Dash bulbs ,,
 

Has anyone had the "joy" of needing to replace the dash bulbs on a v50 yet?
my speedo lights up as it should the tacho doesnt but the temp gauge does, suspect i need a couple of bulbs behind the tacho dial

how much of a PITA is it to get out/do ,,and if so what LED versions did you fit cos if its a Right pita im going to do the lot in one and , with luck not need to faff again in a few years

They are not changeable.
They are soldered led units, well that what i found when i removed the cluster.
I have a spare unit going cheap if you want it.
Only problem with that is the mileage will revert to the new unit.

mines a ruby red V50 :D just in passing

ill drop you a pm re the spare unit etc , as i dont Quite fancy taking mine to bits to replace the led's (if i can find the correct type to use that is) without a working spare,
milage wise,, if its a bit more than 130k happy with that , plus i bet volvo main dealer could sort it ,,, possibly,,

tho they Did say "oh we will plug it in and that will tell us whats wrong",,, for lights not working,,,

Message didn't send but pp ok.
malc55@sky.com

Personally I say you should do some soldering and test the waters for the rest of us!

I dread to think of how many people in the future will be getting absolutely stung by main dealers when LEDs start failing on today's ALL LED cars.

Last year I bought an LED bayonnett cap bulb for the spare bedroom, and within 2 months it had failed (gone very dim). And likewise, at work we have some LED bulbs over top of the Pool table in the breakout area, and that LED bulb has also failed within a couple of months of install.

Worrying when we see cheap cars like the all new Ford Focus with those "sweeping" LED indicators... you can absolutely guarantee those will fail once the warranty is up.

We need future cars to have interchangable LED bulbs, and not stuff that is soldered onto a circuit board. Whole point of LEDs is that they use less power, but there is no reason to make them non-interchangeable.

oh there Is a reason to make them non replaceable,
cost of a LED in a holder "not a lot"
cost of a whole new instrument cluster £706 inc vat on an exchange unit



That is the plan, replace the unit as a whole, open mine up ,find suitable replacement smt leds and reinstall when all working.
SMT stuff i can do, used to do it for work, its IF the led units themselves are available in consumer quantities rather than just commercial

like you id Prefer a led in a bulb holder, but its cheaper to make them surface mounted and more profitable to gouge for a whole unit than just a led bulb,,,

should be sent via PP

http://www.clusterrepairsuk.co.uk/
up to £130+ vat + return postage with a 3-4 working days turn around , full illumination replacement of leds for those that dont fancy surface mount soldering "fun"
****Have not used them they are just a find and telephone talk to ,use at your own choice***
**they also do other repairs for clusters


http://www.bba-reman.com similar costing similar turn around
bba reman have a history of dealing with the DIM failures in 70 series + others,

Seem to be having problems with pm
Item now posted by Royal mail

got and replied
Many thanks for this ,

oh and a correction
the price from volvo is not for a brand new unit, it is an exchange Refurb unit.
i know volvo's standards of refurbishment are the highest ,but £706+ for a refurb when there are others out there for around £150 level, keeping your mileage and immobiliser settings ....



having had a deeper look at the unit there are 4 issues , the needles, they are just pull off/push on, so recalibrating those is going to be Rather tricky.

The volvo dealer i use, Still havent come back with a cost for correcting the milage on a set of clocks, Either the one from them or a 2nd hand unit. The parts dept are brilliant, the Service department however ....