Unkown electrical bit on Volvo Amazon

It's not one of those stupid bulb preheaters that's supposed to extend the life of your bulbs, perchance?

Yes it is a high power resistor. I've seen a few like it before but not in cars. But I have no eye deer what it could be feeding, especially as it's an add on.

looks like a finger to me, could be wrong though :op

Malc ( snipped-for-privacy@lightindigooverthere.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Some attempt to retro-fit DimDip?

Yippee ( snipped-for-privacy@intuh.net.invalid) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Legal necessity on new cars in the late 80s/early 90s.

With the ignition on, turning the sidelights on puts the dip beam on at reduced power - an incompetent legal attempt to stop muppets driving on sides when they should be on dip.

Adrian realised it was 05 Jun 2005 21:25:35 GMT and decided it was time to write:

Wot's DimDip?

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Yippee saying something like:

Yep; it's a wirewound resistor - gawdnose what it's doing there. Unless, of course, some bright spark was attempting to make dim/dip headlamps.

If the lights are working fine without it, leave it out.

In Volvo speak you mean 'DayGlow', where Volvo's come from it's a legal requirement to have head and tail lights on all the time a vehicle has it's engine running.

It is a high power resistor. Dim dip perhaps for daylight running lights - to improve bulb life?

":::Jerry::::" realised it was Sun, 5 Jun 2005 23:04:49

Hmmm, very interesting.

I should have mentioned this car was recently imported from Sweden into the Netherlands. The modification may well have something to do with modern Swedish legal lighting requirements. According to an electronics guru I spoke to today, the resistor could be a means of keeping a relay closed, so that the lights stay on whenever the ignition is turned on.

For some reason, it's now doing more than it's supposed to do, as it now also keeps the relay closed when the ignition is turned off. We'll just keep it disconnected and be done with it.

You wouldn't need a resistor of that size if all it was feeding was a relay coil.

As others have said it is indeed a high current resistor. Usually the only place you'd find one of that size is in the dim dip circuit (it's only a few ohms but with the current drawn by the dipped headlamp bulbs it makes a noticeable difference). The resistor should also be connected to a relay which will in turn be connected to the sidelights - that way the relay will switch power to the dipped headlamp bulbs via the resistor if the ignition and sidelights are both on. Of course, the relay/resistor combo is bypassed when you turn the lighting switch to 'dipped' position and the bulbs then get full power.

The dim dip system itself is easy enough to understand, but Volvos generally don't have sidelights as such (at least not those that can be switched on and off at will), so I'm not entirely sure how this arrangement would work on one, and in any case the car is far too old to legally require the system.

My only other guess is that it is a ballast resistor to protect the ignition coil during normal running; but I can't see how this would have any effect on the lights...

Darren

Sometimes the headlights on my old Saab 900 would stay on after the ignition was switched off.

Sometimes flicking between high and low would work. Sometimes flicking between headlight and sidelight would work. If all those failed, popping open the bonnet, opening the fuse box, and giving a gentle but sharp tap on the headlight relay worked instantly.

Only happened either after long periods of no lights, or a long night drivewith headlights. If they were used regularly it was fine. The tail lights would go off, but the headlights would stay on.

It was just the headlight relay sticking. Before permanently removing the resistor doodad, try tapping the relay if it sticks on again.

Sleeker GT Phwoar realised it was Tue,

Good suggestion. We'll try that.

It certainly looks like a power resistor.I wonder if someone has tried to create a dim/dip system? 2.5mA at 12 volts gives a resistance of nearly 10k, which is rather too high for a dim/dip.

Where do the leads connect to? If my suggestion is correct, I would expect to see a relay associated with it somewhere.

HTH

Pete

You are a troll and I claim my 5 quid ! Your virus database is so far out of date as to make the above 'advert' worthless...

Did it work?

Sleeker GT Phwoar realised it was Fri,

Sorry, we're not that quick. Ask me again in a few weeks time.

LOL, OK, I'm a bit like that myself.