I currently drive a 2004 XC90 AWD (before that I had a 1998 V70).

Five days ago, when I returned from a short drive in town, without any warning - my dashboard lights and day lights went off and the car seemed to have dropped in a lower gear - all these while I was driving. It seemed like the whole car's "nervous system" went haywire. A few seconds later, static electricity noises started coming from the dashboard area.

Next day, when I started the car, the dashboard lights came on and I could clearly see the warning message reading: "SRS AIRBAG SERVICE URGENT". Also, the Engine and Warning lights were on.

I managed to drive the car to the local dealership and after they investigated the issue, their recommendation was to replace the DRIVERS INFORMATION MODULE (computer & software).

Their estimated cost for this was $1260 + tax (after they charged me $60 to diagnose the problem). Also, they said that if I don't do this, the DIM will not communicate with the other computers and my airbags will not deploy in case of an accident!!!

In other words, I could get in a medium-velocity accident in my super safe Volvo XC90 and be severely injured due to the fact that the airbags have not deployed.

I contacted Volvo of Canada and Volvo of North America, but they said they only offer 5 years warranty on the DIM and it's my responsibility to fix it.

Don't certain things in the car come with lifetime warranty? I wouldn't expect my car's metal frame to melt in the summer heat, or my airbags to simply "dry off" after 6-7 years.

Has anyone had this problem? Is it true that DIM will affect the proper operation of the airbags? Is there a cheaper way to fix this DIM?

Any opinions would help.

Thanks.

 

what codes you have?

 

hi everyone. I'm new to this forums but if I can I will try and help maybe someone with the dashboard problems with volvo s60 80 or v-series.I now from personal expierience beacuse my dashboard work for 5-10 min and then go blank.apparently is somethink wrong with the motorola chip.I read this from some forums.But the other day I plug my sat nav plus phone charger in cigaret lighter and from that time is working absolutly fine.here how I done it-- to the cigaret lighter in front(under radio) plug any charger(for sat nav or phone) and then to the other cigaret plug(locate it behind the armrest for driver,front of the rear seats ) plug second charger.leave them over night in sokets and when u start driving in the morning dont take them off at all. this is working 100% on my volvo s60. before I try this the dashboard works for 5-10 min and then blank screen.try !! maybe will work for u to!! good luck. please any one with similar dashboard problem let me now if this help u to resolve this issue.sorry for writing but I"m Polish and don't now perfectly english.

 

i have had the SRS airbag service urgent warning before it actually happened after i had to remove all my rear seats to clean between them cause my dog took ill back there. the middle seat has a wire im guessing that triggers and iflatable curtian for the middle seat passanger. anyway i took the other seats out just by removing a few bolts went to remove that one found that wire dissconnected it aired everything out and cleaned it up. put everything back in fired it up and found that message volvo dealer said nbd airbags would still activate if i were to get into a wreck. had it reset anyway also got this message after my fuse for the infromant blew same thing agian jsut a begnine code. anyway airbags arent major people lived without them for many many years and there still here even without them on this kind of car you are more than safe. yeah i still recommend getting it fixed because problems do not age well. I find it weird that they charged you for a diagnsis are yougoing to a volvo dealer? the diagnosis is suppose to free in or out of warrenty. anyway i recommend replacing it if that is infact what you need to do because its probably only going to break once the replacement parts on these things are often much improved.

 

i have an 83 firebird with a digital dashboard that thing goes blank to i have a really cheap fix for it. bang on it twice right on top and it will come back on. lol ah the simple times.

 

Your problem is the instrument cluster. A new one cost about 1200, but there are places you can send it that will repair the problem for about 200. We did this and saved a grand. Works like new.

 

no back then the warranty was 4 years and after that you're on you own with anything. but back to your question, yes it can affect the airbags. you car have many modules that work on the CAN network and the dim and srs modules are apart of it. when one module fails every other module on the can network freaks out because they can not communicate with the dim. when they freak out they start throwing codes and when they throw codes they stop working. hopefully your problem is just with the dim and not the actual CAN network.

 

actually you can easily send out your cluster to get repaired for under $200. I just did it. Go to Ebay and lookup seller euro-electric. They give you easy instructions on how to pop out your panel, mail it to them and they ship it back fixed 1 2 3. Dont do like I did and wait for years and trying everything under the sun.

There are other sellers that seem more expensive out there.
or can search.
"VOLVO INSTRUMENT CLUSTER REPAIR". If you dont want to use ebay
you can just call them. 866 281 2414.

No I dont work there i just used their service and boy I wish i knew about it earlier