Lightbulb moment
Spring is in the air, so Richard plants a few bulbs in his new Volvo
There are usually a few jobs to do on any new vehicle. On my 960, it was minor stuff – well, it is a Volvo, after all – like a few blown bulbs, worn out rear hatch struts and other sundries. I’ve yet to dispose of my 940, and the benefit of having two very similar vehicles (although when you properly compare a 940 with a 960, they’re surprisingly different) is that that you can swap parts to test if they are working. This was the approach I adopted when sorting out the bulbs.
Areas of darkness on the 960 included the glovebox, rear ashtray/centre armrest storage and automatic transmission selector. Removing the rear ashtray was simple enough, using a screwdriver as a lever, although I did it on the 940 first so I could master the job without having to worry about scratching the 960’s woodpanelled version. It was easy to then swap the bulbs over.
The glovebox technique was much more complicated – on the 940, the bulb simply had to be removed from behind the lens at the top of the box. On the 960, the entire glovebox had to be gingerly manoeuvred out, which is astonishingly fiddly and difficult given that both cars are derivatives of each other.
Getting at the transmission selector bulb was similarly laborious, with multiple Torx screws and large bits of plastic to be gently levered out of the way before the blown unit could be extracted. Still, after a few hours, I’d restored illumination to all the 960’s murky depths.
Following that, I ordered fresh bulbs from the local Volvo dealership to replace those I’d pilfered from the 940. I’m a great fan of LEDs for interior illumination, so a trip to Halfords stocked me up with a bunch to replace the roof and footwell lamps in the 960. These are a straightforward swap, but shine so much more brightly that it’s almost like comparing dusk and daytime. Granted, you lose the homely yellow hue for a very white tone, but this is a cheap and easy upgrade that makes night so much less inconvenient.