Drivers Information Module (DIM) diy repair

[Propofol]

1st thing to go on my DIM was high beam warning...

[willhobbs01]

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. Discounting the amount of time I spent on line assuring myself that I could do this, the whole job took less than 2 hours, and has restored my DIM from one exhibiting all of the symptoms everyone else experienced. Originally, my mechanic was floored by the behavior of the display. A few months later he reported that several other Volvos of similar age had the same problem-- an epidemic!

Anyway, I did have trouble figuring out how to remove the portion of the dash in front of the DIM until I came across this YouTube video, which shows the process very clearly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZjlzcfzjPs&sns=em

(My mechanic will be duly impressed when I show him I fixed it and saved the $1500 the stealership said it would cost me.)

Thanks again!

Will

[willhobbs01]

I found several bulbs that were bad when I had the DIM out. One was intermittent, but that's because the two ends of the filament would sometimes swing into contact with each other and come back on for awhile.

[chanol]

That was my first attempt to put in a new bulb and clean up the contact area, then i swapped bulbs with no success, and the next attempt was resoldering some joints including the 14 pin green connector by an electronics repair guy. Having since read all the threads on this subject it points to resoldering the main Motorola chip as described on this forum, so this will be my next attempt.

[Delirious]

Well add me to the list of Volvo owners experiencing the DIM issue, it just started to act up this morning. It started with an intermittent high beam light indicator then running clock and now completely dead at times with an SRS-Air bag urgent service msg. I removed the DIM from the vehicle and will have it re-soldered tomorrow. Thanks in advance to keithC70 and everyone who contributed to this thread with their invaluable experiences and knowledge.

[Joe90mmm]

Just bought a XC90 2003 this morning... for 2800$$ !! car clean except no custer no dash was working at all .. the whole seller beleived it was a 2000+ job.. at that price I took a chance and TA DA !! tonight everything works OK !!!

As delirious said THANKS to keithC70 and everyone who contributed to this thread with their invaluable experiences and knowledge .

[shauhncy]

I am a female having a go at this for my 2002 Volvo S60 that I love. Great instructions, thanks so much!! I have a question- how can you tell if a bulb is blown and where can you buy them if any are?

Thanks!!

[shauhncy]

Also, where do you get the teensy heat sink?

[signbroenrico]

Hi all,

First of all, what a great thread and really helpfull hints.

I've noticed all of the posts are on models 2003 and earlier.

I've had issues for about a year now with dashboard lights coming on now and again. "Brake Failure Stop, Power Steering service required, Anti-skid service requiredm, ." then all my dials drop to 0 but the display is still lit.

When the "brake failure stop" light appears and I switch the car off the "Immobilizer See Manual" light lits up then it wont start again. After trying all the tricks, sometimes it starts other times it doesn't.

I've had the car reset and cleared, battery replaced. Works fine for about 2 trips then everything happens from the start again. It is such a hassle having to drive to the shop not knowing if your car is going to start again.

Most of the symptons i read on here happens with mine as well.

Do you guys think it's worth a shot taking out the DIM? Or is there any other suggestions?

Thank you all in advance for being so supportive.

[toci]

Hi Keith,

I got the same CODES: DIM 0006 & SRS 00D4 SRS, indicator lamp.

Do you recall which bulb you had to replace?

Thank You,
Peter

Originally Posted by keithC70

Well I've had to take it out again and have another go.

The green indicator lights and click gradually got worse until they stopped working altogether, although the indicators all continued to work.

Also the orange warning triangle and SRS warning came back, and then finally the scrambled information screen. AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!

So I spent a good four hours at the weekend and carefully re-soldered every joint on the pcb that I could get at. Fitted it back ........ and the clock and temp screen didn't work.

Off again and eventually realised all that needed was a new bulb!

So back in again and now all back together and working correctly. I hope it lasts longer than the last time. I've only done about 500 miles since the last post.

This time I spent far longer on each of the joints and used more flux. I made absolutely sure that each joint was definitely melted. I was methodical and systematic. Last time I wasn't and may have missed a few or only partly did them.

Some of the adjacent connections on the chip were soldered together (because my iron's a bit too big and spans the contacts) and so I had to use solder extractor and make sure they were separate before I moved along to the next one.

I did nearly every joint on the board including the bigger ones that you'd think would be ok, so I'm now hoping that'll do the job.

I'll update again in about a year!