bi-xenon lights

[Tom C]

I believe that the Volvo XC-70 bi-xenon lights are a significant safety hazard. We live in the country and I only have about 50' of bright light in low beams. Dealer won't change setting. Volvo North America send letter advising that they are set per Volvo and National Saftely settings. I DON'T believe. Any other drivers with same low beam/limited visibility issues?

[XCelerate]

http://www.volvoxc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1301

I totally agree with your statement. You can adjust the beams yourself (see the thread), or force the dealer to do so.

[gibbons]

Alternatively, there's this thread:

http://www.volvoxc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1225&page=1&pp=10

It's a year old, and the pictures disappeared, but basically it showed the beam as a distinct white line on my garage door, bright white below, dark above. I like the lights when adjusted upwards.

[HuggyBear]

Totally agree with you Tom. I also want to adjust my xenons, after being told by my dealer that they are "fine"...

However, I looked through all the threads, but could not find any pictures of where the adjustment knobs are on 2004 XC70s (the pictures in the DIY section do not apply to this model year). Does anyone have such pictures to post? I only see one knob, and many posts refer to two...

And for those who have adjusted their xenons, do the changes persist after visits to the dealer? I ask since one post mentioned that a VADIS hookup may reset the lights to their factory settings...

Thanks in advance,

HB

[dlr97]

There is one knob on top of EACH light assembly for vertical adjustment on my 2004 XC70. I turned mine up 1.5 turns. Have never been flashed when on low beam.

I turn the lights down to original position before taking the car into the dealer, and then back up. I put pencil lines on my garage wall where the beam hits on both the original and up positions. Takes all of 1/2 minute to do the adjustment.

Dave

[HuggyBear]

Thanks for your prompt reply Dave.

I currently park my car in an area where it is almost impossible to do such adjustments (ie. facing a ground-level neighbor's bedroom window - my remote starter going off at 7 AM every day is bad enough!), but will have a garage in about 6 months (house being built... :eek: ).

I'll be sure to use your trick, though!

BTW, do you perform these adjustments with the lights on? Sorry if it sounds dense...

HB

[dlr97]

Yes, lights on. The low beams work rather well when adjusted up like this. When they go to high beam, the light still could be better at a distance, because they still have the wide spread of the low beams. I prefer low Xenon's with a separate high Halogen spotlight on at the same time. My Porsche has this setup, and I think the European Volvo Xenons are like this. In the US we get DRL's in place of the high spotlights.

Dave

[gibbons]

Huggy, if you look at the sheet metal panel that goes across the front of the engine bay, you will see two rectangular yellow stickers towards the sides warning of high voltage on the headlights. Right by each of them there is a hole about the size of a nickel, the only such holes on the panel. If you look straight down through the hole, you will see the adjuster. It looks like a white hex nut with a white flange at the bottom, you can't miss it. It takes a 7mm socket, use an extension to reach through the hole.

You want to make sure that you get them both the same height, which is kinda hard to judge looking at the pattern on the wall. The line is amazingly crisp, but not perfectly crisp. Once you have them where you think they are pretty good, go about 50' in front of the car, lean down, and look into the headlights. Slowly raise your head up, and it will be really obvious if they are adjusted the same, it will look like the lights go from bright to dim. Make sure that both lights "switch" from bright to dim at the same time.

[barrysharp]

I believe that the Volvo XC-70 bi-xenon lights are a significant safety hazard. We live in the country and I only have about 50' of bright light in low beams. Dealer won't change setting. Volvo North America send letter advising that they are set per Volvo and National Saftely settings. I DON'T believe. Any other drivers with same low beam/limited visibility issues?

Tom - I agree 100%. I have a MY2003 XC70 with Halogen and a MY2004 S60R with Bi-Xenon. The XC70 lights are wonderful and the S60R lights are a downright disgrace to the 'R'. I have the Rs lights turn up as far as is possible (and no oncoming flashes yet) and have even raised the fog lights to get enhance the poor low beam performance all to no avail. I find myself crawling along in my R at night time on the dark roads in my area for fear of over running the lights.

If you adjust your lights you must reset them to factory before any VADIS work is done as it's possible the service Dept will have VADIS reset the lights and you will not be able to raise them as before.

[gibbons]

Barry, is that Vadis question something that seems to make sense because of the complexity of the cars, or a known fact? It seems like the bulb aimer would have to have some type of linear displacement transducer for Vadis to know that someone had toyed with it(?) I did have my transmission software updated, but I didn't notice any change in my altered headlight aim.

As you and I have disagreed on them before, I am dumb, but I like the the xenons.

[CrazyTiger]

I believe that the Volvo XC-70 bi-xenon lights are a significant safety hazard. We live in the country and I only have about 50' of bright light in low beams. Dealer won't change setting. Volvo North America send letter advising that they are set per Volvo and National Saftely settings. I DON'T believe. Any other drivers with same low beam/limited visibility issues?

