hey guys, just bought my 850 today. been lookin' for a volvo for a while, found one and fell in love. but, come to find out that none of my dash lights are working(couldn't tell that during the day), the fuse is good, checked that already, and also the lights on the radio and the console aren't working. is that all connected? and how do i go about fixin' it?

on another note, my odometers aren't working either. i'd greatly appreciate any help with this...

thanks.
pieter williams

 

Chances are the dimmer switch is either bad or just has a dead spot on it as far as the dash lights go. Try sliding the dimmer switch around and see if things change.

The failure rate on the odometer gears is 100% - it just depends on what mileage they crap out on. I buy my replacement gears from Odometer Gears - WELCOME and I have been quite pleased, none of them has failed since. I do buy both gears and change them both out at the same time.

It is double the money to buy both gears but half the work if you just replace the small gear (which always breaks first) and then have the larger gear fail soon thereafter. Some of my larger gears have been "spongy" when I pulled them out.

I had to go through the same stuff with the VDO instrument cluster when my daughter had her Porsche 944. Now she has a S70 and no more gears!

...Lee

 

I had the same problem. The dimmer switch had gone bad; I removed it and jumped a couple of the contacts on the socket with a short wire, and the dash lights came on again.

 

Hi Pieter and welcome to the site. Mine went out a few days ago and I did replace the dimmer with one form the junk yard and I was good to go. They didn't charge me for it (hard for them to see it in my pocket - Just kidding). This one I have doesn't dim, just full bright.

Anyway, besides that, you may want to go through this thead before you do anything else. It will help you beyone measure:
https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...uestions-9266/

 

hey guys, awsome advice thank you soo much. i'll try this stuff tomorrow!!! cheers everybody!

 

Link to instructions for odometer gear replacement:

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/odo...ix-how-to.html

IPDUSA.com sells the gears too.