I just got a 1984 244 GLE and the orange dash light comes on when my headlights are on. I am wondering if it is supposed to do that or if it means something is wrong. I just replaced all the burnt out bulbs and stuff on the weekend, but the light goes on. I wouldn't care so much but the orange light is really quite bight and I find it a bit distracting when I am driving on the highway at night.

Thanx in advance for your help

By "orange dash light," you may be referring to the bulb failure warning light. It lights up when the bulb failure warning sensor (BFWS) detects an imbalance in a pair of lights. Maybe one taillight is out.

Let us know what you find out.

I just checked and replaced every bulb on the car that was not working. License plate light, hood light, a brake light and the interior light. every light on that car works.

Oh and one more thing I forgot I wanted to ask about. When I turn the car off, after everything is shut down, I hear one last short burst of air, like a small compressor releasing it's contents. Is this normal and what is it?

...

The noise you're hearing (release of air) is because your vacuum check valve has worn out. It is a black and white colored disk, between two vacuum hoses over your intake manifold. They are relatively inexpensive to replace.

As far as your light problem, have you been able to confirm your brake lights are working? Does the light come on when you brake? I had a problem like that and found the piece that holds the brake light bulb just needed to be adjusted by backing off a little when twisting the holder in place.

Good luck.

Oh great thanks, I will replace that valve this weekend. as for the lights, they all work fine, but I do remember the old guy who I bought it from going on about an imbalance in current going to the headlights that is causing the light to go on, hence it not being on when the headlights are off. But it is really minor, just the only things on the list of this I want to do to this beast. So I think I will be living with the light until spring when I can stand to be outside for more than an hour and crawling on the ground won't get me covered in snow.

Those bulb failure warning lights are more a nuisance than a help a lot of the time. They are designed to work by measuring the resistance in the circuits but the problem is if you replace the bulbs with anything but the original european bulbs (which are expensive and hard to find in america) they dont have the same resistance and so the light goes off even though everything is working properly. So if you just replaced a bunch of bulbs i would be willing to bet anything that that is what is happening. If you know all the lights are working and the light is bugging you the best solution is just to pull the instrument cluster out (which isnt difficult) and take the lightbulb out of that warning light. I had to do the same thibg on mine.

Ah, nice. Well, since my high beams are now Hellas I am not going to switch back to the cruddy old style. *Yeah I am a **** that does not care if my low beams still blind oncoming traffic. Spot enough deer, moose, dogs, buffalo, bears just in time to avoid an accident and you tend to have diffrent priorities.*

It's my thread, I can derail it if I want to.

Ok I have been doing alot of looking and have pretty much everything I want to do to my car sourced, except 2 Items. The silver trim along the edge of all the doors and around the wheelwells are in bad shape and need to be replaced. If anyone has suggestions as to where to find them or a good substitute.... And the Dash, Tan color, would like the same but will redo the interior in a diff color if necessary to match. Current one is cracked up in 4 places, but deep nasty looking cracks. Would prefer an undamaged one, scuffs and scratches are fine, that can be fixed, but massive cracks or gouges are out of the question for me.

Hey brother of the great north, how is everything? have you changed your engine over to that corvette 350 idea that I had for your volvo? hope all is well up there. don't go writing your name in the snow, you don't want to get any frostbite on important parts. :grin: later man.

Ha, no I actually decided to see what I can squeeze out of the B23E without making too many big modifications. Been doing some reading and it looks like I can squeeze almost 200hp out of it.

getting back to the bulb warning light, I had the same problem recently, especially when I put my foot on the brake (and I was under the impression the brake lights are not corresponded to the yellow warning light.). A rear defogger fix and fuse short fix stopped the bulb warning light to come on and in it's place the alt. light would come on dimly when the heater was on. ALL these warning light issues ended when I got a "new" instrument cluster, though if all you have going wrong is the bulb warning light, possibly assume the car is 1) reading a bulb somewhere as not being a factory European standard or 2) as another reply stated, remove the bulb behind the yellow symbol!

Yeah I think i am just going to pull the bulb. I never had that light in any of my previous cars and my friends always took great pleasure in informing me that a light was burned out (mazda 323's tend to go thru alot of brake lights due to condensation issues) Will do that IF I manage to find a new dash. I have become so completely smitten with this car that I want to get it back to looking like new, but have no problems making any modifications that will make my life easier.(like the remote lock kit and remote start, and a cd player.......and.....and..........) Oh, does the heated seat kit work on a car that does not have heated seats?

Hmm, ok I am going to have alot of questions, have never owned a volvo or a computerless car before.

Haaa a Mazda 323 still on the road? I owned one of those POS ... A volvo - you can't go wrong - its the truth! :clap:

Yeah, over the course of 3 years I put over 100k on it, drove it across the rocky mountains 8 times, and only had to replace the left front axel that I fucked up myself while mudbogging. It was a sweet little car, was a 92 and cost me $800 to buy. Fun to drive, but had too many moments where I was glad to still be alive in it. even after all that I got into a slight fender bender and drove it for 9 months without ever knowing what the underside of my hood looked like, let alone put oil in it, I never did kill it, I gave it to a friend who is going to fix it up for his nephew, damn car will last another 10 years i swear.

simple, temporary,or permanent 30 second fix
3/4 inch piece of electricians tape!