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.