Unavailabilty of Small Replacement Parts from Volvo

I noticed that some of the controls on my Volvo radio were not lit from
behind like the others and pulled out the radio to find several tiny light
bulbs. Volvo tells me that replacement bulbs are not available, but that
they would be happy to sell me a new radio. The case is cracked on my
keyless remote. Volvo would sell me a new remote for $112, but does not
sell replacement cases.

Seems to me there is a lot of room for improvement in Volvo customer
service. Anyone have a similar experience to share? Better yet, let's tell
Volvo how we feel!

 

The problerm is they don't give a damn how their customers feel. Go to a Volvo
salvage yard to get those small parts and stay away from the dealer.

 

For the remotes - they probably only make enough cases to house all the
electronics, and no extra ones for resale, I don't think they intended for
you to do your own repairs to the remotes... How did you crack it anyways,
those things are usually made of some damn tough plastic that is quite
resistant to dropping, smashing, twisting etc etc etc.

As far as those light bulbs, they probably figured they'd last the life of
the radio - find a scrap radio and take the bulbs out of it - I have our
960's old radio still lying around (dead FM and Tape deck) just in case our
"new" used radio's bulbs fail. If you have a newer car, warranty, if it's
out remove the bulb, and locate the serial number, manufacturer and such on
the bulb - try to order from them.... I highly doubt they are custom made
bulbs solely for Volvo, there are probably millions of them around the
world.

 

When I was restoring my 145, the parts man at my local dealer spent many
hours with me looking up old parts and even called other dealerships to look
for backstock. I got the parts and he got a lifetime customer.

 

I have a rather large and heavy set of keys that was dropped with the remote
attached. It would be a stretch to call replacing the case a "repair,"
because the two halves simply snap apart, and I would suspect and hope that
Volvo believes its customers are smart enough to replace the battery without
professional assistance.

The bulbs look like "grain of wheat" types to me. I believe I could find a
suitable replacement, but they come with two tiny wire leads, which I
suspect are soldered to a circuit board. I don't know how much disassembly
is involved to gain access to the back side of the board. Light bulbs are
so unpredictable, and LEDs so inexpensive, that it seems to me this radio
could easily have been made with more reliable lighting.

 

The radio in my 960 comes apart fairly easily, seems almost designed to be
taken apart and serviced (there was a tape deck module, tuning circuit
module, power module, buttons control module... meaning you could replace
one section that wasn't working, for cheaper then fixing the whole radio....
in theory, in reality they wanted $700 for a refurbished one, and no one
wanted to repair my old system). Actually I was astounded with the sheer
level of engineering that went into making the radio, and its locking system
that holds it into the dashboard - it was puzzeling that the radio actually
failed when I saw how well it was built.... Not to mention how clean and
neat the radio mounting area was - in a VW there is a mess of wires and tons
of foam (not as bad in the newer cars, but still - no Volvo) and nothing is
very accessible, in the Volvo the wires come out pretty long, it's clean,
and the cabinet has nothing else in it except the radio (and maybe a relay
or two mounted far back). Then again, the whole car is like this, from the
engine bay (surgical precision comes to mind), to the sub floor storage
areas in the trunk, so I shouldn't be so shocked I guess...

This could bode well for you tho, if your radio is anything like mine, a
stereo repair shop should have no trouble getting it open and changing light
bulbs. As far as why they used them... my guess is to achieve a certain
colour they couldn't get with LED lights.... In fact I think the lighting in
my 99.5 Golf is still provided with all light bulbs too... I had to replace
the climate control system's single light bulb, which is located in the
middle dial, and thru a series of plastic pieces gets spread to the two
other dials, before it runs thru a filter to change the colour to red... why
not use a Red LED??? - because it would make more sense... at least those
light bulbs costs so litter that dealers give them away for free...

 

I had this problem with my SC805 V70 Radio.
Assuming your radio is the same, or similar to this;
Go to your dealer and buy some spare bulbs for the heated seat switches.
They are the same, and work fine in the radio.
Cost in the UK is >£1 each though.
Hope this helps.
If you can't get it sorted, Perhaps I can go to my dealer and get some, then
send them to you. They will be RH drive bulbs though !!
Remotes pop up on ebay regularly.
Hope to help.
Joe.
Peterborough
UK.

 

Have you tried a good independent auto electronics repair place? I bet they
can fix your radio for you.

Dealers have never been good about providing the sub-parts of assemblies.

John

 

It's not just the local dealership that was of no assistance. Regarding my
need for a replacement case for my keyless remote, I got no satisfaction
from Volvo's North American headquarters in New Jersey and none from the
manufacturer in Sweden. I have seen the entire remote sell for much less
than the list price on eBay, and this would seem to be my best option so
far. But why take another complete remote off the market (which would
require programming to synchronize with the vehicle) when all I need is a
piece of molded plastic?

 

Can you imagine what the cost of spares would be if Volvo were to not
only stock spare parts, but ~also~ each individual tiny piece of the
assembly, on the off chance that some person would come along ant want
just a bit of the part?

Trust me, it's cheaper for everyone to do it their way. If they could
make money selling key fob remote case halves, they would.

 

I don't know of any auto company which makes the cases available.

John