NOTES:
– XC60 headlights are yellow and clash against the white LED DRLs. Changing to LED headlights solves the color problem as you see in my previous photo.
– But, LED (Light Emitting Diode) headlights are not a bulb, so they don’t have infinite resistance. Volvo (and most new cars that give you a light out error message) is designed to measure that bulb resistance. When your bulb burns out (filament breaks), there is infinite resistance so the car pops up the headlight is out message. This is a good thing when you use bulbs. When you use any LED headlights, the Volvo computer expects to see bulb type resistance. So the problem is to add a parallel/shunt resistor of the size of a light bulb to fool the computer. That is all this resistor device is doing.
– The down side is if the LED headlight burns out, the computer would not know as long as the resistor is working. Basically with a parallel resistor the computer is monitoring it and not the LED headlight. This is an OK sacrifice for me. I don’t expect LEDs to fail as much as a bulb. Also pretty easy to know if your headlight isn’t working.
– Bulbs heat up because they have resistance. LEDs don’t heat up (not a bulb). But the circuit that converts the voltage for an LED heats up. That is the small box attached to the LED and the need for a larger heat sink device at the back of an LED. Many have fans to cool it off in addition to aluminum heat sinks.
– As for brightness and illumination in the old school Volvo XC60 halogen headlight housing, my experience is that the LED I selected is very similar if not a little better. The light is white so it reflects differently. I am very happy with the night driving. Not significantly brighter than before but not any worse (even though the LED itself puts out much brighter light, by the time it is projected it is about the same). I think if you are looking for much brighter lights, you should get HID headlights which are different all together than LED.
– LEDs use much less current than bulbs, but since you have to add the resistor you are going to consume just as much power so it is a wash. Why would you care? The car is designed to provide enough power to power up the bulb.
LED INSTALLATION CHALLENGE:
– The only challenge you will run into is space under the headlight bulb cover. I assume you know how to remove each headlight housing by pulling the two retaining sticks (look at your owners manual if you don’t). The back of an LED light is very large and has a fan it is as well.
– Once you remove the headlight assembly, there is a cover held by 4 torx (star head) screws that hold it in place (I assume for moisture resisting the connectors). To have to remove this cover to get to the bulb. Get a torx screw driver and I suggest you carry it in your car. If you are ever on the road and need to change headlights, you can’t without this screw driver (bad design by Volvo). I suggest you remove all 4 screws (you can remove the cover by just loosening them) for our assembly.
– The other problem you will run into is space for the LED driver box attached to the LED, and the resistor heat sink.
– I think I have solved all of these issues (see photos).
SOLUTION:
– Buy the 4-sided LED that I recommend (photo – I bought on Amazon). Buy the LED resistor (photo – bought on Amazon)
– You need some sort of a screw spacer (I will explain shortly). I had some plastic washer I used but basically you need a way to make sure two of the screws do not screw all the way down (by about 1/4″). YOu can use a plastic hose and cut a 1/4″ piece, or use bunch of small washers. You can use drinking straw or other ways. You can get creative here. The point is to make a 1/4″ gap.
– Next, remove the bulb cover screws (all 4) and put aside.
– Remove the H11 headlight bulb. and disconnect the H11 connector from the bulb
– Get the LED bulb and install where the bulb was. Mine had a great fit. Make sure when you are done the wire of the LED is at the bottom of headlight assembly.
– If you try and install the bulb cover (the one with the 4 screws), it will actually fit! But since there is a fan at the back of it and the heat sink heats up, I thought creating a little breathing gap may be good for the fan and the heat. Perhaps this will make the fan last longer. This is why I created the 1/4″ gap at one end (see photo). I suppose you can remove the cover all together which is better but the cover also covers the high beam bulb as well as the signal bulb so I tried to keep it on. I thought of buying a new one and cutting out a hole where the fan is but a new cover is $40 each so decided gapping it is the best solution and reversible if the LEDs don’t work well in the long run.
– I found that the LED driver box (the little box attached to the LED, actually nicely fits in the headlight assembly, so I just tucked it in there.
– The H11 connector also fits in there so it stays there also. Note that the LED connector has a +/- symbol embossed on it (Red wire is +).
– Next, grab the resistor connector and plug into the LED connector. Make sure the + matches up (red wire to red wire). Next connect the other resistor connector to the car headlight plug making sure +/red goes with plus. Actually there is only one way you can connect this and have the clip click in. Both these connectors also fit in the headlight assembly. The only thing that does not and should not is the resistor heat sink.
– So the only thing that runs out of the light cover (the one with 4 screws) are the wires to the resistor(the connectors remain behind the cover. The gap that you will create with the two outer screws will also create room for the wires to run out (nice!)
– If you got to this point (LED in, connectors connected, the LED driver and two connectors tucked in around the parabolic headlight projector), all you have to do is to put the plastic cover back on. YOu may want to turn on the car and headlight to make sure it does on so if you have to make any adjustments you don’t have to disassemble again.
– Next put back the plastic cover with the outer screws gapped about 1/4″ (I didn’t measure the gap but it is long enough that I have enough tread left to screw. I suppose you can get a new longer screw but I wanted everything to be reversible.)
– Put in your two spacers, on the top and bottom outer screws. very lightly screw them in. run the resistor wires out close to the bottom screw. Carefully slide the C shape clips of the cover around the spaced screw and then fasten the other two screw at the inner side all the way down. Slightly tighten the spaced screw.
– You should have a gap now with the resistor wires and the resistor heat sink sticking out. Congratulations!! 10 minutes well spent 
– I use a tie-wrap to attach the wire of the resistor to a nearby wire so the heat sink is secure.
– Place back the headlight assembly, put in the two holding sticks, and repeat for the other side. It is identical but a little tighter when you try to fasten the resistor heat sink housing at the very end.
– Turn on lights and enjoy.
Photos of everything attached if I can figure out how to add photos as .jpg