Another one of those "they all do that" problems. Lately people have been telling me that my right headlight has water in it.... yeah yeah, it's only an inch deep. I was gonna get a little "nemo" fish to put in there...

The lenses DO come off the reflectors. If they're lousy enough to leak, they're probably not on there very securely anyway. The original caulk is junk by now. I've had to fix the headlights in every late 240 I've owned. That's just a fact of ownership of these cars.

I have gotten some of the lenses off without even removing the unit from the car, but I'm NOT recommending you do this. If the lens isn't loose, you'll break the mounting pins off, and then you'll need a new globe anyway. That's what we're trying to avoid, right?

I use clear silicone RTV sealant after cleaning the grooves all out with a small screwdriver. Make sure the lamp is all perfectly dry before putting it together. No sense leaving any moisture behind to start the problem over again.

Good luck with it!
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: Roterande Fläkt Och Drivremmar!

The original Volvo sealant on the lenses was a gray body filler putty not meant to set up like adhesive and gets hard and leaks after a while. Take them apart clean the inside of the lenses with Berryman carb cleaner (this brightens up years old yellowed plastic to look like new and smooths out the fine road grit pits in the outer plastic that reduce the light projection) If you use more aggressive solvent like Acetone it will be hard to control and keep from melting the plastic. It also gives a good sealing surface after getting the old sealant off. I used Marine grade Goop, a pliable silicone adhesive that retains the softness but sets up quickly unlike other silicone sealants, also more viscous and easire to work with.
I would not touch the reflector with anything, even water or compressed air. After time the reflective coating looses some adhesion to the backing plastic and just blows off.
Should be good for another 20yrs after that.
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'89 245 Sportwagon, '04 V70 2.5T Sportwagon

No need to drill a drain hole. They wouldn't drain well anyway because of the way the reflector is designed.

Should not be condensation. Water gets in via one of two mechanisms:
1) A crack caused by impact (not always easy to spot)
2) Leaks around where the lense fits on to the headlight housing.

They ALL get #2 sooner or later. To reseal it, just lay a bead of some sort of sealant around the seam where the clear lense attaches, and you are set.

Don't pull the lense off and put the adhesive in the groove. You may want to replace those lenses some day, and you want to be able to scrape off the sealant and pop off the lenses.

If you do happen to pull of the lense, DON'T try cleaning the reflector! The silver wipes right off!! Rinse it with distilled water, but don't touch it.

I use Pit Crew's Choice adhesive, because that's one of the glues that I always keep on hand. You might want to use something that sets up softer.

I've sealed the lenses on three bricks and replaced the lenses on one brick. I remove the vent cover and rinse the inside with distilled water, then dry in the oven at 150F for a couple of hours, then apply the sealant. Pit Crew's choice is not very viscous, so I have to do one seam at a time and wait for it to set up before turning the housing to do another seam.

A post that I saw here a couple of weeks ago said that the replacement lenses that you can get from Volvolights.com?? Volvolenses.com?? were no good. I got headlight lenses and turnlight lenses for the '87 wagon from some online place that sounded like that, and they fit perfectly and look exactly like OEM, and were very inexpensive. I am very pleased with them.

Of course, if you pay a fraction of the Volvo parts price and buy cheap plastic lenses, there is always the chance that they will get yellow and brittle with age. . . . . wait a minute . . . . that's what the original Volvo lenses did.......

It is a rare 240 volvo with newer(i believe '85 and on)style headlights that does not have moisture in headlights. Bugs me too. Every now and then I dry them out by removing bulb and blowing a warm air blower into them. However a few weeks later and moisture is back. I Wish Volvo hadn't changed headlight design. Would love to know if indeed there is any permanant solution to this pesky problem. Very Best. P.S.- Got my brickboard sticker in todays mail. Real cool. Every brickboarder should get/have one.