240 Headlight Page |
UPDATED: July 31, 2024 CONTACT |
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So
here's the formula needed to swap in a newer
headlight switch and plug.
1. White wire from old plug goes to position 7 in new plug. 2. Yellow wire from old plug goes to position 4 in new plug. 3. Red wire from old plug goes to position 3 in new plug. (position 1 not used for early 240) Click here for tips on removing wire terminal inserts from plugs like these.More information on adding a RELAY to upgrade your early 240 headlights can be found here: https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=250740 https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html Early 240 Headlight Switch with 5 Poles
In some markets (I believe Canada is one of these) the 240 was made so the wiring would activate the headlights when the car was running. I have not seen this wiring first hand, but I found the below images in Volvo Greenbook TP30808 Wiring for 1985 240 (pages 50-51). |
Your
early U.S. 240 came with inferior sealed beam headlights. You can
install Euro-style (or E-code) headlights which use H4 bulbs instead. Your headlight connectors or wires may need to be MODIFIED to make the wiring work. Here's the back-side of the headlights for a typical 1985 or earlier 240 with four rectangular headlights. You can compare this to the wire order in your headlight plugs. The High/Low headlight will be the one with THREE wires. If your wire order looks different from the below H4 style diagram (probably), the wires need to be moved to the below H4 configuration before using H4 bulbs. Go HERE for a terminal removal guide. The ABOVE headlights are used for 240 "quad square" headlights, except of course these use superior H4 bulbs (for the outer high-low) and H1 bulbs (for inner high beams). They were made by Cibie and Hella with high-quality glass lenses and of course never actually came on Volvos in the U.S. from the factory. |
If
you have expensive or rare GLASS headlight lenses that you want to protect
from rock chips, breakage or pitting, spend the money to get some good, thick headlight protection film. If you search for Lamin-x or other universal headlight protection film, you'll mostly find a lot of pre-cut kits for many different newer cars. There are no pre-cut kits for older Volvos, so you need to buy universal uncut sheets or rolls. DON'T BUY THIN FILM or ANY film where thickness is NOT clearly advertised! I originally put thin universal Lamin-x film on this headlight below and a rock killed it immediately. This universal Lamin-x film I used first turned out to measure only 8 mil thick (0.008 inch or 0.2 mm). Perhaps this thickness would be OK for paint protection, but it did not protect my headlight. I then found the below Lamin-x film, which is available in 40 mil thickness (0.040 inch or 1 mm). When I found this thicker stuff, it was only available in a bulk roll, 12 inch x 15 feet (or longer). The 15 foot roll was about $133. I bought a roll. Since I had lots of extra film left over, I sold it to friends for a small price per foot to cover the cost of the roll. https://lamin-x.com/12-x-15-roll-of-40-mil-clear.html More bulk rolls: https://lamin-x.com/rolls/lamin-x-rolls/ Here's a comparison photo above of thicker 40 mil versus thin 8 mil. 12 inches square can be used for two 7 inch round headlights, however you will probably really only need about 6 3/4 inch circles for that size. |
INSTALLATION OF LAMIN-X https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX_9ZhWzpHY LAMIN-X CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEksXxq7yPaVLNhYQScg30A |
LED headlights (and bulbs) have been around for years, but aftermarket kits for bulb replacements have mostly earned a bad reputation because of poor or inconsistent lighting patterns and poor brightness. I resisted trying out any aftermarket LED bulbs in any E-code headlights for a long time because I felt it would be really hard to match or beat a good set of European H4 HALOGEN headlights. This Info is Primarily about ROUND HEADLIGHTS, but if your car uses bulbs, then read it. For a long time I used 80/100 watt H4 HALOGEN bulbs, which were much brighter and far better than any stock headlights. So my lighting was very good. Good E-Code H4 headlights are well known for the great beam pattern and lots of brightness. I had no complaints. The only negative with high wattage halogen bulbs is that they use a lot of current. You should be using relays and heavy gauge wire for direct battery power when using high wattage halogens. LED bulbs have an advantage. They typically use about 30% to 50% of the current of a high wattage H4. My NON-VOLVO car happens to be 2018 Subaru, which came with factory LED headlights. Those lights are exceptional, so I had been hoping eventually the aftermarket would catch up to that kind of quality, brightness and beam pattern. A few years ago I saw some videos from Headlight Revolution (I placed those below). This first short video is a simple brightness comparison between standard Halogen bulbs, upgraded 100 watt halogen bulbs and high-end LED bulbs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaM9YW_acqQ This and other videos below led me to reach out to Headlight Revolution to ask more about things like how good the LED H4 beam pattern looked in an E-code headlamp housing and how bright the latest high-end LED H4 replacement bulbs were. I was interested in how it would compare to my already pretty awesome hi-watt H4 (100 watt) halogen bulbs. They offer some pretty good responses, so I took a chance and I bought a set of LED H4 bulbs (below) to try out in my round E-code headlamps. I tried the GTR Lighting Ultra 2.0 bulbs shown below. These are not cheap bulbs that you'll find all over the internet. These were over $200 for the pair. The performance is definitely exceptional. https://www.headlightrevolution.com/H4-9003-Ultra-2.0_2 I also tried the S V.4 LED bulbs shown below and at the link below. These are equally exceptional. These were over $200 for the pair as well. https://www.headlightrevolution.com/s-v-4-led-headlights-h4
