I have a question. Recently I bought a 98 V70. This one seems very basic in options and is lacking the trip computer. Correct me if I'm wrong. These cars all have the same electric architecture, regardless of options. The wiring is there for the "info button" and the all have the same engine management computer. Shouldn't adding the trip computer control to the dash bring up the information on the dash?

 

No, the $40 switch isn't all that's needed to enable the trip computer. The instrument cluster must also be reprogrammed. One of the senior mechanics at one of the local dealers told me (just yesterday) that they'd have to pull the dash to get the cluster out for reprogramming and estimated at least a couple of hours of labor. However, I'm unsure if they were blowing it out of porportion beacuse they just didn't want to do the job for some reason.

Here's a LINK to a previous discussion on this subject.

Here's a LINK to another forum where a poster said a Las Vegas dealer would do it for $100 and an Ontario, California dealer would do it for $150.

If anyone here has a better idea of the actual programming procedure (is it really so labor intensive? Do you really have to pull the dash and then the cluster to program this feature?) or the actual cost of the software, it'd be appreciated. I'd like to add the trip computer, but not at $300+...