Drivers Information Module (DIM) diy repair

[keithC70]

Recently, thanks to Budulan, I've managed to repair my faulty DIM from my '03 S80 D5 SE Auto, and took photos whilst I had it apart. I had the SRS warning, occasional loss of green indicator arrows, and jittering un-readable dim display.

I firstly disconnected the battery and left for a good while before starting.

To remove the dim on my car you firstly remove three screws from beneath the steering wheel housing and then carefully loosen the upper half. There are then two screws in the upper face of the dim surround. The two surrounds are connected and lift out together.

There are then four screws holding the dim in place and one multiplug to remove once it's out.

185 shows the rear face of the dim on which I've marked the 7 scews to remove with a black blob. You can then lift off the white plastic back.

You can see a further 8 screws each with a white marker square on the pcb. The pcb now lifts off as in 189, and turned over in 190. The chip with bad contacts is the one on the right with the blue varnish removed. I used acetone and cotton buds along each edge and on top of the chip to remove all the varnish.

198 shows the chip cleaned. I then simply worked my way along each side with a fine pointed soldering iron to re-set the joints. The first time I did it, I only did one side nearest the centre of the pcb and it cured some of the faults but not all.

The second time I did all four sides much more systematically so that I know every joint was re-made. I used liquid flux and repeatedly tinned the tip to maintain good contact and to keep the tip clean. This is very difficult to do as you need a powerful magnifying glass to see and a steady hand on the iron.

I then used self adhesive heat sinks as on 203 just in case overheating was the cause.

After 200 miles it's all working correctly.

I'm happy to help anyone with their dim - give me a ring on 01792 545880.