My V50 headlights are crap

[4hero]

Hi folks,

Had the T5 a couple of months now and am not impressed with the headlights to be honest (struggle to see 15 feet in front on a dark road on main beam). Could anyone recommend what can be done to improve this? I'm a bit of a numptie when it comes to cars, but could just about stretch to fitting a lightbulb (if I can find the lever thing for lifting the bonnet )

Any advice would be excellent!

Thanks in advance,

Neil.

Edited by 4hero on Wednesday 9th December 00:31

[mondayo]

I had a similar issue with my old V50. I had a prang in mine and so had to have some work done on the front end. After it was fixed I got the repair company to tweak the headlight adjustment so that they were pointing a bit higher.

They said they were already correctly adjusted, but like you I think they were too low/ineffective. After they'd adjusted them they were loads better. I imagine a local garage or somesuch would do the same for you?!

Hope that helps

[F i F]

My old V50 was never the same after I had a headlight bulb go and put some bulbs in from Biltema, which is the Swedish equivalent to Hellfrauds only bigger and cheaper. Even though the bulbs were higher wattage the lights were crap.

I had them on LHD setting which basically just cuts off that little triangle of light which is supposed to illuminate up the kerb in UK, so the cut off was very square. Got round it in a way by winding the lights up as far as I could decently get away with and avoid opposing traffic flashing.

I couldn't figure it out, even considered auxiliary spots, until a main beam went and I fitted a bulb from same source and now the main beam was shining down in front of the car. Fitted and refitted the bulbs thinking I'd been a numpty and got the bulb inserted wrong then I figured it out, cheap bulbs and filament placement was all to cock.

Put some proper bulbs back in from a good supplier, in that case Bosch, and all back to normal.

That would be where I would start tbh, put decent quality bulbs in, and then get it aligned, it's not difficult to do, because if V50 lights are set up correctly they are excellent, like most Volvo lights. Passengers sometimes comment on how good my current V50 is and it just has the standard setup.

edited due to fat finger syndrome

Edited by F i F on Thursday 10th December 16:17

[4hero]

Thanks for the info guys, car is due it's first service soon, I'll mention it to see what can be done.

Cheers,

Neil.

[plfrench]

Something sounds wrong there if you can't see more than 15ft... Main beam is pretty good and I find dipped is perfectly adequate. Have you tried cleaning them, as they do seem to be affected by dirt more than is usual!