were fine, but the exposed forward end of the wiring harness was in bad shape. I'd bet relay. If not, check for a short/exposed wires in the front of the lighting wiring harness.