Curse you Volvo!

[Zenmervolt]

Front turn signal according to the manual: 3357NA.
Front turn signal socket is a Ba15d with the indexed base. 3357NA bulbs don't fit. Need an 1157NA, 2057NA, or 2357NA. That was fun.

Rear brake lights use standard 1156 bulbs.
Rear tail lights, however, use #67 bulbs. These can be harder to find.
Rear turn signals look almost exactly like 1156NA bulbs, but aren't. Turns out they are PY21W bulbs, or 7507A bulbs in the US. These are next to impossible to find at a local parts store.

Also, once you finally track down a pair of 7507A bulbs, you will find that the car's previous owner simply forced an 1156NA into the socket, jamming it and requiring you to crush the base of the bulb and pry it out of the socket. Apparently the odd base of the 7507A is supposed to prevent someone from accidentally putting a clear 1156 bulb into a socket that requires an amber bulb.

I have learned more about the various types and bases of signal bulbs in the past day than I ever thought possible. It's the first time I've had the feeling of "Now that I've done this much work on the car, I sure can't sell it any time soon" from replacing a friggin' turn signal bulb.

No cliffs because this is a pointless half-arsed rant.

ZV

 

[Dman877]

That's why most people bring their cars to the dealer.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Dman877
That's why most people bring their cars to the dealer.

The dealer would have had the wrong bulbs for the front turn signal too, since the sockets are different from the official Volvo spec in their service manuals.

The dealer would also have just charged me for an entire new socket instead of prying out the old bulb that was forced in. And the dealer would have charged twice the cost that I found the bulbs for.

ZV

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: Dman877
That's why most people bring their cars to the dealer.

For a fsckin' bulb?! Dealers love to bend you over, eh?

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Front turn signal according to the manual: 3357NA.
Front turn signal socket is a Ba15d with the indexed base. 3357NA bulbs don't fit. Need an 1157NA, 2057NA, or 2357NA. That was fun.

Rear brake lights use standard 1156 bulbs.
Rear tail lights, however, use #67 bulbs. These can be harder to find.
Rear turn signals look almost exactly like 1156NA bulbs, but aren't. Turns out they are PY21W bulbs, or 7507A bulbs in the US. These are next to impossible to find at a local parts store.

Also, once you finally track down a pair of 7507A bulbs, you will find that the car's previous owner simply forced an 1156NA into the socket, jamming it and requiring you to crush the base of the bulb and pry it out of the socket. Apparently the odd base of the 7507A is supposed to prevent someone from accidentally putting a clear 1156 bulb into a socket that requires an amber bulb.

I have learned more about the various types and bases of signal bulbs in the past day than I ever thought possible. It's the first time I've had the feeling of "Now that I've done this much work on the car, I sure can't sell it any time soon" from replacing a friggin' turn signal bulb.

No cliffs because this is a pointless half-arsed rant.

ZV

You know, I honestly can't recall replacing a single bulb in my 5 year old Maxima with 65k miles on it and I know for a fact that we've yet to replace a single bulb on my wife's 2 year old Lexus IS250.

 

[Dirigible]

I have a Volvo. I change more bulbs than you can shake a stick at. Yes, it's a PITA.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
You know, I honestly can't recall replacing a single bulb in my 5 year old Maxima with 65k miles on it and I know for a fact that we've yet to replace a single bulb on my wife's 2 year old Lexus IS250.

It all started with buying new wipers. Less than 2 miles away from the parts store, one of the brake lights went out (good timing by the car). Fixed that and realized that the old signal bulbs' orange coating had faded and they were almost clear, so I figured that I'd replace them all to make sure my signals were visible.

Volvos have a reputation of going through headlights and other bulbs faster, that part I knew. I just wasn't quite expecting every fixture to have a different type of bulb. (Or for any fixture to have a different bulb type than the manual listed.) In retrospect, I should have. European cars tend to have discrepancies from their manuals since the manufacturers traditionally make running changes in the middle of a model year.

ZV

 

[LTC8K6]

1997 Chevy Z24 - original owner - all the original bulbs still work.

 

[Throckmorton]

You should have just modded it for LEDs

 

[dug777]

My 323 has the most obscure headlight bulbs :|

Who uses H6 on a volume selling car? :|

That little episode drove me insane, until a cunning garage dude just took a pair of tin snips to a flange on a more conventional bulb, and voila!

Still going strong a few years later

 

[nakedfrog]

Guess I'm lucky I haven't had to change any yet

 

[Gand1]

Welcome to owning a slightly older Volvo! I think after 2000 they cleaned it up a bit.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Gand1
Welcome to owning a slightly older Volvo! I think after 2000 they cleaned it up a bit.

I know, older European cars can be fun. And by fun I mean incredibly frustrating for some simple things.

The odd base on the PY21W / 7507 bulbs makes sense when I think about it though. In the US a yellow bulb is just designated by an "A" or an "NA" (for "amber" or "natural amber") after the type, but the base is the same as clear bulbs, meaning that idiots can (and often do, I've noticed) put clear bulbs behind clear lenses and end up with illegal white turn signals. The different base is designed to prevent that since the only bulbs with that base are yellow.

ZV

 

[TheSlamma]

Thats one thing I have always loved about all my Chevy trucks.. even my 1999, a box of 3157's goes a LONG motherfuggin way!

 

[soydios]

went through a spate of bulb changes a year and a half ago on my '94 Jeep Grand Cherokee. 4 bulbs died in the space of two weeks, and each one was different (left-front side blinker, center brake light, left brake light, right-front main blinker). that was a PITA, making near-daily trips to Kraagen. but hey, I now have spare lamps for just about every light on the car, stored under the backseat.