| 240 Taillight and Blinker Page |
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UPDATED: December 28, 2024 CONTACT
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If you have any comments or if you can improve this information, please feel free to email.
CONTACT
1975-85 240 Headlight Switch Plug Problems
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240 TAILLIGHT DIAGRAMS
| I created these detailed 240 TAILLIGHT FUNCTION DIAGRAMS below so that pretty much ALL taillight and blinker circuits and connectors and connector pins can be seen. Feel free to email if you have any questions or comments. If you need HEADLIGHT Diagrams, those can be found in my 240 HEADLIGHT PAGE. Click image for larger, high-resolution photo.   |
3-Flash "Komfort" Blinker Mod for Volvo 240
| Back in
2010 I drove a late model BMW E60 M5 on a cross-country road-trip. This is when I first discovered the "Komfort Blinker" feature that BMW had added to new cars. This feature
allows you to momentarily tap the turn signal
lever left or right and you get three successive
flashes from your blinkers. This makes signaling for lane
changes a bit nicer. FULL INFO in my 240 "KOMFORT" BLINKER PAGE.  |
DEALING WITH THE BULB FAILURE SENSOR (part 1)
The Bulb Failure Sensor (or sometimes called a Bulb
Failure Relay) is a device found in all 240, 700, 900 models, which alerts
the driver of a failed bulb: low-beam
headlamp, parking lamp, tail lamp or
brake lamp. It does this by sensing the balance
of current draw between each left and
right pair of bulbs in the lighting
circuits. When that dash light comes
on, it means the sensor recognizes that
one side is drawing more current that the
other. This is supposed to alert you
that a bulb is out, but sometimes it can
be triggered by incorrect or mismatched
bulbs, or even when one side has a newer
bulb than the other. Some mystery
dash light activations can also be caused
by a bulb socket with a small bit of
corrosion, so keeping connections and bulb sockets clean
can help a lot.
This
information below is taken from the best
sources I have for mostly USA and
Canada models. It may
not correctly apply to all European or
Australian models. I have
received information that there are
some Australian
models with a different red case
sensor from above, which I
have not yet identified. If you
can help with info and/or photos of any other bulb sensors,
please email. More info and DIAGRAMS concerning the HEADLIGHTS circuits can be found in my Headlight Relay Page. Some variations of the round style sensor below:
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BYPASSING THE BULB FAILURE SENSOR (part 2)
Sometimes this sensor can fail internally, rendering some of your lights inoperable.
FAILURE SYMPTOMS: The symptoms of failure can be headlights or tail lights (or sometimes just one whole side) that will not work even after verifying the fuses, switches, headlight relays and wiring are all in good order. This DIY bypass plug was featured in the following discussion forum: turbobricks.com/index.php/deleting-bulb-failure-circuits.240085/ 
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THE MOST SIMPLE SOLUTION
BYPASSING THE BULB FAILURE SENSOR (part 3)
If you don't feel like going to the trouble of modifying a Bulb Failure Sensor internally, there is a MUCH SIMPLER way to bypass these circuits without using a sensor. And I don't mean to suggest cutting off the 15-pin plug and splicing wires together (which of course you can do if you like). A better method, with no barbaric butchery, is to assemble some simple crimp terminals with a few short pieces of wire. Then unplug your sensor and insert the new leads into the female 15-pin connector, respective of the bypass diagrams shown below As it turns out, this connector uses fairly common 3.5 mm bullet terminals. So all you need are some male bullet terminals and some wire and some heat-shrink tubing for insulation. Coincidentally, these 3.5 mm male terminals are available cheap on-line or also in my Harness Parts Page HERE.  In the photos below, you can see how these bypass bullet terminals and wires will look. The configuration is different for different sensors, so pay attention to the diagrams. If your car uses a sensor not shown above, it will be a simple thing to open it up to see what pins are bridged.   
