Hello, all. I've another issue to fix on the old 960: A dinged passenger headlamp lens. I bought a new lens from lampsandlenses.com, and figured out how to unfasten the headlamp assembly from the body easily enough, but I'm stumped on how to get the assembly out with the headlamp wiper shaft sticking through a hole in the bumper. It's almost as though the Volvo design engineer, presented an opportunity to ease repairability by designing a shaft passage channel in the bumper, instead chose to create a puzzle legacy and design a closed hole. In any case, I can't see how one can remove the headlamp assembly without either removing the wiper motor and shaft, or removing the bumper. Can anyone advise me, please? Thanks.

Try this
Brickboard FAQ

Thanks, ALS. I'd come to the conclusion that I'd have to remove the bumper and bumper cover. My sense of "there are right ways of doing things" will interfere with my just cutting the wiper shaft hole open, so I'll be doing some more disassembly. Getting that bumper off will probably help me get to that windshield cleaner bottle, too.

Well, here's a very delayed update to the headlamp replacement thread. It turns out that removing the headlamp assembly has several steps, but is simple. I'm doing this from distant memory, so apologies if I forgot a step:

1. Remove the headlamp wiper arms from ends of the wiper shafts with a 10mm wrench.

2. Using a flat-bladed screwdriver, rotate 90 degrees the two lock fasteners) retaining the air guide panel that bridges the gap between the radiator and the front grill. Lift off the panel.

3. With a pair of pliers, compress and pull out the two U-shaped spring wedges that retain the chrome grill. Tip the top of the grill off the mounting tenons, and lift it out.

4. From underneath the car's front, remove the nuts that fasten the front bumper assembly to the body. I believe there are four nuts, and that they're 16mm.

5. Pull the front bumper assembly forward just far enough to clear the ends of the headlamp wiper shafts. If you do this carefully, the bumper holes will not clear the mounting studs, and the guide rails on the bumper cover sides will stay in the body guide channels. You'll otherwise have a number of things to line up (mounting bolts, bumper cover side rails and headlamp wiper shafts) to get the bumper back on.

6. Unplug the headlamp wiring, and remove the four 10mm bolts that fasten the headlamp assembly to the body. With the bumper pulled forward, it's easy to pull the assembly clear.

The old headlamp lens removed easily (pry off the plethora of moderate-force spring clamps that hold the lens to the reflector body.) The reflector itself was unfortunately deteriorated, and the delicate aluminum coating can't be polished, so I rinsed out the reflector housing to wash away dirt film (didn't help the reflector much, but didn't hurt it), shook the housing out, blew it dry and let it dry overnight, and attached the new glass using the new clips and *old moisture seal*. Why the old mosture seal? Because it's a fancy, gapless silicone thing that, in my case, was in perfect condition, and it fit precisely in the housing channel at the correct height to seal against the glass but not make the lens's clamping rim stand too proud. The strip of grey high-density foam seal included with the lens is too wide, too tall, foam rubber instead of silicone, and is not continuous. If jammed as-is into the reflector housing's gasket channel, the glass lens would sit taller, and more force (with the increased risk of chipping the lens rim) would be needed to mount those spring clamps.

BTW, I can recommend lampsandlenses.com for your discount Volvo lens needs. Besides the headlamp lens, I purchase left and right side marker lenses. The products are not OEM (I suspect they're Chinese), but their fit and finish is good. Their one demerit is that make-do moisture gasket included with the lens.