Bulb failure – Position lamp
I’ve seen a few posts on forums and social media groups, relating to ‘Bulb failure – Position lamp’ error messages coming up on Volvo V70, XC60 and XC90 vehicles. There may be other reasons why the message comes up, but this is the reason mine came up.
On either side of the car, at the front, is a small bulb inside the orange indicator compartment of the headlamp assembly. It’s a compact wire ended 12V bulb that is illuminated all the time the car is running. Apparently these ‘position lamps’ are the same as our old ‘parking lights’, but I’m not sure that’s totally accurate. The official line is ‘Position lamps can be used so that other road users can see the car if it stops or is parked’; you would need to ensure the light switch was set to ‘park’ for them to work, but they are illuminated when the ignition is on in normal headlight mode.
There are other position lamps at the rear of the car.
If you get the warning message shown, you can quite easily check which one is faulty, as you can compare both sides of the car. Whilst the bulbs are fairly easy to replace, it is often just a bad connection due to corrosion; removing the bulb and cleaning its contacts normally solves the problem.
Front Position Lamp
Often, just wrapping the area of the headlamp…or tail lamp… associated with the bulb, will clear the bad connection. At least for a week or two!