[TarveN]

Hi all,<p>SS has provided me with a wealth of information and know how so I thought I'd contribute my share to the forums.<p>I number of people on the forums have problems with their turn signal intermittently stop working flashing while trying to signal. This happened to mine too so I decided to investigate the problem as there was no solution except to replace the unit.<p>VADIS says it's necessary to remove the air bag and steering wheel but this isn't necessary. There’s three TORX screws below the steering wheel cover and the two pieces are held together by clips. They come apart without putting up a fight. Hint: Try using the steering wheel adjustment hole as a starting point to unsnap it. Do <B>NOT</B> undo the wiring thats in the way of the top screw on the stalk. Move it out of the way gently. I'm not sure if that's the SRS wiring but I doubt you want to find out.<p><IMG SRC="http://www.abstractations.com/swedespeed/turnsignal/parts.gif" BORDER="0"><p>Sorry I didn't take more pictures of the internals of the lever but I'm sure you guys can figure out the clips. Gently pry with a flat head screw driver and it comes apart nicely.<p>It turns out that the area where the signal lever's pins contact the PCB is covered with grease and contaminants thus breaking the circuit.<p>Inside the assembly there’s a circuit board. There’s a slider with three pins for the turn signal and the high beams. For me, the right turn was the one causing problems and looking at the following picture, I can understand why. The pins gliding over aren't making a good contact with the board.<p><IMG SRC="http://www.abstractations.com/swedespeed/turnsignal/sensor_before1.jpg" BORDER="0"><p><IMG SRC="http://www.abstractations.com/swedespeed/turnsignal/sensor_before2.jpg" BORDER="0"><p>Simple solution: I wiped away the grease with tissue. A quick look with a magnifying glass shows the pins haven't worn through the pad and the volt meter says the proper connections are still intact.<p><IMG SRC="http://www.abstractations.com/swedespeed/turnsignal/sensor_after1.jpg" BORDER="0"><p><IMG SRC="http://www.abstractations.com/swedespeed/turnsignal/sensor_after2.jpg" BORDER="0"><p><IMG SRC="http://www.abstractations.com/swedespeed/turnsignal/sensor_after3.jpg" BORDER="0"><p>In my case the solder pads haven’t been worn through. If it has I'm sure a very thin layer of silver solder would do the trick.<p>Hope that helps! <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://www.vwvortex.com/vwbb/smile.gif" BORDER="0"><p>Jason

 

[D.C.]

Re: Solution to Intermittent Turn Signal Problem (TarveN)

Pretty good reference. <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://********************/smile/emthup.gif" BORDER="0">

 

[Mika]

Re: Solution to Intermittent Turn Signal Problem (TarveN)

My turn signals also work intermittently. On-off-on-off... <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://www.vwvortex.com/vwbb/tongue.gif" BORDER="0"> <p>Seriously though, thanks for the submission, keep up the good work!

 

[apl175]

Re: Solution to Intermittent Turn Signal Problem (TarveN)

Kind of reminds me of the ETM circuitry.....<p> <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://www.vwvortex.com/vwbb/cool.gif" BORDER="0"> <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://********************/smile/emcocktl.gif" BORDER="0">

 

[darylkaiser34]

Re: Solution to Intermittent Turn Signal Problem (Mika)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD><i>Quote, originally posted by <b>Mika</b> »</i></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My turn signals also work intermittently. On-off-on-off... <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://www.vwvortex.com/vwbb/tongue.gif" BORDER="0"> <br>Seriously though, thanks for the submission, keep up the good work!</TD></TR></TABLE><p>Indeed. I had Volvo replace my steering module under warranty for the very same reason. I'm just glad I didn't have to pay for it or mess with the dash guts myself...

