Clarity of instruments at night
 

Hi all. Had a 2009 XC70 since last December.

Should the red needles on the dials be illuminated? The perimeter of the dials are well lit, but even so at night it can be quite difficult to tell what speed I'm doing. If the red needles were lit as well there would be no problem.

Thanks

Phil

Varifocals?

Our V70 is fine but the XC90 is awfull for seeing the speed.... Silver needle and silver Speedo numbers

I've not noticed a problem on my xc70 of the same age.

Paul.

Sadly this is one of the most noticeable areas where Ford appear to have got Volvo to cut costs.

Up until around 2005-2007 all Volvo's had lovely backlight crystal clear aircraft like instrumentation, I remember it well on my 440, then 850, V70, C70, V50 and XC90 etc.

Then they went cheap and nasty front lit and it's crap by comparison - around the same time as they ditched temperature gauges on most models. The only exception was those models with Active TFT instruments.

They have reverted back post Ford though, my 2012 V40 has the nicer old style backlit instruments (but still no temperature gauge...) and all the newer stuff has much nicer instruments.

Being colour-blind, I had trouble reading the speedo during daylight too. As a result, my focus was away from the road for too long. I fitted a low cost (£8) head up display that's connected to the OBDII socket. Problem solved. It even responds to ambient light levels and can be calibrated. One of my best gadget purchases.

Poor instrament backlighting
 

I have had numerous Volvos, from the 240 up to the XC90, and all were no problem reading the instruments both during the day and at night until I got my present car, a MK3 V70, and I wasnt happy from day one with the poor quality of the instrument display. I thought it was something that was present only in my own car until I read the complaints on here about it.
Apart from fitting a head up display, isnt there any upgrade from Volvo for this problem which seems widespread with MK3 V70 owners and probably other Volvos with the same instrument cluster layout.

2008 V70se 2.4d Geartronic

The police fitted a speedo without the brushed chrome ring, and had it marked in 10mph increments. These are sometimes available on Ebay.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...924/gSsY8a.png

I believe it's also possible to fit the later type LED display, with some electronic mods. They are relatively expensive and are not 100% compatible.