1996 850 Right Air and Stereo Controls Not Lit Up

wackenhut · Post by **wackenhut** » 17 Jul 2015, 23:16

Hi,

I am having an issue with the backlights on the air conditioner control and stereo. I am not sure if it is light bulbs needing replacement or possibly a fuse.

What is interesting is that it is only the right most items:
Passenger Air Temperature Selector (it is to the right of that red light)
Radio Preset Buttons 4 5 6
Passenger Seat Heater Button down by gear shifter

I have attached a picture as a reference (notice the right side).

If anyone can help, that would be awesome!!

Aaron

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 17 Jul 2015, 23:46

It is the bulbs, if the fuse had blown nothing would light up.

As I recall the ECC lights are typical off the shelf lamps that you can buy at the auto parts store. The radio lights are more obscure and from Volvo they are stupid expensive. There are Honda bulbs that are the same and they are much cheaper. This is a thread from the repair database that details how to replace the radio lamps.

Volvo radio light bulb replacement

I would suggest that you replace them all since they seem to burn out at roughly the same time.

The lamp for the seat heater switch is pretty much Volvo exclusive and they are pricey. I think IPD sells them as well for a bit less than the dealer parts counter.

With all of the oddball Volvo lamps I have been able to use Radio Shack 272-1092 lamps and replaced the bulbs in the original sockets. It takes some creativity and finding a Radio Shack these days can be a challenge though.

...Lee

Post by **jreed** » 18 Jul 2015, 05:24

+1 on all of the above suggestions and advice. I wanted to add that one great potential source of small bulbs is a local pick-n-pull / u-pick junkyard, if you have one nearby. As RobertDIY pointed out in one of his recent YouTube videos, a lot of times the pricing for small items like bulbs is very low or even free. I've had good luck pulling spare bulbs and switches at the local yard.