Is there a dimmer (lower wattage) bulb I can put in the cluster for the high-beams? The high-beam indicator almost makes it not worth it to run the high beams because it's so bright in my face. I like turning my dash gauges down low when I'm away from ambient light sources - and that's the only place I use my high-beams, when I'm in the middle of nowhere. When I lived in yosemite a few years ago, I stuck a piece of masking tape over it for the few months I was there. It was too tacky to make permanent though.

Is there a compatible bulb that puts out less light? I think it's the same for all the dash idiot lights.

Cheers

I don't think there is any easy, drop-in solution. Someone might suggest one of the many LED replacements, but I suspect its natural dispersion angle will burn a path through your faded blue plastic even more blinding than the bulb does.

While I have the same complaint as you, at night, I find it isn't bright enough to get my attention during the day, when I've inadvertently left the brights on the night before. All manner of electronic solutions to my dilemma come to mind, but none are the simple, reach behind, and twist-in variety. You could just borrow some fingernail paint for your stock bulb, maybe. Or look for those silicone color caps on the Asian dash bulbs next time you're in the PNP.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine.

Hmm... Maybe a slice of darkened plastic inserted behind the lens would work too. I don't want to overheat the bulb - do the bulb-cover methods cause bulbs to overheat? I'm sure they slow cooling, but the question is how much. I suppose for a high-beam bulb, it wouldn't be on more than 45 minutes to an hour at a time.

Nail polish might just be the easiest thing.

How easy is the bulb to get at? I've tried painting the bulb on a different car wit some short-term success.
--
1992 745 approaching 500k km

You have to pull the cluster partway out- which is not hard if you have a long hose to your vacuum gauge (for turbo models) and is hard if it's too short :P
I can get away with disconnecting none of the items on the back ony my 740 if I'm careful. Then the bulb holder just takes a small twist to remove and you'll pull out the bulb socket and bulb together - just like 200 series taillights.

Having owned a 940 Turbo for a while I can agree that the high beam indicator is too bright at night.
I'd like to mention the one car that I know of that gave the driver an option---the Sunbeam Alpine of the 1960's had stand alone lamp fixtures set into the dash for high beam and turn signal indicators. The lenses of each of these lamps could flip up or down--with a thin section exposed for daytime use---thicker for the night. It has always amazed me that such a cheap run of the mill British sports car would have simple but effective driving aids. The seats also had adjustments for height and tilt--the pedals assemblies were adjustable and the steering wheel telescoped.
Perhaps with the Volvo the solution may be to install a rheostat (is that the correct term?) to control voltage to the lamp. -- Dave

Those bulbs have their power run through the plastic circuit board, and it's pretty flimsy IMO. I wonder if you could dim just the one or if they would all be dimmed. The others aren't so bright.

That said, I wonder if they all use the same bulb and why the high-beam bulb seems so bright. Maybe it's a different bulb, has a different thickness plastic lens, or it's just that the light goes through blue better than amber/red.

Any ideas?

"Those bulbs have their power run through the plastic circuit board, and it's pretty flimsy IMO. I wonder if you could dim just the one or if they would all be dimmed. The others aren't so bright."
I believe all the warninig light bulbs are the same. My thought was along the lines of splicing in a rheostat between the headlight relay and the cluster wire connector. The circuit board will have one channel dedicated for the high beam indicator. The warning lights (oil pressure, alternator, etc) will be separate (and work differently in that they have power to them and then rely on a ground being provided to make them light up). -- Dave

HMMmmmmmMMmmmm. Well, now. There's an idea. Even a fixed resistor would be fine with me, as I don't want to really adjust the bulb, but just reduce the intensity of it. The only thing I'm interested in dimming is the backlighting, and that's already fixed. To just reduce the brightness, a painted bulb or piece of tinted film would probably work best for me.
Maybe just a few layers of semi-opaque HDPE milk carton plastic would work to scatter more light.

I do like the idea though.
Happy Bricking

The warning bulbs are all the same at 1.2W. The light just seems to penetrate the Blue high beam tint on the plastic strip better than the Orange or Red tint.

BTW, for a cheap source of replacement 1.2W bulbs, they can be removed from their black plastic bayonet bases in junkyard 700/900 clusters. IIRC, the bulbs are soldered into their bases on the 240 clusters. I found an instrument cluster on the front seat of a 740 in the PnP which had been savaged by someone in the process of removing the tach. I removed about 10 of the warning bulbs/bases, and pulled out the bulbs. Don't take the ones that provide cluster illumination, they are on with headlights and may be burned out or close to it.

A couple have gone in to replace burnouts on my 740 switch lighting and in the small clock on the 83 240. The rest are handy spares.
--
Bob: Son's XC70, daughter's 940, my 81 and 83 240's, 89 745 (V8) and S90. Also '77 MGB and some old motorcycles