 

[grovesj2]

Re: Solution to Intermittent Turn Signal Problem (darylkaiser30)

Well, I just tried cleaning the switch off to fix my intermittent signal. It didnt work for me but I think its a viable fix for some people. Anyway I took some of the pics that taverN left out.<p><br>After you undue the three Torx screws (T25) on the underside of the steering column pry loose the tabs holding the top and bottom pieces together, start at the wheel adjustment lever and reach in through the hole and pop it out from the inside. Its rubber and comes out very easily.<br> #1 The tab<br> #2 The hole to reach through<p> <IMG SRC="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid211/p971ffe5b12167444464a3cc59faa5fc5/eda513c3.jpg" BORDER="0"><p>Heres a pic of the tab after I popped it out. Now go to the opposite side of the steering column and do the same thing on that side, theres no hole to stick your hand through but you can pry it out with a screwdriver or your fingernail. Now go along the seam where the top and bottom pieces meet and pry them apart. Once youve got them pryed apart, remove the bottom piece. <p> <IMG SRC="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid211/p5c2a9ea44b18532039487852c1e549a6/eda5139f.jpg" BORDER="0"><p>The top piece is still connected to the rubber sleeve by three tabs, just pop them out (very easy to do, and easy to put back together). Now set the two pieces aside, I used the bottom piece to hold all the screws, youre going to end up with about 6 by the time everything is apart. <p> <IMG SRC="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid211/p55b9a569a467be61e4004f65115bd11d/eda5138c.jpg" BORDER="0"><p>Heres the column with the cover removed. The arrows point to the screws you have to remove, you cant see the bottom one here but its very easy to get to. Be careful removing these and putting them back in. Tip: find a screwdriver that fits them correctly cause they strip very easily. If you do strip one like me, just go to the hardware store and pick up some new ones (size: 4 X 1/2). After the screws come out just wiggle the switch out. <p> <IMG SRC="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid211/p8ed39dc717ae7a5063583a17200ee6b2/eda5137a.jpg" BORDER="0"><p>Heres what it looks like once youve got it out, just undo the screw and pull the board out.<p> <IMG SRC="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid211/p78fb22d1af8b6ef10d6b04329813ee83/eda51369.jpg" BORDER="0"><p>Make sure you dont turn the unit over or the little white plastic pieces (#1) will fall out and then youll have to figure out the correct way to put them back in. #2 points to the contacts that you need to wipe off. <p> <IMG SRC="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid211/p176a9c5a4ad4a13ea20336d566118db8/eda51351.jpg" BORDER="0"><p>Now just put everything back together and your done. Hope this helps.

 

[njl]

Re: Solution to Intermittent Turn Signal Problem (darylkaiser30)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD><i>Quote, originally posted by <b>darylkaiser30</b> »</i></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Indeed. I had Volvo replace my steering module under warranty for the very same reason. I'm just glad I didn't have to pay for it or mess with the dash guts myself...</TD></TR></TABLE><p>Same here, though I had to call Volvo and whine about it being a safety issue before my dealership took it seriously. Mine had been problematic on and off for more than a year and the dealership always blew it off as "we can't reproduce it, so we can't fix it."

 

[ZombieSuffer]

Worked for me

Old thread, but this fix worked for me for the turn signal issue on our 2005 Volvo V70.

 

[Toronto1]

Thank you for sharing.

 

[TheWizard]

Contact Pins Could Also Be Bent

Good write-up Jason. I had a problem with a spastic turn signal on my '07 Volvo S40. I had problems with it cancelling and it would always blink to one side unless I slightly pushed it into the other direction while driving. In my particular case, the contact points were not only dirty/greasy/grimy but also bent. I used needle-nose pliers to bend them into the correct shape and it solved the problem for me.

Tools I used were:

• Torx T-25 bit
• 1/4" Wrench (for the torx bit, alternatively just use a screw driver)
• Large Phillips Screw Driver
• Small Phillips Screw Driver
• Cloth / Paper Towel
• Needle Nose Pliers

Removing the turn signal lever is very easy. DO NOT REMOVE THE STEERING WHEEL. Just remove the three T-25 torx bolts from the below the steering column. Then push up on the rubbery cover on top of the steering column. After that, you can push up the top steering column cover. It will snap out of place and now you have access to the turn signal lever. Remove the two phillips screws holding the turn signal in place. Then pull the turn signal lever straight out (horizontally left). This is what it looks like (in the picture, I already removed the PCB board screws and popped it out):

Next, use the larger phillips screw driver to remove the two screws holding the PCB board in place. These are the two screws:

Now pop the PCB board (green plastic piece) carefully out. Lift up on the bottom (as shown in the above picture) first, then slide downwards to clear the tab on the top. Now you can lift the PCB board up. Now you will see this:

My problem was that the pins for the turn signal were bent out of place. I used the pins for the high beam switch as a reference, which was working fine.
I wiped down the contacts on the PCB board, there was a lot of grime / dirty grease. I carefully removed the pin for the turn signal, and then wiped/polished the part and bent each pin back into the correct position using the needle nose pliers. Note that all pins should be angled upwards so that they can make a good contact with the PCB board. The part is shown here:

Then I put the pin back into the white plastic slider, made sure the high beam switch was in the right spot (it popped out when I removed the PCB board). Pop the PCB board back in, replace the 2 screws, slide the turn signal assembly back into steering column, and replace the 2 screws holding the turn signal in place.

