Has anyone considered switching/piggybacking some wires around to make the rear foglights light up with the brakes? They are very bright and I'd guess that it woudl greatly improve rear visibility when braking.

Just wondering.
--
1967 P220 Amazon, 1972 145S, 1976 245 DL, 1983 245 DL, 1986 745 GLE, 1990 745 GL, 1995 945....
You mean to tell me that Volvo makes cars that are *NOT* Wagons?!?
1971 P1800E... Not a wagon, but it's just a donor car for the Amazon..

I can understand your motives, the brake light output of a 740/940 is not an eye opener compared to some vehicles, even with the third brake light. I did that conversion on my 740 after getting rear ended a couple of times, but have yet to do it on my 940's. If this is for your '95 940, you'll likely only have a left fog lamp and will first have to modify the right tail light assembly to take a fog lamp holder before you can do any conversion. After that, the proper way is as Tony says and that's to use diodes of suitable wattage to make an isolation bridge between the fog light switch, the brake pedal brake light switch and the fog light lamps. That will give you the extra brake lights you desire as well as retaining the normal fog light function. Be warned, if you live in an area frequented by road rage and firearms, doing this conversion makes the total brake light output almost too bright and may irritate following motorists.
--
Dave -940's, prev 740/240/140/120 Never overestimate what little I know.

Thanks, due to some determined assembly switching when I traded in my 740 and bought my 940 from the dealer, I managed to retain the top fogs on both sides. If you buy a replacement assembly from lampsandlenses.com you'll also get to keep your top fogs (btw, my L&L tail light is holding up great, no melting as some have reported)

Anyway, I'm not so clear on how exactly I'd use a diode to prevent the switch from lighting up nor why it's necessary if I switch the wires instead of piggy backing the setup. My electrical skills are basic and I barely know how to use a resistor :)


--
1967 P220 Amazon, 1972 145S, 1976 245 DL, 1983 245 DL, 1986 745 GLE, 1990 745 GL, 1995 945....
You mean to tell me that Volvo makes cars that are *NOT* Wagons?!?
1971 P1800E... Not a wagon, but it's just a donor car for the Amazon..

The diodes are not necessary if you are just switching the wire. I forgot to mention that in 90 and later wagons, volvo eliminated the fog light socket at the top of the passenger side tail light so some drilling is requied. Othewise just find a passenger side tail light from an earlier wagon. Thats what I did. Also all wagons come prewired for a passenger side fog light which is not plugged in from the factory. Having two rear fog lights would be illegal in europe but is perfectly fine in the US. The EU law says that every car is required to have a rear fog light on the driver side only. The idea is if you are aproaching a car from the rear in the fog you will know which side the driver is sitting on (UK cars for example) and therefore aware of his blind spots. I don't know about that but anyway.

If you are just switching the wires you light output for the brake lights or the fog lights does not change. Both the fog light and brake light filaments are 21w.
Justin

I too did this on my '89 200.

The brakes, will light up the Fogs as well AND the fog light switch only lights up the Fogs.
I needed two diodes to accomplish this.
The wire and diode game was played at the Foglight switch and Bulb sensor relay.

1 wire had to be cut and past thru the diode. that;s to keep the Foglight switch from glowing when you step on the brakes
--
'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

I just swapped the wires so my brake lights are at the top and the fogs are at the bottom. The normal tail lights are unchaged at the bottom. Now when I slam the brakes the person behind me sees 5 red lights instead of 3. I also like the idea of having the brake lights up high, closer the to the line of sight of all those dim wits driving around in their high and mighty SUVs. Fogs are now just brighter tail lights.

I like this idea, I'm going to try it. The brake lights are high on my 83 wagon and I always preferred that to the low brake lights on the 85. I never thought of just swapping the wires, duh!

I have done this on my 740 wagon. I then improved upon this by getting some dual element brakelight bulb holders at the junkyard so my rear fogs are brake and tailights. Simiar to this, except this is on a 240.http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/index.htm?id=985900