Headlight conversion

MIKE SWANSON

MEMBER
2004 VOLVO S60
2.5L
5 CYL
4WD
AUTOMATIC
184,000 MILES

I have the xenon headlights that move up and down for low/high beam. One of the bulbs intermittently will not come on when the car is started or when the lighting outside gets dark enough to switch from daytime running to headlight mode. This is not an inexpensive system to work on or maintain. Is it possible to convert this car to LED headlights (easily) and keep the Low Beam Out alarm off of the dash display?

1 Reply

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
13,574 POSTS

Not easy to convert as it would be to repair the defective lamp. Conversion would require replacement of the entire headlamp unit for both sides and reprogramming the system so it thinks the headlights are correct as the LED's commonly cause the blown bulb indicators to light unless they are the very expensive ones.
There is a TSB about these cars having a bad ballast which is what I suspect is the problem. If you access the ballast and check it the Revision D version and later are supposed to be better. The igniter may also be the issue. For both of those I would try swapping the igniter from side to side, then see which side acts up. If you still have the issue on the bad side, you can get re-manufactured units for around $200.00