S40 Headlamp problem

[Ledbelly]

I have a curious problem with my 2004 S40 2.4i.

It has xenon headlights and I keep getting a message that a dipped headlamp bulb has failed.

When I check, I find that the nearside light has gone out but if I switch the lights off and on the light comes back on. After a couple of minutes the message clears.

I have cleaned the contacts on the headlamp plug assuming that there was a bad contact but it has made no difference.

Has anybody got an idea what could be wrong?

Thanks in advance.

[Sidonas]

Probably the bulbs are starting to fail. They can still be reignited but lose the arc at some point. If you haven't changed them in a few years, I'd start with that.

[LizardOfBodom]

Next step will be checking/replacing ballasts, those tend to fail often and after a while are loosing ability to power up/operate the D bulbs.
But best is to start with bulbs as mentioned above, try swapping/replacing and see if problem persists.

[BJB]

I had this problem, in the end it was the bulb. Did change ballast thinking it was that because it went out after a couple of minutes, also you have to get ballast programmed, BUT unless it has been Pre-programmed by Volvo, the Self levelling won't work....
Certainly change the bulbs before you end up spending time/ money trying other things.

[Quarryscapes]

The ballasts are never "pre programmed", you have to do it once installed on the car with VIDA. If you don't, it will set lights at lowest point and won't auto level them, and you'll have 2 fault codes stored. If you swap a secondhand ballast it will still need calibrating to your car, but shouldn't set itself to lowest level.

Running the calibration in Vida is a 5 minute job.

[Ledbelly]

Thanks everybody. Happily, it was the bulbs.