Hello all,

Well, I have completed my baptism to my daughters Brick, as I spent last
Saturday cleaning the flame trap. The attempt was to stop the gushing of oil from every possible port on the rascal....so we shall see. The info. on the FAQ from this board was very helpful, as were the answers to my original post!
Many thanks...now I wait and see if the hemoraging has stopped.

On to my second issue. I noticed that dash idiot light was lit (sometimes flickering) for "light bulb out"....had to look that up in her owners manual, as I have never seen that idiot light function on any previous car.

Then last night, I also noticed that there seems to be little notice of brake lights when the pedal is depressed...the 3rd light in the rear window illuminates, but I see little/no change to the rear corners. I looked & found the lamps with dual filaments...but don't see much effect when the pedal is pressed. FWIW her rear taillight lenses are a bit old & slightly hazed, but I would think they still should have burned clear at night.

Is this a common problem with the 240? Since I don't want anything to happen to my little princess, I need to get to the bottom of this soon.

TIA,

DET
91 240 in NC

One more piece of brake light/bulb sensor trivia to add.

If fuse #6 is bad, open, you will get no brake lights and no warning and (if an automatic) the shifter interlock will not work.

Fuse #6 was open on my 91_240 because there was a lot of water inside the right rear tail light that shorted the brake light socket, blowing the fuse.

Water was there because of a cracked lens and hours long rain storm.



91_240

aside from using an eraser on the Circuit board that the Bulb Sockets lock into, you might want to coat the Copper with a layer of Solder. The Copper on the boards do wear out from vibration and the screwing and unscrewing of the Bulb Sockets. A coating of Solder will add some life to the 'Touch' points.
--
'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwr and two motorcycles: it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

I think the Bulb Failure Sensor is OK, and doing "its thing" by alerting you to the two failing bulbs. Rob's tips on cleaning up at the sockets will probably fix you up.

FWIW, here is my canned BFS description, followed by how the 3 Brake Light failure detection works (for the trivia lover in us all)...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The Bulb Failure Sensor tests for a current balance in each of these three groups of light pairs (includes 3 bulb brake lights):

• Tail lights
• Brake lights
• Low headlight beams

You can isolate the BFS warning light to one of these groups as described below. The car must be running to activate the Bulb Failure sensor:

1 – Step on Brakes.... If no Warning light,
2 – Turn Parking (tail) lights on.... If still no Warning light,
3 – Turn on Low beams. Should be the cause of the Warning light.

If Warning light is ON when all these lights are OFF (or all tested lights are OK), it could be the BF Sensor at fault.

However, "mismatched" bulbs (different brands, age, or socket condition), or corrosion at the common ground points for Left & Right light housings ) in any of the 3 light groups can also cause a false BF light.

Note that there will be NO warning if BOTH bulbs in a pair are out.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
How the system checks the three Brake Light bulbs

This bit of Volvo trivia had me stumped until I autopsied a BF Sensor. The basic principle is that.an equal current thru two opposing coils (having the same number of turns) will have no magnetic effect on the reed relay inside the coils.

The 3-Light Brake Light test circuit is similar, except that the Left bulb is tested by one coil (say 20 turns), opposed by two coils end-to-end, 10 turns for the Right bulb and 10 turns for the High Stop bulb.

As long as all three bulbs work, the 20/20 coils cancel out. However, a failure of any one of the three bulbs will upset the 20/20 "magnetic balance" and the sensor relay will light the BF Light.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
--
Bruce Young
'93 940-NA (current) — 240s (one V8) — 140s — 122s — since '63.

Yes, it's really common to have trouble with those two outer bottom corner lights. Remove the sockets and clean everything up. Try a pencil eraser on the circuit boards of the light housing- they're fragile, so go easy. The socket tabs you can sand off any corrosion. Put two new 1157 bulbs in.

Still nothing? You could have a bad bulb-out relay. Try to pick up a used one in a junkyard for a few bucks- they're like $70 from the dealer, so you really want to find a good used one. The brake light power goes through the relay.

Good luck!
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 228K, 88 744GLE- 212K, 91 244 183K-SOLD! Also responsible for the care and feeding of: 88 745GLE, 231K, 88 244GL, 146K, 87 244DL, 239K, 88 245DL, 246K