Extend the range of your remote unlock!![900/ALL] posted by Tom Irwin on
Monday, 21 June 1999, at 12:05 a.m.

Are you as fed up as I am when locking/unlocking your brick with the remote clicker and you have to stand 2 inches on top of it and hold your finger to your nose
before it unlocks??

Wouldn't it be nice to zap it from 50 feet away and hear the reassuring 'clunk'??

Well, fellas I found the fix!

I was into another project today and happened across the central locking transciever unit which is mounted atop the center of the steering column.

It slides right out and one wire harness disconnects easily.

Take the unit to a clean bench and remove the 4 screws that hold the case together. Seperate the 2 halves.

There are 2 PC boards atop one another. The bottom one has all the guts. The top one has 4 wires going to it that terminate at a single grounding trace.

*** THAT IS YOUR ANTENNA *** !!!!

I swear before the Sages of the BrickBoard...that is what Volvo uses for an antenna.........a 3 inch foil trace buried deep in the bowels of your brick!!

Now the fix...

Take a piece of ultra fine sandpaper and remove a spot of the green PCB varnish at the end of that trace. Do this until you see a shiny silver trace peeking through.

Find an old DC toy motor and crack it open, remove the armature. The copper windings inside are about a 38 ga. wire. This makes an EXCELLENT antenna.
Unwind about 36" and straighten it out.

Take one end and hold the last 1/2" to a flame. This will cook off the insulation, it's way too fine to use a stripper.

Using a 20-30 watt soldering iron and rosin solder, attach the bare end of the wire to that cleaned trace.

Lay the wire down in the connector cavity and button it back up.

Reinstall the unit in the car.

Thread this long wire up over the steering column and over to the free loom that passes thru the firewall just next to the Motronic brain. It helps to tape the end to a
straightened coat hanger and fish it up in to the engine compartment. Pull it through completely til no slack.

See the weather strippping seal that spans the engine bay, just south of the wiper arms? Lift it up from the drivers side and pull it up to the middle of the span...

Now lay your wire down inside of it and push the seal back down on the metal stay. This does to things;
1. It makes the job nice and neat
2. It gets your antenna up and out of the cars interior so it does a much better job.

The good news? I can pop my locks from 120 feet away!!!

HEY! It doesn't take much to get me excited.......... but I know a few of you have mentioned this problem, especially you 850 folks.

Tom --
Tom Irwin '95 960, '94 940 Los Angeles, CA
 

Location of the keyless entry antenna.[S70][1998] Vladimir -- Sunday, 8 July 2001, at 12:08 p.m.

 Hello, out there. Searching the archives produced nothing, though I distinctly remember someone posting about increasing the range of the
 keyless entry remote by adding to the receiver antenna in the car. My problem is that the range and operation of the keyless entry remotes
 (both of them) became noticeably worse. I changed both batteries, but no improvement. A little while ago I was installing the radio antenna
 mast switch, which involved messing with the wiring around the steering column. If I recall correctly the keyless entry antenna is somewhere
 down there. I also messed with the wiring on the right side of the dash to re-wire my CD changer cable, so if the keyless receiver antenna is
 on the right there is a chance I produced some interference. Can someone tell me where exactly the keyless entry receiver antenna is and
 what it looks like?

 TIA.
 

 --
 Vladimir. Base 1998 S70 5-speed manual. Deluxe plastic tire valve caps all around. Still on the original oil drain plug washer and going
 strong.

 On my 850 the receiver is mounted outboard of the glove box. On others it's mounted on the drivers side. Go to Ozzbrick and check the misc.
 tips for the range extender trick. I tried it and it helped a little. I think the antenna extension really should be "tuned" to be effective but I don't
 know the freqency of the remote.
 --
 Steve

 http://au.geocities.com/ozbrick850/
 --
 Steve

 Steve, thanks. I looked on Ozbricks and the post there is from a 900 series Volvo. This is all fine and good, but I need a location of the thing in
 the 1998 S70. It looks like the location chaged from model to model and even possibly from year to year. You say it's next to the glovebox, the
 guy in Ozbricks says it's near the steering column. But where is it on '98 S70? This is the big question for me.

 Anyone know this?

 Thanks.
 

 --
 Vladimir. 1998 S70. Base, 5-speed manual.

 I am not 100% sure on this, but I think I recall it was located in the rear bumper for your year, and model.....I could be wrong(and I am quite
 often)though.
 --
 Steve Ferrara / Hoboken, NJ / 2000 S70-GLT

 Rear bumper?! That's the first time I hear of that location. I will try behind the glovebox and steering column first before ripping into the bumper
 :)

 Thanks.

 --
 Vladimir. 1998 S70. Base, 5-speed manual.