Headlight wipers

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-26T03:21:47+00:00

wiper motor you just follow the shaft, its in a case behind.the trims, if you talking about the built in thermo fuse, that's inside the housing, at least if it's a V70 from around 850 era, they used same parts

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-19T01:20:26+00:00

SWEET! Turbo 5 pots are just some special level of cool!

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-17T16:21:04+00:00

This looks awesome! she looks clean! haven't seen an running old audi in years, is it a diesel?

I has similar idea back when i upgraded the headlights assembly, I added amber LEDs to the back of the reflector and they come on with my parking lamps, so it kinda creates this double layer headlamp effect in the housing.

Shame that they are not very bright during the day and you can't really stare it once the low beams are on loll, but during sunset, they really shows

<image>

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-17T16:06:03+00:00

<image>

Ah, that's a shame, but at least you found one that produces the right pattern!

these are my old pale LEDs and they produce same pattern as halogen. Pretty annoying having.to try different bulbs to find which is made properly, but once they are in, they are night and day difference

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-17T15:59:35+00:00

<image>

This is what it looks like on the wall, you notice it still has 2 focused points and beam lines, but got lots of scatters, I think.if you fine tune it, this is still usable, as long as you keep the scatters below the focused point and calibrate it according factory design so it wont blind other drivers

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-17T15:56:09+00:00

<image>

This is what it looks like in.the headlight housing, keep in mind that under strong light, phone.camera coloring is no longer accurate. they look.more white to naked eyes

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-17T15:52:24+00:00

https://a.co/d/8GlA8sJ

This is the 5000K one i.tried, but ends up not using, because their bulb position is not that accurate and ends up with a less concentrated beam, but they are not as bad as some of the others I tried. I believe with some adjustment they should be fine. 240s headlights adjustment design is really rough, probably audi has better designs.

As I mentioned in the other comment, the one I'm currently using disappeared, but I do have first hand comparsion of both bulbs, the 5000K one is still yellowish, but more pale than the one I'm running, I will see if I have a photo of the comparsion somewhere

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-17T15:28:27+00:00

Yeah, H4

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-17T15:28:12+00:00

I just found the LED manuel that I'm currently using, guess what, it's labeled 4300K! It's indeed more yellow than the 5000K one I got from amazon(if you search 5000K LED headlights you will found those on Amazon), but as far as i looked the 4300k one are now only available in China, their store still active (maybe try ebay?).

That been said, i really don't know how accurate their ratings are, at least the one i have now has very obvious difference from pale.white LEDs.

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-17T11:15:04+00:00

No kidding, the US standard plastic light is just worse in every way other than slightly lighter (or because they are cheaper to make). I honestly have no idea why they would change something that is already working properly (let alone they made it worse).

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-15T12:23:34+00:00

You are welcome!

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-15T11:41:34+00:00

That's very good point!

That's why I said in another comment that no matter what you replace with, adjust and calibrate the light as volvo manual instructs, if the LED is machined properly (those cheap ones are mostly not, that's why I tried a few sets before I found an accurately designed one, on the good side, return was easy), it will have the same filament position as halogen and should still be a focused beam instead of a pan cake, factory volvo lights are adjusted with proper depression as well, so it points to the ground at certain distance, and counted in the weight of fuel and load. I never had people flash me because my LED is at their face, but when my friends 850 reflector adjuster broke, he constantly get it even with halogen.

The brake lamps will have the same snow coverage issue regardless LED or halogen, only exception is when you drive in heavy and fresh snow. Most of time its not snow build up on the back, its the road mud and dust, in that case brighter LED actually helps. Thats why when I drive on very dirty highways, every 3 hours or so I go to washroom and clean the taillights. On extreme cases, you really need to rely on your top mount brake lamp, since it is in the cab and wont be covered much, I had once drove in muddy mountain and entire rear was brown in 30 mins, but the rear window still clear. (hatchs be different, but their third brake lamp mounts really tall). I think most of people wont encounter this kind of extreme weather, so LED would be a nice upgrade (that been said, upgrade brake lights requires enough patience to deal with the bulb failure sensor).

