Headlight Failure Warning???

[GrantA]

I have started to get a "Headlight Failure" warning come on occasionally when I start my MY 09 XC70. It doesn't happen every time and it is only there for a split second, not even long enough to read the whole warning. There is nothing wrong with the lights as they come on after the car has started. I did ask a friend who used to work for Volvo and he asked if the left hand headlight went up and down quickly like it was vibrating, can't say I have noticed this, anyway he said he thought there was Volvo Technical Leaflet on a possible fault with one of the gearbox mounts that may cause the headlight failure warning. How a gearbox mount could cause a possible headlight failure is beyond me but there again with modern technology anything is possible!!!
Has anyone else experienced this??

[TrueBlue]

Originally Posted by GrantA

I have started to get a "Headlight Failure" warning come on occasionally when I start my MY 09 XC70. It doesn't happen every time and it is only there for a split second, not even long enough to read the whole warning. There is nothing wrong with the lights as they come on after the car has started. I did ask a friend who used to work for Volvo and he asked if the left hand headlight went up and down quickly like it was vibrating, can't say I have noticed this, anyway he said he thought there was Volvo Technical Leaflet on a possible fault with one of the gearbox mounts that may cause the headlight failure warning. How a gearbox mount could cause a possible headlight failure is beyond me but there again with modern technology anything is possible!!!
Has anyone else experienced this??

Not recently, but when I had, it was traced to a poor connection (at the bulb end) - probably why the vibration issue (above) was questioned.

[Dobby]

Been getting the same warning on my car, MY09 D5 SE Lux. Mainly seems to happen in the cold weather, and only very briefly. Been happening for a couple of years at least.

[GrantA]

Originally Posted by Dobby

Been getting the same warning on my car, MY09 D5 SE Lux. Mainly seems to happen in the cold weather, and only very briefly. Been happening for a couple of years at least.

I think it is the same with me, only had the car since May this year and up until October we lived in France, warm weather = no problems, now we live in the north of Scotland and bloody cold weather = problem. I think I will take the headlights out and check the plug connections on both sides. I did have the headlights out at the end of October when I changed back from Continental driving to UK driving but other than that I suspect I'll have to put up with it as you do Dobby.

[macs]

Same here. My car is 2009 V70 D5 with active xenons. There's nothing wrong with the lights as far as I can tell, apart from this intermittent message.

[Phil Russell]

Me too: 58 plate XC70 AWD. Quite reassuring to know other people are having the same 'problem'. Although we have only noticed it 3 times over the past 6 months.

I think we have the bixenon lights .. SELux version with the lights that turn. I believe these are very expensive to replace bulbs (about £200???) so if a bulb does go it is better to let a garage do it. But replacing the bulb seems easy; excellent guide in this month's Volvo OC magazine.
Any views on this? ... clearly at that price I have no intention of carrying spare bulbs as I used to with my 940 and old V70. Can anyone give a definitive code for the bulbs as I have searched several web sites and no one lists them ... only the standard halogen types.

Cheers, Phil

[APS]

I had a similar intermittent flashing warning recently - it was on screen for such a short time that I couldn't read what it was saying before it disappeared and there was no message stored to read either. As the weather got colder the message started appearing for longer and I eventually managed to read it as a parking bulb failure. It turned out that the blob of solder on the end of one of the rear parking bulbs (5W) had worn down causing an intermittent failure. Replaced both side rear parking bulbs and hey presto - warning messages have disappeared!

A

[GrantA]

Originally Posted by APS

I had a similar intermittent flashing warning recently - it was on screen for such a short time that I couldn't read what it was saying before it disappeared and there was no message stored to read either. As the weather got colder the message started appearing for longer and I eventually managed to read it as a parking bulb failure. It turned out that the blob of solder on the end of one of the rear parking bulbs (5W) had worn down causing an intermittent failure. Replaced both side rear parking bulbs and hey presto - warning messages have disappeared!

A

Hi APS, what year is your car? my rear lights are all LEDs and only the indicator lights are "normal" ones.

Anyway sounds like this "Headlight Failure" warning is more common than I first thought on the later XC/V70 models and possibly associated with the outside temperature. Can anyone "in the know" find out if there is a Volvo Technical Notification on this please!!

[AlistairQ]

+1

Been getting the "headlamp failure" message flash on the display at startup, for ages. Its happens more frequently the colder the weather on my car and only ever happens below 2 degrees C.