V90 LED lights
 

I have just bought a 2018 V90 Inscription and have been familiarising myself with the usual bits of routine maintenance. I took off the plastic shroud over the headlights off to look at how easy it would be to change the bulbs. Having done so, I found no access so it seems the car has LED lights.

The owner’s manual doesn’t seem to have much info on LED lights. Does anyone know which lights will be LED and perhaps more importantly, which aren’t? The manual seems to suggest only reversing lamps, fog lamps and possibly rear indicators are not LED.

This also begs the question of which bulbs French police will expect drivers to carry. Surely they don’t expect a full LED set if they can only be replaced by a garage. I’m sure I will find information on that online.

Many thanks!

I wondered about this too. The wording in the manual is vague. I think some of its references to replaceable bulbs may only apply to lower models in the range. For example, the reference to halogen headlights. I don't think any model in the UK has those. The lower models certainly have different lights. If you have an Inscription (I have an Inscription Pro) I assume your headlights do all the tricky bending as you steer, and masking out the main beams. The lower models don't do that, although I think they still use LEDs. It looks easy to pop the covers off, and inspect the lights. I think I'll have to try that some time.

All the front lights on my 2019 V90 Inscription Pro (DRL, indicators, dipped, adaptive main, full main, front fogs and wing mirror repeaters) are LEDs. Rear tail and brake lights are LEDs, indicators, rear fog and reversing lights are bulbs (although you would be forgiven for thinking the reversing lights are actually candles!)

I wasn't sure about the numberplate lights so nipped outside to check, and I'm leaning towards them being LEDs as well -- colour looks more LED than incandescent bulb, and the speed with which they lit up suggests LED as well.

I was planning to take my V90 abroad last summer and couldn't get a definitive answer out of Volvo as to what the headlights would do. After 2017 I think it was they removed the setting in Sensus for driving on t'other side of the road. The "adaptive shadow" headlights use the lower outboard sections of the assembly for the flat part of the dipped beam, and the upper outboard corners for the kick-up to the left -- the coming-home lights are a completely flat beam and don't use the top corners. So they might be smart enough to do the right thing in France, and I suspect that adaptive shadow will work when it's active. Maybe I'll find out this summer.

If you believe everything you read on the Internet the French police pull every single British-registered car over and demand to see absolutely everything. Apparently they didn't even recognise GB EU plates back in the day and insisted on a GB sticker. All I can say is that I've never had any problems when I've driven over there.

I have two fluorescent/retro-reflective vests in the cabin itself and a full jacket in the boot -- I do think their requirement of hi-viz that's accessible from inside the car is a good one.

I did buy a pack of Travelspot beam converters, more with the intention of looking at their fitting diagrams than actually using them. I wasn't impressed -- they think that which bits of the V90 and XC40 headlights do dipped and main are identical, and having had the latter as a loan car and looked, they are not!

This is odd. I was about to say that on my 2019 Inscription Pro I can select temporary left hand drive lighting, as described here https://www.volvocars.com/uk/support...-the-headlamps , which says it applies to a V90 from 2017 onwards. However, I just looked in my car, and that entry doesn't seem to exist. I'm pretty sure it used to. Maybe it was removed during the software update at my last service in Dec 2020.

Its really odd that these cars are covered in LEDs, yet they still left just a few incandescent bulbs.

This was one of the things I looked at very closely before buying the car -- and kudos to Volvo for making the user guides easily available online, but sometimes you end up no wiser than before you started reading them!

Mine's a 19 registration, built week 15 of 2018 which as far as I can make out makes it a "2019 AT1817" model in terms of hardware. It never ever had the setting in the Exterior lighting menu to switch to temporary Left Hand Drive / Right Hand Traffic and the manual makes no reference to driving on the other side of the road. (The MY 2017 manual is the only one to mention that setting. I thought I'd seen something in more recent manuals that explicitly said no adjustment was needed, but I didn't find it when I checked just now.)

When my car had a service in July last year, they did a software update. Still no option in the menu, but I did notice a change in behaviour on the adaptive shadow main beam: prior to the service, disabling Active Bending Lights also disabled adaptive shadow completely -- it would only switch between dipped and full main beam. Now, with ABL disabled, it doesn't turn the lights with the steering wheel but will switch between dipped, "shadow" main and full main beam. (Oh, and you no longer had to re-arm auto high beam every time you started the car.) So I'm sure that the hardware would be capable of it, and they just haven't programmed it.

(This is what happens when a software developer with a background in security buys a computer network that's pretending to be a car!)

My local dealer said that it was a symmetric dipped beam, which it isn't, but I suspect, short of a discussion with the guys who actually wrote the code, I won't know what really happens until I hit French tarmac. (It'd be awesome if it knew from the satnav data, and I know various Audis do that, but you'd have thought Volvo would want to mention that if it was something they did.)

What really surprises me with modern headlamps with all the separately controlled and/or steered LEDs is why they still seem to have "RHD-optimised with temporary LHD mode" and "LHD-optimised with temporary RHD mode", and when operating in the temporary mode much of the cleverness is turned off. You'd have thought, especially with the latest Audi and Mercedes ones, that it would be exactly the same hardware and software. But I've always been the sort of engineer who designs for the user, not the salesman ;-)

It is a bit half-a-job-Henry isn't it!

Prior to my trip to France in Nov 2019. I asked my local dealer regarding the select L/R drive light direction option on my V90, when abroad as mentioned in the manual.

The dealer couldn't explain either and it was suggested that it would detect automatically via the GPS/Sat Nav. Not sure if that was the case. But the beam appears to be flat with little impact to oncoming traffic.

Re: Spare bulbs. Considering the car then was only a 2yrs old at the time. I took my chances and carried no spares. As the front are LED and the rear light cluster would be a nightmare to dissemble if a indicator bulb went on the V90. Doubt the French Police would be able to identify the indicators as non LED.

I took confidence I have Volvo assist (covers Europe). IF a bulb was to be replaced.

I've successfully installed a reversing light on my s60

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=21

Yeah, I still can't believe the rear light needs stripped out to change an indicator bulb !

Strip out interior trim, bumper off.

To top that off I've been made aware that the top retaining screw needs some thread lock to prevent leaks.

Exactly the reason why one of my rear lights is needing replaced.

LHD/RHD light
 

Unfortunately in my v90 from end of 2019 also i haven't got this setting but i have Inscription plus with active beam and shadows. Interesting how to adjust them when you arrive in Europe

This is the answer from Volvo on call customer service.
The headlamp pattern should be adjusted if the active main beam has adaptive functionality. The car must be stationary and be running when the headlamp pattern is changed between right and left-hand traffic. Press Settings in the top view in the centre display. Press My CarLights and LightingExterior Lights. Select Temporary Right Hand Traffic/Temporary Left Hand Traffic. If you do not have that option in your car, there is no adjustment needed for when you drive on the left-hand side, as the lights will automatically adapt