I have been into it for a couple of hours now and I can't seem to figure out how to take out the headlight relay.

The relay box is accessed through the passenger's side knee panel. It lives behind the radio and notion boxes of the centre console.

According to the Volvo club of U.K. site on relay removal the relays have 'retention devices'. The two sides of the relay are held by plastic clips that must be pried outward at the same time to allow removal of the relays. There is a danger of breaking the relay or the retention device when forcing the relay out. The advisor wedged toothpicks into each side retention device and was able to remove the relay this way.

None of this is easily seen and I don't really know how the retention devices function. I was unable to get the retention device plastic clips to pull out. I used wooden pointed barbecue sticks in the attempt and broke off the ends of both of them [the sticks that is, not the relay holding devices].

I thought of getting the whole relay box out at one point because there is an obvious orange hexagon screw holding the front end [towards the front end of the car] of the mounting plate in place.

There is nothing obvious about whatever else is holding the mounting board in place and it is buried behind the centre console of the dashboard. I took out the ashtray and a small notions box which gave some limited visual access from the front but not enough to make a difference.

From the diagram provided by the Volvo club I would guess that the plastic clips fit over a nub of some sort on the relay. But in the real world the clips are buried under the cover of the relay and very difficult to access.

Has anybody else tried to remove one of these relays? Help, please.

Bob, it took me a moment to remember you have a 960, not a 940, so I changed the heading here to help alert readers.

On doing a bit of reading to follow your relay removal progress, yeah, those side mounted relays in the later 760s and early 960s sound like they can be a bear to deal with. Who designed that? Oh right, the same guys that designed the 960 steering column ignition switch assembly that's been mentioned recently.

In the 700/900 FAQ here on relay removal (Relay Locations) it mentions the toothpick trick to try keeping the two side tabs open while you pull the relay out (as in pull/wiggle/pry/curse). I'm wondering if something like a credit card (or putty knife) would work better and stay down between the relays while you try to wrangle it out. Elsewhere I saw it mentioned to try removing neighbouring relays to improve access to the one side tab that's buried down deep. In one comment I saw, it's okay if you have to destroy the relay covers to get at the tabs -really? Seems like it ought to be just a matter of prying it out at the base after the tabs are wedged open, but apparently it's often just as you say, still seemingly next to impossible.

I note in the FAQ here it says "In the 760/960 diagram shown above, A, B, F, J, L, and M are permanently attached to the board". Relay A is the headlight relay you're trying to remove, so does that mean it's never coming out for you?? -doesn't make sense. Hopefully one of our 960 people will chime in with experience before you end up either trying to destroy the relay tray or frying your patience. Good luck.
--
Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now

Hello Dave,

I finally managed to get the dim dip relay free from its mounting board.

First, I freed the board by removing the obvious orange screw and then pulling and yanking the board toward me. Aside from the screw the board is held in place by a sort of clip at the other end. None of this can be easily seen but from the diagram I figured the board had to be pulled sideways from its mount after the screw had been removed.

Once freed from its mounts the board could be seen better but the relay holding clips were still intent on keeping everything together. I was able to push a thin screwdriver between the relay and the clip on one side and then I pulled the other clip away from its relay with another screwdriver and I pulled on the relay body at the same time.

The nubs on the bodies of the relays are about a full eighth of an inch in height.

I pulled three relays out because I could not get to relay A without removing the two relays beside it first. I filed the nubs down on all three relays for future action. I also dusted them with baby powder to make them more slippery.

I am now awaiting my American car relay which is slightly different to the Canadian version. Happily I don't drive much at night and I have the 240 insured as well and the weather is hanging in there.

Putting the board back in place was fairly simple. It snapped into place almost by itself and I was able to easily find the screw hole for the orange holding screw. I might be able to just pull the relay out without removing the board when the new relay arrives.

Thanks again for your input.

Bob

Hi Dave,

I am not a trained mechanic and sometimes feel like a naive idiot when asking these types of questions. But time and time again I think that what should be a fifteen minute job turns into a three day saga. This thing about plastic clips instead of screws drives me wild.

Every electric plug connector has some kind of holding device that has to be figured out before the plug can be separated from its electronic module.

Is this a devious Swedish plot to drive us all to take out cars into the dealer for repair?

"On doing a bit of reading to follow your relay removal progress, yeah, those side mounted relays in the later 760s and early 960s sound like they can be a bear to deal with. Who designed that? Oh right, the same guys that designed the 960 steering column ignition switch assembly that's been mentioned recently."

Thanks for that. Anyways I am now looking at trying to bring the whole platform out into the light of day and then trying to remove the relay.

I do have a picture of the setup which shows the obvious long, serrated orange holding screw at the front connecting the relay mounting platform to a bracket. There does not appear to be any other connector.

Relay j is shown plugged in on one side of the platform along with all of its fellow relays.

And then another connector plugs into the opposite, hidden side directly to the other side of relay j. Perhaps it brings power to the platform. I am guessing from the picture that this is the only other thing holding the platform in place.

I bet there are holding nubs for this connector as well however.

Thanks for letting me know that I am not alone in my struggles.

Bob

You are indeed not alone in your struggles. Once one of those side-mount relays is finally out, I remove most or all of those locking tabs. Friction in the electrical connections seems more than adequate to hold the relays in place.
--
67 144, 85 740T, 86 740T, 91 945SE, BMW R69S, R60/2

You are indeed not alone in your struggles. Once one of those side-mount relays is finally out, I remove most or all of those locking tabs. Friction in the electrical connections seems more than adequate to hold the relays in place.
--
67 144, 85 740T, 86 740T, 91 945SE, BMW R69S, R60/2