I don't have a problem with that. My local volvo dealer adjusted the xenon lights upwards for me as I complained that its too low. But what I do not like is my fog light...I can't even see the fog light from my driver seat when I turn it on... and the volvo dealer told me I am NOT supposed to see the light!! Can you beleive that...!!?? Is it true?! :confused:

[ifnt420]

During night time, you won't see that much of a difference.
But man oh man... you'll definitely think otherwise during foggy weather. :D

http://www.xc70.com/pics/albums/userpics/normal_%26%2335519%3B%26%2325972%3B%26%2322823%3B% 26%2323567%3B%200218_0002.jpg

[John@CdnRockies]

I would be surprised if Vadis detected a change in headlight settings. When I raised them, it was a clear manual adjustment of turning the hex nut. Not sure how Vadis would be involved in adjusting them back downwards.

Even if Vadis did detect the raised level, I would gladly repeat the process. The Bi-Xenons were a problem before, now they provide lots of light. Once you gone through the process it only takes, maybe two minutes, so I would be more than willing to redo the exercise.

For HuggyBear's sake, I actually did the adjustment in a most unscientific manner on a dark road. Park the car and adjust (1.5 turns in my case) until I liked the result. Then drive away. If someone flashes at you, they probably need to be turned down a 1/4 turn. So far, no flashes from oncoming traffic, and I am now fully satisfied. Realize this is not as well defined as Gibbon's effort, but I am quite certain you will enjoy the difference on an XC.

John

[barrysharp]

Barry, is that Vadis question something that seems to make sense because of the complexity of the cars, or a known fact? It seems like the bulb aimer would have to have some type of linear displacement transducer for Vadis to know that someone had toyed with it(?) I did have my transmission software updated, but I didn't notice any change in my altered headlight aim.

As you and I have disagreed on them before, I am dumb, but I like the the xenons.

This is a good question as it is/can be confusing. It's my understanding from many postings on this subject over on the Swedespped R forum that if dealership has downloaded VADIS software related to car's suspension then the technician is required to have VADIS recalibrate the headlights. In this case if owner had altered the factory settings then the lights will be returned to stock position such that the owner will not have the luxury of raising them as much as they had before. If this process is repeated over time the owner obtains less and less adjustment allowance. The answer is to always reset the lights to stock position before having car serviced as you never know what new VADIS servicing will be done at the dealership wrt warranty and Volvo madatory VADIS downloads etc. You can always tell your Service Manager that you MUST be informed before any VADIS servicing is done to better understand how it might affect the headlight recalibration. If you need more details I suggest you pop over to Swedespeed "R Forum" and search out the gory details - a real pain I know but it's the best I can offer.

Be forwarned that some R owners have not returned their lights to stock position and had suspension software downloaded and have received their cars returned with the lights pointing severely downwards and without enough adjustment left to return them to the owners desired position.

Good luck.

[gibbons]

Barry, I know that the XCs with bi-xenons do have some sort of load sensing device in the rear suspension to aid the lights down if you put something heavy in the back which sags the suspension and would otherwise shoot the headlight beam higher. I saw this one time when I was sitting in the garage and both my sons got in the rear seat at the same time, the headlights adjusted. It's not just an inclination sensor, or otherwise, your headlights would dip when you went up a hill :)

So, I wonder if you ran out of upwards adjustment, if you aimed them all the way down, and have a Vadis visit, if it would put you back in the range where you had some adjustment? Kind of expensive,though. I thought about getting the PA300 amp for the stereo, but the extra $90 on top of the cost of the amp squelched that one. Besides, I don't know what happens if I install the amp in my garage, if it would disable some system and leave my car dead in the garage awaiting a new download.

These cars have 13 microprocessors in them all talking on a network they call "CAN". It's really cool now, but what about in 10 years when things start getting flakey as processing electronics seem to do?

[wgriswold]

"These cars have 13 microprocessors in them all talking on a network they call "CAN". It's really cool now, but what about in 10 years when things start getting flakey as processing electronics seem to do?"

That's why I don't think I will be driving my my2003 in twenty years as I was my 1980 240 DL.

[AGXC70]

Tom - I agree 100%. I have a MY2003 XC70 with Halogen and a MY2004 S60R with Bi-Xenon. The XC70 lights are wonderful and the S60R lights are a downright disgrace to the 'R'. I have the Rs lights turn up as far as is possible (and no oncoming flashes yet) and have even raised the fog lights to get enhance the poor low beam performance all to no avail. I find myself crawling along in my R at night time on the dark roads in my area for fear of over running the lights.

If you adjust your lights you must reset them to factory before any VADIS work is done as it's possible the service Dept will have VADIS reset the lights and you will not be able to raise them as before.


Im thinking you dont have to worry about "out running" lights

-George

[nedsmith]

Has anyone experienced failure of bi-xenon headlamps where the lamps appear to position themselves in a downward direction directly in front of the vehicle? There is only about 10 feet of illumination in front. This leaves you driving blind essentially.

I've experienced this on my S60R several times. It seems to fail most when flipping between high and low beams. Sometimes only one lamp will position into high-beam, then both fail and move to the lowered position (far below low-beam). I took it to the dealer to have it fixed they said the "workaround" is to stop the vehicle, remove the key and restart the car.

This can be a very tricky manuver while trying to pass a semi with oncoming traffic!

