I have the lower screws off accessed through the gearshift cover. How do you separate the Climate Control unit from the radio? I'm trying not to destroy the thin plastic covers.

thanks.

Use 2 screwdrivers below the radio (each side) and pry to top of the climate unit outwards. You tilt the bottom upwards a bit too. It should then pop out w/o damaging anything. The soft material on the sides of the unit will dent a bit but it goes back to its original form after a while, no big deal.

Ron,

Thank you very much. I was being a little too cautious. One question, do you agree with the technician that suggested to wake up the computer system you can short the two battery leads, off the battery I'm sure. It sounded questionable to me. The electronics are sensitive and I wonder if that is a wise idea?

thanks again.

In most cases, shorting the 2 battery leads together would kill the ECU, unless the protection circuit in ECU can withstand a huge electric current for a "long" time. I doubt that.

Don't do it!!!

Ching-Ho Cheng
--
1995 855 NA, Bilstein Shocks, K&N Filter, E-Code Lens

I think either you misunderstood the technician, or he/she wants to teach you a lesson. Shorting the battery terminals would be both dangerous and spectacular. The only computer that would become awakened is the one directly behind your eyes.

There have been posts on this topic before, and the recommendations were that you do not remove any connectors from the ECC; there is enough slack in the wires to pull it forward. Others discovered they needed a software reload at the dealer if the ECC was disconnected, even for a short time.

Here's the message about shorting the battery cables. I didn't believe it either. If he is a service advisor, he may be pulling a prank. I haven't seen this kind of poor advice from any mechanic who knows.

GR


S80 no power to Heat, A/C, fan controls, traction, all controls below radio [S80] 󞩿] posted by someone claiming to be Nick on Tue, Jan 21st 2003 at 5:48 PM

Try touching the battery cables together, this will momentarily 'wake' up the ECC unit. While its just a temporary fix, it should work. That will be one hour labor.....
Just a note from a friendly Volvo service advisor

I don't think your "friendly service advisor" is out to harm you, but is just a little sloppy with English. As an example, suppose I advise you to reset the burner on your hot water heater by disconnecting the gas line and letting all of the gas escape. Obviously, following those instructions literally would fill your cellar with gas. However, turning off the gas supply first, close to the heater, then opening the line downstream of the shutoff, would only bleed what gas was trapped between the shutoff and burner control. Much different.

Likewise, if you disconnect the negative battery cable from the battery, then momentarily touch the battery positive terminal, no current flows from the battery, because there is no contact to the negative post. However, if there is a small capacitor in the ECC to retain its memory. it would be discharged, resetting that memory. The amount of current would be small, similar to the amount of gas that would escape in the water heater example.

Another Brickboard contributor reported his ECC stopped working entirely after replacing his battery, which to me is no different than disconnecting and reconnecting it. I don't think I would try it. Disconnecting the ECC overnight should have the same effect, allowing any memory capacitor to discharge.

It is a common practice at the dealer level to disconect the battery and touch the battery cables together to reset the computers. It is usually done when problems are encountered during software downloads, and to wake up sleeping nodes. It will damage nothing. Another common practice is to simply pull the fuse to the troublesome control module and reinstall after about 5 minutes. There were problems with steering wheel modules which caused turn signal failure. Removing and reinstelling the fuse would get them working most of the time till the software upgrade could be installed. There are numerous S-80 software upgrades available for cold start, idle surge, steering wheel module, trans problems, climate control problems.