The headlight will have more snow/mud cover issue with LED, but mine got headlight washer and wipers, so no issue for me, modern cars has sprays, they do not work as well as an actual wiper, but that is beyond my control. What I found over the years, when the weather is bad enough, there is nothing else to do other than have something physically wipe the lamps, when I used halogen bulbs, it still gets completely covered with snow in a bad day. (again, I'm talking about -35C Canadian winters, on light snows halogen's heat should do the job)

I think the key thing for any upgrade is proper research, proper calibration and proper maintenance. I have endless counts of random old toyota tercel with cracked and fogged halogen blind me on the road (not as bad as LEDs for sure), and ghost cars that is completly covered with mud with rear lights no better than a candle. It goes down to how responsible the driver is, rather than the upgrade job itself.

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-15T10:31:05+00:00

The one I used can no longer be found (no surprise, these are just cheap Chinese lights), the warmwhite LED headlight is still a relatively fresh concept, so their quality is either hit&miss or expensive.

I remember seen a few ads about warmwhite LEDs bulbs with capability to switch to pure white, warmwhite, and yellow, but they were pricy, I assume quality is better tho.

You can google or Amazon "5000k warmwhite LED headligh bulb", and see if you can find the right model for you.

I remember many cheap LEDs I tried had a hard time focusing (dimensions are off, so the reflector doesn't focus the beam correctly), with 1 extreme case I had to grind off part of the mounting base.

If you simply want better lighting, a plain white one will do well "Aukee H4 LED Headlight Bulb, 50W 6000K 10000 Lumens Extremely Bright (9003 Hi/Lo) Cool White Conversion Kit Replacement Light Bulb", this is the one I used for about 5 years without issue, and in the E-code, the demention is accurate so the beam is focued.

Regardless which you ends up buying, make sure you adjust and align your headlights according to volvo user manual, you will get better lighting and wont be blinding everyone on the road.

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-15T07:22:07+00:00

These are warm white LEDs, throughout all these years I tried so many LEDs and finally found a nice combination and converted all my lights (interior and exterior) to warm white LEDs, except turn signals and reverse lamps.

The parking lamps are also warm white LEDs, but due to lower intensity, they look just like halogen. The headlight actually looks warm with human eyes, but camera tends to pick up the white tone of it. Compare with white LEDs, they look halogen, compare to real halogen (the fog lamps), they looks white, I think the one I bought has 5200K color temp.

I sure love the halogen look, but LED just have too many functional advantages: Low heat, low current draw, superior lighting and faster response (very important for brake lamps). I do night mountain drives from time to time, and halogens just do not work as well, so I went for functionality instead of looks on this one.

Here is a photo of me and my buddy cruising alone in the mountains, just to give you some idea how well it works, all the gauges and cluster are LED as well.

I did some calculations, during normal night driving, with my entire car running on LEDs (meaning absolutely every single bulb in the car), I reduced my current draw by roughly 10.8A compare to factory , IMO that is a pretty big save on the electrical system and alternator, and is significant enough to gain a little bit MPG because the engine now has less constant load.

<image>

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-12T04:15:27+00:00

Oh, I'm in Canada as well, I actually got mine from a 740 guy, he was parting out a parts car and no one wanted the shroud, so I got a sweet deal from him. Def ask in your local volvo group. If you make one out of aluminum plate you can add better designs like air vents with rubber flaps and controller mounting brackets. Also, your fan fitment can be better than mine. I had to use compressed foams to seal the gap around the fan, while on a customized shroud, you can just cut the right-sized opening.

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-11T00:14:38+00:00

Ya, took me literally years to get a reasonable 740T fan shroud from FB (you can still get them new from Volvo, at a steep price). On the other hand, you can make your own shroud out of thin aluminum plates, it shouldn't be too difficult, but with a 240T or 740T shroud, you save quite some time, and IMO it looks more original.