 Tamara from Albuquerque sent the above photos of her bypass project: "I just accomplished the bypass on the failed bulb relay on my 240. Worked like a charm! Thank you so much for all of your pains-taking work in putting together all of the detailed and supremely helpful information on your website. It is so appreciated. I found it easier to deal with by removing the instrument cluster. That way I could get both hands on the relay and sit upright to put the bypass pieces in. I also had to lever the relay and connector apart with a screwdriver. I had fought with it for awhile to no avail then I realized some leverage was called for. It made a little click and came apart easily. That's when I discovered it had a barb holding it together. It's great to have brake lights again!" |
240 REAR BULBS
Click this image to view the
Matthews Volvo Site Volvo Bulb Guide.
I'm adding this here because I get a fair number of emails from 240 owners who have melting taillights.
If this is you, then I'm suggesting you might have the wrong bulbs installed
in your car. For example, many 240 taillights (not brake) require a small 5 or 10 watt bulb (Osram or Silvania 5007 or 5008) for the rear running lights
(this is the one in the top row, far right).
But many 240 owners will go to their local auto parts store and just
buy what fits, often getting a common 1156 bulb because it has the same base and
it fits. The problem is that a standard 1156 bulb will typically put out 26
watts. That's too much current and a LOT of extra heat. That will be the reason why your
taillights are melting.  Below image is a typical '85-93 240 Taillight.  |
PAINTING 240 TAILLIGHTS
 I get questions about the taillights on my car occasionally. These lights originally began as ALL CLEAR lights like in the below photo. At the time, finding half-clear lights was not possible. They can be found on eBay now. I didn't want all-clear lights, so I painted the bottom lenses myself using the below Testers transparent red paint, 1605 Gloss Custom Red. This paint is easy to use and goes on pretty well. It takes several light coats to get to the shade of red I got. Let it dry between coats and keep adding paint lightly until you have the red you like. It will slowly darken with each coat. These lights have been on my car for well over 15 years and still look new. Part of this reason is the car is always garaged.   If you need to tint in AMBER, I have not tried any transparent amber paints yet, but I have heard of good results from the below Tamiya TS-73 Clear Orange for Plastics.  I have also read that you can get good results from a transparent STAINED GLASS paint. Krylon also makes such transparent paints in aerosol in ORANGE and RED. I have not used those yet. |
Hardwiring your 240 Taillights
(For all 2-door or 4-door with 6-panel lamps)
| I
get a pretty fair
number of emails about failing tail lamps in
240 sedans, so I decided to compile some info
about
that here. I did this modification to my
242 more than 15 years ago and I have never had a rear bulb problem
since. Having taillights that ALWAYS WORK when they're supposed to is worth the effort. Volvo first began using these 6-panel taillights with PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS in 1979 for upscale 6-cylinder models. Lesser sedan models received the smaller 5-panel lights. After 1979 the 6-panel lights were used in upscale 4-cylinder models, such as the GL, GLT and Turbo. Then in 1984 all 240 sedan models began receiving these 6-panel taillights. 
In 1985 the 240 sedan models received revised 6-panel lights, which included a dual filament brake/tail light bulb (brake light moved to the lower outside) and a new rear fog lamp. These lights remained in used until 1993.  Most people with these tail lamps know what it's like to have bulbs that stop working due to connection issues between the plastic bulb holder and the printed circuit board conductor. It can be frustrating. Hardwiring them sounds like a big deal, but it's not hard at all. It means you will be tossing out your old circuit boards and then attaching wires directly to the contacts on your bulb holders. The wires can be soldered or crimp connectors can be used. I prefer crimp connectors. HARDWIRING GUIDE These two connector will be deleted during this procedure. Note that these wire colors may not be all the same as yours. Volvo wasn't fully consistent about that.  This guide recommends that you remove and discard the existing green printed circuit boards (PCBs) on your taillights. Then you will need to cut off the plastic 8-pole wire connectors at the top. Then new wires will be spliced to the existing wires in your car. Here's a general wire color guide below showing wire colors for early and later taillights. The listed wire colors here are all 12V+ wires. These taillights also use some added black GROUND wires not shown, one GROUND for each bulb. The GROUND locations or positions for each bulb holder will be noted as GROUND or “G.” These added ground wires are not listed in the 1 through 8 list below, but every bulb gets one.  