Volvo headlights

[kryten]

As many people with Volvos know, the headlights kinda suck. Recently I tried installing LED bulbs in the place of the H11 low beam bulbs. Shining them on the shop doors I could notice a very distinct difference in light output between the two lights, the left one was about 50 - 60 % the brightness of the right one. I tried running it on the road for a week and there was no real improvement over the old halogen bulbs, it was like the left light was burned out. A couple of days ago I got home and took apart the light and this is what I found on the reflector for the projector.







A good portion of the reflector has worn or burned away so the light just does not have a chance to get out of the housing. A call to Volvo asking if I could buy just the projector assembly resulted in an ear full of sarcastic laughter from the parts man. The only solution is to buy a new headlight assembly at great cost. At time of calling I was quoted $370.00 (cdn), went in the next day to pick it up and they tried to charge me $477.00. Fortunately I had asked the first guy to put my name on one and he taped a quote sheet to the box so they had to (reluctantly) give it to me for $370.00.

Tonight I will find out if the new light make a big difference or only a slight improvement.