LED dashboard upgrade

[ericbeaumont]

I have a '98 940 with a lot of dead dashboard bulbs and want to replace the lot with LED. What I've learned here so far (apart from Laird Scoobie's article below) suggests that 740 and 940 bulbs have different holders and that in 940s the bulb is bonded to the holder.

On the other hand, the guide by LS in the 700/900 Series Articles makes the upgrade of all dashboard bulbs pretty a straightforward replacement, but the link to the correct LED T10 and T5 bulbs is dead and the pics not accessible.

This leaves this bulb novice unsure of what to buy for a 940; could LS be persuaded to update the source link for the LEDs, and confirm that a 940 can be converted as easily as the article suggests?

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by ericbeaumont

I have a '98 940 with a lot of dead dashboard bulbs and want to replace the lot with LED. What I've learned here so far (apart from Laird Scoobie's article below) suggests that 740 and 940 bulbs have different holders and that in 940s the bulb is bonded to the holder.

On the other hand, the guide by LS in the 700/900 Series Articles makes the upgrade of all dashboard bulbs pretty a straightforward replacement, but the link to the correct LED T10 and T5 bulbs is dead and the pics not accessible.

This leaves this bulb novice unsure of what to buy for a 940; could LS be persuaded to update the source link for the LEDs, and confirm that a 940 can be converted as easily as the article suggests?

The T5 LEDs Eric :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T5-COB-LE...v/223083242519

......and the T10s :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2pcs-Sili...t/163873813248

There are other sellers - mainly from China - with more colour choice available at present but i've found if they are imported in bulk and then bought from the UK, you standa a better chance of getting ones that work and stay working than buying from China and that little package bouncing halfway round the world of various posties boots.

I'm not sure on the 940 bulbs, can't see why they would change things. The 940 used (as far as i'm aware) the same instruments as my 760 facelift which i've used those LEDs in. Granted i have a slight problem with a couple of them but that appears to be more down to the instrument pack than the bulbs, i will be investigating it soon though.

Don't forget LEDs are polarity conscious so if they don't work at first, remove the bulbholder and rotate it 180 deg and refit.

Meanwhile hopefully those bulb links should help.

[MiniNinjaRob]

It depends on which bulbs you are replacing. The ones in the instrument cluster can be replaced with standard twist fit ones you can buy in Halfords or online (I bought some cheap Chinese ones off eBay and they were crap, half of them didn’t work) but for the rest of the dashboard (eg switch and other control backlights I’m afraid those bulbs which Laird links to won’t work in a 940.
940’s use a special bulb unique to Volvo which has its own plastic fitting.
Here are the options:
1. Buy new Volvo bulbs online or from a dealers. Just found some for £6 each on eBay https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F113891095772
2. Get the older bulb holder from a 740 (no idea which year sorry) which use standard bulbs and can be retrofitted to a 940. Finding a 740 in a scrapyard or on here with someone willing to pull them all out for you isn’t fun.
3. Pull out the soldered bulb bit from the failed bulbs and solder in some 12v LEDS into the plastic sockets. You can buy 12v LEDs quite easily but this job is actually really difficult. I did it to my switches and it took ages and the spread of light from the LED doesn’t light up the switches in the same way as it’s more directional than the original bulb.

If I did it again I would just buy some of those £6 original Volvo bulbs, that would be my choice. Maybe get them in ones and twos to spread the cost!

[griston64]

A 98 940 has bulbs soldered into the fittings. So if you want to do led bulbs in things like headlight switch etc you need to de solder or break with a little pick. you would need led bulbs that can then be soldered into the old fittings which is pretty fiddly

[griston64]

oops....... beat me to it

[griston64]

And the heated seat and cigar lighter ones are different as well

[Mattty]

It wont be something everyone is happy to do, but on mine when I replaced with all red, I cut open a slot along the top of the heater control panel with a dremel and put a 12V red LED strip along it and just connected the ends to the old bulb wires. Super bright and looks mint. Just put a good amount of electrical tape on to stop extra light showing around the edges of the panel at night.

Similarly, with the other switches that required bulbs soldering, I also cut away excess plastic in the way and put LED strips behind these too.

[Laird Scooby]

With the T5 LEDs i linked to above, two things : first, they are very bright but also have a good diffuser so they perform more like the original filament bulb in terms of light propogation. Second, if the wires on the end of the plastic holder are straightened out, the plastic holder can be pulled off leaving a wire-ended LED that can be used to replace the wire-ended bulbs in the "special" Volvo bulbs that cost in limb proportions. Cut the wire on the wire-ended dead bulbs and pull the bulb out of the plastic holder, use a 1mm drill in a Dremel-type tool to enlarge the holes the wires pass through in the Volvo special holder, feed the LED wires through and solder in place. Yes, it's a bit fiddly but perfectly doable.



The auto shifter uses the same sort of "special Volvo bulb" in mine, i know 940s have a different arrangement but i believe they also use the same sort of "special" bulb :



As you can see, it can be done, the spread of light from the T5 LEDs is very good, better than the other LEDs i've tried.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Mattty

It wont be something everyone is happy to do, but on mine when I replaced with all red, I cut open a slot along the top of the heater control panel with a dremel and put a 12V red LED strip along it and just connected the ends to the old bulb wires. Super bright and looks mint. Just put a good amount of electrical tape on to stop extra light showing around the edges of the panel at night.

Similarly, with the other switches that required bulbs soldering, I also cut away excess plastic in the way and put LED strips behind these too.

That's another way round it but if you use your Dremel as described above, you don't need to mutilate things. If you do mutilate things and want to re-seal them after, use some of this stuff :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MILLIPUT-...72.m2749.l2649

If you use the black version, a small amount can be made, fitted in place and moulded using a wet finger or lolly stick or similar to get a nice smooth finish. I've been using it to recreate a piece of trim that had broken :

From this :



.......... to this :



It dries black when completely cured so the bits that look grey are now in fact black. On hidden bits of trim, it won't actually matter what colour it is of course but it can be painted too.

[ericbeaumont]

Originally Posted by MiniNinjaRob

If I did it again I would just buy some of those £6 original Volvo bulbs, that would be my choice.

Thanks for the update, Dave, and thanks to all for the clarification of 700 & 900 light fittings. I'll take Rob's advice and save a lot of fiddly work.