This is a serious safety problem that should warrent a recall, but I haven't found any discussion on the topic. Clearly the dealer is aware of the behavior, but doesn't have a real fix.

Adjusting the headlamps up a few degrees isn't going to compensate at all.

Anyone heard of or experienced first hand this sort of thing?

[RedXC]

I have aftermarket HID in my car. I feel that it doesnt shoot as far, but I'm just going to leave the headlamp angle settings. And the aftermarket are much brighter than Volvo Bi-Xenon.

[nottelmann]

Hi. Hopefully somebody can put this straight for me, as several post in this forum and other Volvo forums are not clear.

Having self-leveling bi xenon headlights on my XC90 is it or is it not possible to manually adjust the beams up or down using the white adjustment screws located next to light housings?

I tried to adjust mine using marks on my garage door from 5 feet away. I tried to turn the screws up to 2.5 turns each way but no change in the heights were noticeable. I understand that the self-leveling mechanism should compensate for differencies in load on the axles, and this is controlled by an internal computer based on input from the level sensors, but even so it must be possible to adjust the basic level manually???? I must admit that my driveway is quite steep and the car was not leveled when I tried the manual adjustments, but as I understand it that should not have an impact on the self-leveling mechanism (when there is no change in the load on the axles. Am I wrong here? I would much appreciate if someone could guide me on how to adjust the lights.

[John@CdnRockies]

Gibbons, I am one of the individuals who experienced a Bi-Xenon reset thanks to Vadis. I experienced the familiar problems of beams set way too low and had raised them.

On two occasions a Vadis reflash set the beams back to Volvo's stupid and dangerous settings (there are no other words). I was perplexed as both times this was right after a servicing. Both times I have adjusted the beams upward and they have now hit the max setting.

Needless to say, I now patronize garages where Vadis can not be hooked up "as a courtesy".

I frankly wonder about Volvo's safety mantra as the official Bi-Xenon setting is a huge liability. It diminishes the vehicle and I certainly regret their attitude.

John

[Chilled Man]

HID for everyone :D
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii298/R410a/xcpics007.jpg
4500k low beams
3000k fog lights :D

[TiredGeek]

nottelmann, in essence I think the answer may be no if your lights are anything like mine.

My '07 is a Europe spec (you don't say where you are).
I marked the garage wall with the factory setting for the low beam, then adjusted the lights up until I thought they looked about right and marked the wall again. As soon as the car was moved the lights reset themselves down to the factory marks. I double checked by putting the car back where it was when I adjusted them and sure enough the beam was back at factory. It's the same if I wind them the other way as well, then they come back up to factory.

I put it down to something to do with the ActiveC (or whatever its called) suspension on my car and I think it must also be setting the lights. Unless the lights themselves have a leveling function.....

[nottelmann]

TiredGeek, thanks. Mine is an EU 07 model. You confirmed my experience, from which I must conclude that the Xenon headlights are not manually adjustable. This is very frustrating because the beams as they are set from the factory are definitely too low for safe driving on a dark road. If anybody can tell me how all this automatic leveling adjustment can be overidden, so to let me manually adjust the beams to my taste it would be much appreciated. I simply don't want to pay a Volvo garage a fortune for what should really be a simple operation. I have adjusted several non-Xenons in the past with no problem at all.

[mtndave]

Interesting exchange about bi-xenon headlights-now I'm worried.

My '05 XC70 has bi-xenon, but not the active option. I had to adjust the lights up, using the garage door, etc. My independent mechanic put the headlight aim machine on it and reset the lights slightly to the maximum height allowed for Virginia state inspection. The adjustment is the small white hex nut like you have described in these posts.

Will these lights readjust when hooked up to VADIS?

Properly adjusted, these lights are wonderful, though the halogens on my '03 XC70 were better!

[Ocean Racer]

Will these lights readjust when hooked up to VADIS?


Apparently yes they will. - back to their original OEM factory setting :(

I'll look into an override or setting to keep the HID manual setting when VADIS is hooked up.

[gregvet]

I have active Bi-xenons on my 07 XC 70. I had to adjust the lights upward 360 degrees on the adjustment (1 full turn) after I got my car and have not experienced any drop. I haven't had it hooked up with VADIS but if I do so, I'll probably drop them down before doing so.

[amecchi]

I have bi-xenon lights and I dislike them because they are so dim. They also appear blue. The right bulb blew and I replaced it with a $140 bulb from the dealer which burns white. I have blue on the left and white on the right. What is going on here?

[XLR82XS]

I have bi-xenon lights and I dislike them because they are so dim. They also appear blue. The right bulb blew and I replaced it with a $140 bulb from the dealer which burns white. I have blue on the left and white on the right. What is going on here?
Xenon/HID bulbs need to be replaced in pairs as they fade over time.

[Forkster]

Xenon/HID bulbs need to be replaced in pairs as they fade over time....and they are often a different temperature colour - same happened when my left headlight bulb blew but it was under warranty - they put a new one in but it was a completely different colour. I had them change the other one out (would of only been a matter of time anyways).

It's also not a bad idea to have a spare set of bulbs handy - and you could find a cheaper source than the $tealership. :)