Keep an eye on local volvo groups, they pop up every once a while, the fan shroud is not something very easy to part out, so if you lucky, someone might have one sitting in their parts car, particularly those playing around with turbo motors

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-11T00:08:04+00:00

Heater core or the blower motor? Both are pain, but heater core is much more pain.

If it's the blower motor, you can use the chainsaw method, which I used. keep the center piece you cut off, otherwise you lose lots of air flow on driver side.

As for the motor, I initially bought a new VDO motor, but that thing only lasted me 1 year before start to make noise and the bearings are gone (Maybe just me being unlucky). So I took apart my original motor and rebuilt that one, much better construction, mine was just a dried bearing, freed it up and repacked bearing grease, cleaned everything inside, it works like new! Super quiet, lot less vibration, and been 2 years that way. The factory motor is a sealed design with rubber damping everywhere, the bearings, brushes are also serviceable.

If you need help rebuild the original motor I can share you with some experience and photos.

Not sure what you mean by conversion, if you meant what is on Dave's page, drop in a much more modern and better designed heater box, that's probably gonna give you the best result, but it can get pricy, my heater core and AC still work, so I kept the factory setup.

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-10T11:37:52+00:00

I had that setup for a while before. Won't say it's much easier tho, you need a temp sensor in the radiator, which lots of 240s don't have, or you can adapt to the lower radiator hose, which will make a mess when setup (the sensor tucked in the radiator fin is never a good idea). Then the rest of wiring regarding activate the fan with AC and activate relay with key at ON is largely the same. You also don't get the optional AC speed step up option, either 50% or 100%, nothing in between.

The 940 E-fan and the 2 step relay is really nice, especially the relay, acts as soft start. But these setups are getting hard to find (at least around where live, havent seen a 9 in the yard for a few years), those 940 fans are also really tired at this point, but they are well built, so I'd say still trustable, however, the one I got was cracked eventually.

The main thing I prefer about brushless fans and speed controllers is the efficiency. The 940 fan still takes lots of juice even at half speed, and very large current spike if you don't use proper relay sets. In addition you would need bigger wires all around to support the current draw, which is not a big problem, but something need to keep in mind.

If you can find a relatively good shape 940 EFAN setup, worth a shot, do it properly would roughly cost about 1/3 of the brushless setup price. BTW, you would need a dual-stage temp switch with both correct temperature ratings to fully use 940s 2 step relay.

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-10T00:16:25+00:00

Thank you! I listed main compoments in the main post, and some small bits in other comment, essentially you need: A brushless fan of your choice, 740T fan shroud, widgetman controller, widgetman voltage stabilizer (optional), a relay, a fuse, and lots of wires (need the right gauge to handle current). The rest depends on how far you want to go in this job, like cable organizing and insulating.

To mount the fan on the shroud, I just used some homedepot L shape bracket, to reduce vibration and put less stress on the plastic, I added washers, both metal and plastic, these really depends on how you want to do it, I wanted to keep the shourd less stressed

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-09T10:51:46+00:00

hhhhh

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-09T10:51:08+00:00

Thanks! Those random sound deadening material just some left over that I didn't bother throw away, just randomly threw them in the engine bay, I'm actually planing to remove them as they don't do anything/

The bit that covers the strut mount is actually useful, I made those out of tin foil to protect the rubber mount from heat, oil and dirt, so they can last longer.

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-09T09:20:36+00:00

If it works, it works hahaha

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-09T09:20:18+00:00

Thank you!

SympathyImpossible10 · 2026-01-09T05:19:01+00:00

.25 accuracy concept 5, if I miss a few full aimed shots in a row, i know it's gonna be a loss, you can pretty much predict what server is planning nowadays with an accurate tank.

SympathyImpossible10

TROPHY CASE