Snap the lower and upper steering column cover back together, replace the rubbery cover at the top, and replace the 3 Torx T-25 screws on the underside of the steering column. That's it! Took me about 15 minutes.

 

[MasterShake]

Worked like a charm. Thank you TarveN from 11 years in the future.

 

[NorthwestMoose]

Same here! Worked like a charm. 5 min of work and a couple of q-tips vs $225 for a new unit from the dealer. Hmmm....

Thank you TarveN (and swedespeed!)

 

[SLK Rick]

Thanks to all who posted here with this solution. It?s been a decade, so I don?t know if you?re still here. But this worked like a charm! It was an issue I?d been dealing with for a long time and the fix was about 15-20 minutes.

The only difference was that I went ahead and swapped the high beam and turn signal contacts since the turn signal one looked so badly worn. I tested the high beams and found that it?ll only stay on if I hold the stalk, not if I just pull back and let go. Small price to pay. Thanks again, all, for taking the time!

 

[bob-in-va]

Rebuild Kit?

Hi,

This is a great procedure which worked on my 2007 S40. The turns signals were intermittent and now work. Unfortunately, the plastic slider for the high beams popped out and went sailing when I was putting it back together. I recovered the slider but the E shaped contact spring is lost. Everything else is still in great shape. Any idea if you can get a contact set to repair these? Otherwise I will have to "spring' for a whole new assembly or check the junkyard for a used one.

thanks,

bob-in-va

 

[ZZZZZZZ]

15 Minute Fix

I dealt with this for years on my s60. I fiddled and pretended it would go away or just resolve itself. Kind of like not going to the doctor - LOL. "I'll be fine!"
Anyway, someone posted a video link on my thread so I thought I'd share. This literally took 15 minutes. Some torx, a small phillips set, an pencil eraser and 91% isopropyl alcohol, and I was back in business.
I think what scared me was taking my daily apart. THERE IS NO FEAR - JUST DO IT. This is XC90, but my vR was virtually identical in steps.

 

[RedGeminiPA]

My husband said our '08 did an odd thing once... when he turned on the signal, the wipers wiped. It hasn't happened since... If anyone's heard of this, fill me in. It may be a future repair.

 

[crarhl]

Thanks!

Signed up just to say thanks to everyone who took the time to post in this thread - over the last 12 years!

I've just completed this fix on my 2007 C30, which was indicating when I went over bumpy roads and all sorts, sticking in one position which was getting more dangerous than annoying in traffic.

One thing I will add is that I lubricated the pins and contacts with some PTFE spray lubricant after cleaning all the dirty grease off.

The part was lubricated originally, so I think it should be lubed again once you've cleaned it.

PTFE is expensive, but doesn't attract dirt and can be used on plastic and metal with no issue - worth investing in a small can for jobs like these.

 

[cr10000]

need the E shaped contact spring too

Hi,

This is a great procedure which worked on my 2007 S40. The turns signals were intermittent and now work. Unfortunately, the plastic slider for the high beams popped out and went sailing when I was putting it back together. I recovered the slider but the E shaped contact spring is lost. Everything else is still in great shape. Any idea if you can get a contact set to repair these? Otherwise I will have to "spring' for a whole new assembly or check the junkyard for a used one.

thanks,

bob-in-va

Anyone konws how to get the new E shaped contact spring？Mine is worn out.

 

[olfac87]

I wish I had a better way of paying it forward other than saying thank you. It worked perfectly and I am so happy to have my turn signals back.

 

[Orange]

As mentioned above, reapply fresh dielectric grease on those contacts. That will keep wear limited on the metal pads. No need to rush, go slowly and carefully when removing and handling the small circuit board so you don't bend anything. Also careful removing the small screws that secure the stalk, very easy to drop and loose inside the steering column. I would say 1 hour should be a decent estimate.