This guide applies to all 240s with 6-panel taillights. Keep in mind that there are some small wire differences depending on the year up to 1984 and from 1985 to 1993. This guide will show how to wire the lights like the above images. If your bulb designations are different from above, you can deviate from these instructions if needed. Using the pin numbers shown in the above images, numbers 1 through 8 for the left taillight and 1 through 8 for the right taillight, will be what I recommend.  Your taillights will have these plastic bulb holders (or sockets) shown below. There are two distinct types This first one is a TWO-contact bulb socket.  And this one is a THREE-contact bulb socket, made for dual filament bulbs.  I want to point out there are multiple options when attaching wires directly to bulb socket contact tabs. 1. SOLDERING. NOT what I prefer. Solder is fragile and will break eventually. 2. Using CRIMP push-on terminals. Using CRIMP TERMINALS is my personal preference because it makes it less likely that connections will break off when changing bulbs. If you're using common .250 inch (6.3 mm) crimp terminals, you'll need to TRIM the METAL TAB CONTACTS on the bulb sockets, because those contacts will be too wide for .250 inch terminals. Trimming the contacts can be done with sheet metal snips.  If you prefer to have CORRECTLY SIZED TERMINALS, which will fit directly and slide onto to each bulb socket tab, these can be found in my page HERE.   MORE RECOMMENDATIONS: You’ll find that a little extra room is needed for the new terminals under the bulb sockets, so the metal tabs should be carefully bent away from the tail light to increase room slightly between the bulb holder and the taillight.  The above photo showing a bend is exaggerated. You should start by bending a little bit first. You’ll know how much bending is needed when you try inserting and twisting the bulb socket into the taillight hole. If it’s too tight, it will need some extra room and the tab can be bent more. If it’s too loose, then bend it less. The bulb socket should be just snug enough to stay in place when you insert and twist it. You’ll need to create some extra room on some bulb sockets near each tab in order to be able to bend the tab. This is done by trimming some of the plastic. Usually some small tin snips or wire cutters can do this. Or you can disassemble the bulb socket and grind or file the plastic.  NOTE ABOUT REAR FOG LAMPS  Not all 240s were equipped with rear fog lamps. A rear fog lamp is a lamp that is activated with a switch on the dash. If your car DOES NOT have this, you may have the option of ignoring those wires or you may use bulbs in these positions for another purpose (such as another tail lamp). If you use this to add a rear fog lamp, note that the original setup used only ONE side (DRIVER SIDE), not both sides. A rear fog lamp is not very special. It’s just another bright bulb meant as a safety measure in heavy fog. It’s brightness is supposed to be the same as a brake lamp bulb. Simply follow the wire connection guide for each wire color. And remember one black ground wire goes to each bulb. After the wires are connected, install the bulb sockets into the respective holes in the taillights. A random example photo below  The hardest part about this project is figuring out what wires go to which terminal on which bulb socket. If it helps, get a pencil and paper and start drawing diagrams of the wire colors going to the tail lights on your car and use a test light to trace those colors to each bulb socket and each terminal on those bulb socketss. Then figure out which tab on each bulb socket should receive each wire. Remember that some bulbs may be DUAL FILAMENT BULBS and those sockets have THREE contacts, two hots and a ground. SOME MORE 240 WIRING DIAGRAM EXAMPLES BELOW 0.75 mm wire is close to AWG 18-20. COLORS: BL = Blue; BN = Brown; GN = Green; GR = Gray; R = Red; SB = Black; W = White; Y = Yellow. 1979-84 240 
1985-93 240  HELPFUL ARTICLES:
cleanflametrap.com/tony/tail_light_color_code_v0.htm
youtube.com/watch?v=LFouOkHW8ho brickwalla.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/hard-wiring-my-tails turbobricks.com/hard-wiring-240t-tail-lights.63287 Here's a hard-wiring video that will help give you the general idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQRtz5mD8Aw |
Quick Fix to get your 240 Taillight Bulbs to Work Again (using aluminum foil).
