The headlight lenses on my '89 245 are very yellowed and hazy. Not good.

Is there any GLASS headlight system that will swap in to the '86 onwards 200 cars without a lot of fabrication and modification?

I'm looking for something economical here; E-codes would be nice but that's not my price range.

Thanks in advance.

Thank you all for your notes.

I've decided to clean up the lenses I have.

I'll use oven cleaner and/or steel wool and/or wet sanding with increasingly finer grades of emery cloth and/or rubbing compound.

Brighter bulbs and/or heavier wiring are options after that.

Many thanks to those who posted the reference to Daniel Stern's site:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

I could clean the lenses in place, but the're not fully glued on any more - I think that time did that, I didn't! They're also pretty well scuffed up and yellowed. I want to get the assemblies out and clean up the lenses properly, then glue back together with silicone RTV or something similar.

I've found that first I need to cut off the rusted bolts & nuts that are holding in the headlight assembly. Darn New England weather, rust shows up in all kinds of places.

The nuts turn, but the bolts turn with them, and there's no room to grab the bolt tip w/a Vise-Grip while using a wrench on the nut. In order to save the components I have, I think I'll need to carefully cut off the nuts and bolt tips, and replace with nice long stainless steel ones when reassembling.

I figure at least one weekend per side, assuming the usual amount of other non-Volvo activities per weekend.

I wonder if there's a reasonably easy way to make a set of Golf/Jetta II (86-92, I think) work... they're pretty decent lights IMHO, nice glass lenses, and since I've got a couple sets, I might try and make them fit some time. Toughest part would be the surround since the inner side of the lens is angled out, I think the buckets will bolt in fine though. Hmm...

-Chris

Will quad rectangular lamps fit?

I'm OK with wiring and even some electrical detective work to wire up 4 bulbs instead of 2.

How about the parts fit, and any modifications needed to put quad rectangular ones in '86-93 240s?

Quad round headlights will work.

The only modification I had to do was to trim the "filler" trim for the headlights (to make them look integrated) and cut the headlight wiring to splice it to the quad headlight wiring harness.
--
'89 244 GL -- 111,490 miles (see profile for info on car)

You can get new lenses from www.lampsandlenses.com
I replaced my head light lenses for $35 each lense.
Work great

Re.
www.lampsandlenses.com

This looks pretty nice. $30 each for new lenses, presumably plus shipping.
This would be one option to consider.

Thanks.

Still looking to hear from folks who may have put quad rectangular headlights into '86-93 240s. There are enough of those available in PNP's, I think.

Sure there are lots of pre-86 cars in the yards, even many with intact corners. But as tits1 and KN report, you are an obsessively long way from plug and play.

Time, budget and lack of obsession, I'd suggest lens replacement. Lots of clear ones left in the yard, and there's always the aftermarket ROC stuff.

Scott

True.

Then there's Oven Cleaner as suggested by Aye Roll / Rob Bareiss.
I think I'll give that a try. The price is right!
If it works, I may get some brighter bulbs - I think they're on the market now - and maybe add heavier-gauge wiring.

If a plastic lens should melt, I can still go to a Pick-n-Pull or buy new if I need to.

Oven cleaner helps.

Folks here have suggested Sylvania? (think they are) Silverstars as a bulb upgrade. About $35-40 for a pair as I recall.

--
90 244DL 252K - original engine/drivetrain :)

Installing 7" round e-codes into my 89 took an honest 2 hours and $100. The hard part was making it look good with my custom grill surounds. I used all the original bolts and 2 of the orginal mounting holes. I had to drill 1 hole on each side. To me this was a safety issue. I didn't care what it looked like as long as I could see at night. My old plastic headlights weren't faded. Just some water inside was enough for me.
Good luck
Justin

I would think the cheapest option would be to find some good used headlights. The lenses on my 89 have not yellowed at all. I don't know if they changed the lenses at some point, because I have seen some with yellowed lenses around here but they are the exception.

E code lights would be nice but there is so much traffic on the roads these days, I almost never get to use my hibeams. The plastic lenses are fine for lowbeams.