How to Replace Upper Tail Light Bulbs 2000-07 Volvo V70

Hi, I'm Mike from 1AAuto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years.

Hey, everyone. Sue here from 1AAuto. Today on our '03 Volvo V70 I'm going to show you how to replace the bulbs in the upper tail lamp assembly. If you need any parts for your car, click on the link below, and head on over to 1aauto.com.

Open your tailgate, and the rear wagon cargo lamp is located right in the center of the hatch on the inner trim piece. I like to take a small screwdriver, and I'm going to use a couple of tools here. I'm going to pry it with that, but then I take my body trim piece and I can wedge that right up in there. And then, I can kindly pull it down. And then, there you have the bulb access in the lamp. To discard it, just push down on that green tab on the connector, and then we have the lamp assembly.

Now, with the dome light down, you've accessed the mounting screw for this back plate. It's a T-25. We're just going to pull that bolt right out. Grab our body tool, trim tool, and pull down on it. There we go. Then, we have another T-25 right here. This is the right rear window area. It's the upper trim. We're going to do the same with this. We're going to grab it and just pull it down. Set that aside.

Right behind the passenger seat on the right side quarter, there's a bolt inside this spot. It looks like it's the holder for the back screen of the hatch. It's a 10 mm socket. Discard that bolt. You just got to really grab this firm and pull. I'm just going to grab this access panel, put this aside so that I can get in here. It's an extra protector for the bulbs. Now that I've taken that bolt out, before I can pull the tail piece out, I have to disconnect this piece. It's just pull it like that, and there's the panel access, and now I can take this cover completely out and discard that.

Now with the panel out of the way, you have access to your tail light bulbs--the upper one. You don't need to take the whole panel out to do the bottom, just the upper bulbs you do. First thing I'm going to do is I'm going to remove my little tweeter speaker, and that's by pulling out this red tab. And then, this tab you're going to want to pull down, but don't do that. It's just push it in, and then it slides out easy. Get the little ears out of the way. Let that hang down. Now you can see both bulbs and access both of them. The top one is your turn signal, counterclockwise turn that gear tab, and there is your amber turn signal bulb.

Now, to remove that, we're going to push down and turn counterclockwise and lift it up. The bulb number is a European number, so I strongly recommend that you take the bulb directly to your part store that you're going to get your bulbs from, whether it's the dealer or a parts store, only because you want to put another European number bulb in. If you put a standard American bulb in, this would be an 1157NA, the wattage might not line up. It might not be the same amount of wattage. This does have the wattage on it, so if you bring it to the parts store, if the wattage matches, you should be all set. But if it's under, it'll keep burning out and you'll be wondering why you keep going through bulbs. To install it, you're going to line up those two key ways with the offset. See how it's offset? Push it down and turn it. Then, we're going to line up the same notches on the lens so it sits flat, and turn clockwise. You hear it click right in.

The bottom bulb is going to be your running light, and that's the same way, counterclockwise, pull out the socket, and you're going to push down counterclockwise, lift it up. Two tabs are not offset. They're directly across from each other, 12 and six. This bulb does say 1156, so it wouldn't surprise me if this bulb burns out quicker if the manufacturer wattage is not the same. I'm going to install that again, lining up the key ways. Push down, turn clockwise. Then, I'm going to take my socket, put it back into the assembly, let it sit flat, and then turn clockwise. You can feel it snap right in.

Now, we're ready to put our tweeter speaker back in. Just line up those two little ear spots, let it slide in, and then push it and put the lock back in. To reinstall the corner trim piece, you've got to pull down on this anchor, and it's kind of spring loaded, so use one hand and guide that down, and I'm going to pull back on the side panel. Now I can re-line up everything here. There's tabs along the outside trim here, just push on it. You'll hear them snap into place. Got one here--push that in.

Now we're free to connect the side panel. I'm going to remount that. There's a bolt back there that is a 10 mm socket. Snug that up. There we go. Now we have a top trim piece. You can see the guide tabs, and there is two round tube-style holes that are going to clip right into there, and then the long pin that goes up in there. I like to guide that in first, then I'll guide the back pin in. There we go. There is a Torx screw that's a T-25, and that goes right in here.

The molded form that's going to--it's like an insulator for the back assembly. You can see the little cutout of the ears in the pattern in that side panel. Okay, let's guide it in that way first, line up those tabs, and then we can push it right into the plastic. It's in there nice and firm. And then, the last panel. We've got two ear tabs on the bottom here that go down on the floor panel, and then just push it and it locks into place.

Now we're going to install the piece on the tailgate in the center. First thing I'm going to do is put that wire through so that I can use that to plug in the dome light. Guide these up in, the plastic trim, and then just give it a good snap up. Now, this has a little screw that goes in the center here, and it's a Torx head T-25. Now we're going to plug in the rear cargo light. Snap that in place. You can see the tabs on this. There's two little tabs by the electrical end, and then the push ups. We're going to guide it in this way, and then snap it up.

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