Dashboard light for 1991 Volvo 240

There are 2 bulbs. If the cluster has been half dark, then maybe the second bulb has burned out. You can change them by reaching up from below, but if you don't know what you're looking for, you're not going to have much luck. It's not too hard to remove the cluster, just remove the blank panels to the right, the knobs and panel to the left and undo the 4 screws. Pull back and you'll be able to see what to do.

If the cluster was not half dark, look at the dimmer rheostat first.

As Mike F. stated, the cluster is simple to pull out, however, before you tear into anything, be sure the dimmer is turned up all the way...I made the mistake of pulling my cluster once when the lights didn't work, turned out I had turned down the dimmer while cleaning the interior earlier in the day...DOH!

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-don

'81 242t '89 744ti

It is definitely out. I even get the idiot light up telling me a bulb is out.

Pulling the cluster seems easier than pulling the whole dash, for sure. Any idea what kind of bulb it takes... I could not find anything in the manual.

Thanks,

David

The idiot light only checks the taillights and headlights, so you've got another issue there, either a bulb is out, mismatched, or you have a bad connection.

And the cluster bulbs are a special halogen bulb built into a holder. Probably only available from the dealer.

Halogen? Since when? Mine just has normal bulbs in there, IIRC they're #555's. Maybe they changed it in later years, I have seen small halogen bulbs at the autoparts store, didn't know what they were for.

The last few years had halogen bulbs. I'm not sure what a 555 bulb is. The earlier 240s used a non-halogen 3w bulb which looked the same as the

5w license plate bulbs in the sedan. However I've heard that installing these 5w bulbs melt things in the cluster. The new halogen bulbs have a holder built on, and go in a slightly smaller hole than the older type.

The #555 bulb is a 3W 12v wedge base lamp.

They are also the exact same bulbs used in many pinball machines, so if you are looking to replace the entire set, this might be a good way to get them in larger qualtities.