So then I did my own visual comparison. These two photos were taken a little after sunset using low beams. The top image shows the 80/100 watt HALOGEN H4 bulbs. The bottom image shows the LED bulbs. My observation is the LED bulbs are noticeable brighter. They have an equal or better beam pattern, a great beam cut-off at the top, and the light color is a bit whiter than the yellow-white color of a halogen. The LED color is 6000k white. After driving for a while, I really liked them and I'm keep the LEDs. Here are a series of installation photos in an E-code Housing. Here's the S V.4 LED bulb, which I'll show being installed into the below Cibie H4 headlight housing. The collar shown below can be removed from the bulb. It just pulls off. Since the rear fan part on the bulb is a bit wide, removing the collar will make it easier to lock down those wire retainers below. Then this rubber dust boot, which came with these headlights, gets installed over the collar. The center opening needed to be stretched a little to fit over the raised collar center. Then the bulb is inserted and just clicks into place. It must be oriented so that the low beam CUP faces straight UP. the bulb can easily be turned in the collar if needed for perfect alignment. All done. Pretty slick setup. |
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This
is a good project for anyone with any older Volvo, especially if you
have or want to to upgrade to brighter headlights with bulbs that use more wattage than factory.
For some good old-school info, have a look at Daniel Stern's page on this subject. He also has several useful diagrams for understanding how to design and build your own headlight relay harness. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html Here is a Volvo 240 specific diagram showing how an upgraded relay harness can be made. The relay triggers (relay are connected to and triggered by 56a and 56b) can be taken from the fender harness connectors or if you want to bypass the bulb failure relay, you could take those triggers from terminals 56a and 56b directly from the 5-pole headlight step relay connector. This diagram assumes you would use one relay to control both low beam headlights and another relay for the high beams. The above 9004 bulb socket came on all 1986-93 USA 240s. A European E-Code headlight will typically use an H4 bulb. UPDATE 2018: Wagonmeister is offering ready made 240 headlight relay harnesses, like this one below. |
I found these
driving light diagrams below in some OLD Volvo
242 GT literature. I modified them for simplicity
and I decided to share them here. These diagrams
below will show you two different methods of
wiring; one for driving lights and one for fog lights. It uses a
dash switch in conjunction with the 240
headlight step relay and with an added cube
relay. The relay diagram above is an SPST (Single Pole, Single Throw) type cube or mini relay. An SPST type relay is one that uses a center 87 pin (AKA: 87b) which has power when the outer 87 pin has power. Using this type relay is not critical if you're not using the center 87 pin like in these diagrams. If you're looking for a relay like this you can find one here. There is a reason for wiring the circuit to the step relay. For Driving Lights, the diagram below allows the lights to be automatically cut off when you switch OFF your HIGH beams. For Fog Lights, the diagram allows the lights to be cut off when you switch ON your HIGH beams. The battery power is drawn from the inner fender battery junction box or it may be taken directly from the battery. A FUSE is recommended somewhere between the battery power source and the relay. |
AUXILIARY DRIVING LIGHTS: With this method, the AUXILIARY DRIVING LIGHT switch receives power from TERMINAL 56a on the headlight step relay. 56a on the step relay is the high beam output, so this means these lights will be configured as auxiliary high beam lights that will only come on when the dash headlight switch is turned on AND when the high beams are also on. When the driving light switch is turned on, it sends power to terminal 85 on the cube relay, turning the relay ON. So then turning ON your high beams will turn ON these driving lights, as long as the driving light switch is in the ON position. If the switch has a bulb as this one shown does, then it will light up when the driving lights are on if wired this way. |
FOG LIGHTS: I modified this diagram to demonstrate a method for fog lights. With this method, the fog light switch receives power from TERMINAL 56b on the headlight step relay when your headlight switch is turned on. The switch sends power to terminal 85 on the cube relay, turning it ON. 56b on the step relay is the low beam output, so this means the fog lights will only come on when the dash FOG LIGHT switch is turned ON and when the low headlight beams are also ON. So then with this wiring, turning ON your high beams will turn OFF the fog lights. If the dash switch has a bulb as this one shown does, then it will light up when the fog lights are on if wired this way. Detailed pinouts for a 240 step relay can be found HERE. |
Here's another method from a BMW owner in Germany. He used a 1.5 mm (0.060 inch) metal plate, which he mounted to the bumper using the license plate mounting holes. The plate is then hidden behind his license plate. He also added two small brackets at the bottom of the bumper to stabilize it. |