Volvo Climate Control Bulb Replacement

renns » The three bulbs in the climate control unit of my ’94 855 all failed over this winter season. I had a chance to pull the unit out today, and took the bulbs in to the local auto parts store. They did not have an exact match, but did have a similar bulb, GE #74/BP2. These bulbs are rated at 14V 1.4 Watts, the same as the original, but are just slight larger in diameter and socket length (about .025″ larger in each of those dimensions). The socket width is the same as the original.

With some very minor tweaking they pop right into place, and work just fine. Here’s the quick and dirty repair sequence:

Pull radio – push release tab on each side of radio, and pull it out. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE RADIO CODE BEFORE UNPLUGGING! If you don’t have the code, you can probably perform step 2 with the radio just pulled out as far as the harness will allow.
Reach in the radio hole, and push the climate control unit back out the front of the dash. It should pop out quite easily.
Using Philips screwdriver, pull the four screws on each side of the climate control unit, and remove cover. See pic below with screw locations circled.
With the cover removed, you can easily see the three bulb sockets. Give them a 1/8 turn, and pull them out of the housing.
Pull the bulbs from the sockets, and modify the sockets as shown below.
Put in the new bulbs, and reassemble!
With all parts available, it’s a 30 minute job at most.

If you can get the correct bulbs at a decent price, that’s obviously the way to go. If not, grab these GE parts, as they should be std fare at any auto parts outlet, and try the mods listed above.

850 Climate Control Bulb Replacement