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I have tried many things to keep my brake lights working, but no matter what they always stop working after some period of time.
I have recently removed the boxes, cleaning them up, epoxied holes in the lenses, cleaned the contacts, etc. They worked fine. Now they're broken again.
One thing I noticed was that that cheap looking plastic circuit board is looking a bit roughed up. I wonder if maybe replacing those would help.
Has anyone done this?
I am ready to rewire the whole thing, replacing the circuit board with wires. If I can get away with something less involved, then I'll try that.
-JSBB
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One thing I noticed was that that cheap looking plastic circuit board is looking a bit roughed up. I wonder if maybe replacing those would help.
Hi Jarrod,
If you mean the flexible plastic laminate PC "boards". FCP has aftermarket versions for $19.00. I don't know anything about quality though. I'd like to think they would be OK.
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Bruce Young
'93 940-NA (current), 240s (one V8), 140s, 122s, since '63.
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I've heard that some people have literally soldered wires from the PC board to the Tabs on the bulb holder.
I have added solder to the PCB at the contact points BEFORE I had problems . Maybe that was a good thing because mt '89 is still trouble free.
I design PCB's. I keep thinking it would be nice to copy that Flex circuit with a standard .06" board.
The design work is free ( i'd do it) but the manufacturing of the boards are expensive.
--
'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
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That would be great. That's exactly what I have been wishing for.
How much would it cost to manufacture them? Maybe we can find a vendor who'd be interested in selling them.
-JSBB
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It all, of course depends on quantity.
This may be hard to follow; The other issue is that you would have to modify the Plastic housing that the current Flex board is attached to. By adding .06" to the thickness of that housing, it screws up the Bulb holders. i.e. they don't have the thickness range to go into the plastic housing AND the newly added Hard PCB thickness.
I really haven't studied all the logistics to make this happen.
What does IPD sell their aftermarket boards for? those are easy direct replacements. I think they are Big$$.
I have a spare Rear tail light, some rainy day I should sit down with it and see what I can come up with. I wonder if I designed a .031" thick PCB if it would be more robust then the Stock Flex circuit yet be thin enough not to screw up the stock mechanics of the Bulb holders.
Do you know if the 200 and 700's have the same Flex circuit board in the tail lights? I wonder what the demand would be if I could come up with something?
--
'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
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Not sure about the 700/200 question.
I think IPD charges $100+ per.
-JSBB
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I really need to look into this.
We can do a little better then that ( probably $80 for the boards in low quantity) I'd call for 4 ounce copper on the board much better then Stock.
IF it will work mechanically.
In the mean time, have you looked at adding Solder to the Traces that make the connection to the Bulb holder?
You have to solder quick. Remember that there is only Plastic behind that flex Circuit board.
--
'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
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If it required a small amount of modification, that'd be okay. Of course, you don't want to pull the bulbs too far back or it will change their effectiveness.
Maybe there is some readily available bulb socket that could replace all of the plastic ones. Heck, make it so it improves the performance of the whole system and people would be even more enthusiastic about it. You could include a way to make it so it uses the fog lights for brakes right out of the box and that alone would get you a lot.
When I contemplated soldering, I thought about attaching to the plastic socket part. The metal contacts are reachable from behind.
-JSBB
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It would be a bit tough to add in the Foglight for brakes at that point. It really works best (electrically) at the Bulb failure sensor.
But I know what you mean, Find bulb sockets that will work better and add that with the PCB and problem solved FOREVER.
SOldering some 22 awg wire to the PCB and the Flex board would solve the problem too.
Exept I had an issue where my Fogs weren't working on the one side because of a bad connection right at the the Connector.
I'll toss some ideas around Jarrod, These circuit boards are single sided and you need to specify Drivers side/passenger side. I bet I can make a double sided board and you just turn it over for one side or the other.
Yeah, I gotta see what I can do. I'm sure there's a few Bricksters out there that might be interested.
Maybe I can twist the arm of the Circuit board house I work with to see if they can give me a one-time personal favor price just to test the design. I'll get enough made for you.
--
'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
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I never tried to hook up the fog lights to the brake. Do you know if there's a guide to it on this site? I can't find anything.
-JSBB
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I've seen guides for doing this - essentially you connect the brake lights to the fog lights in parallel but add a diode on the line from brakes to fog bulbs to prevent the fog lights from feeding the brake light circuit.
Look around, it's not volvo specific. (I'd get into this more, but it's time for bed)
-Will
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1990 740 Turbo, on its way to stock specs, maybe beyond
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i have had the same problem with my 240 brake lights. i replaced the ground wires attaching the circuit to the chassis and it helped, sanding the bulb connections to the circuit and covering them with di-electric grease seemed to help too. one of my lights had burned itself a little pit in the circuit causing it to work intermittently, i just screwed it a little looser so it contacted newer metal on the circuit. never considered soldering a wire setup, thats an intesting idea. mine pretty much works now, though i just discovered that pit last weekend, so far so good. lots of electrical gremlins this car seems to have, lots of bad grounds and corroded wires. not bad for a 27 yr old car though.... i digress.. good luck
s
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I can check the ground, but it's not a total failure. When one side works, the other doesn't.
As for the rest, I've tried that.
I wonder if replacing the floppy circuit boards would help. It's an expensive option though.
-JSBB
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Jarrod,
I chased a similar problem for months. I finally solved it by creating a new ground (drilled hole, sheet metal screw, crimp connector, and coat liberally with dielectric grease) and splicing the light's ground wire to that.
Has worked ever since.
Jeff Pierce
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'93 945 Turbo (201K miles), '93 945 (140K miles/I maintain for a family member), '93 945 Turbo (sold w 145K miles), '92 Mercedes 190E (174K miles), '85 Jeep CJ-7 w/ Fisher plow (225K miles), '53 Willys Overland w/ Fisher plow (sold to a loving home)
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I'm going to try that. It makes sense that it could be ground with some of the symptoms now that I think of it.
-JSBB
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