My wife drives a 2003 V70. Wonderful car. One of the few I've ever liked. (full blown motorcycle nut here)
But it has developed some really annoying habits of late.

We took it to a local shop in Jan of last year for a vibration in the front end. The mechanic assigned to the task decided that there were bad bearings in the final drive assy. Well, turns out he was wrong. All the car needed was the half shafts/cv joints replaced. None the less, the tranny had been pulled and drained.
The tranny was re-installed and refilled. Half shafts installed. I had new tie rod ends done at the same time and a 4 wheel alignment done.
This is all to preface the now existing problem.
Since then there has been two electrical faults show up. Electric system needs service, and e powersystem needs service.
And then over this past winter a brake fault saying "brake failure, stop safely". The trip odometer blanks out, the main odometer quits logging miles, and several lights come on over to the right of the dash panel (abs, traction control, brake). This isn't a consistent problem either. Sometimes the brake fault won't come on right away. You may travel 10 feet, or 30 miles.
And just for grins, at times the clock will just take off on its own, cycling like it's being reset for no apparent reason.
The car has 159K miles on it and continues to drive and ride just fine. I'd hate to get rid of it unless it's going to cost a small (or large) fortune to repair it.
I appreciate any and all answers. I have an extensive background in car and motorcycle repair but I don't have all the fancy new tools needed to diagnose these issues.

Jay

 

The first thing that comes to mind is that a shop that probably doesn't understand Volvos pulled and reinstalled your transmission. There are a host of opportunities for them to mess something up in that process. Due to the wide and seemingly unrelated nature of the intermittent faults you're seeing, I'd look for a bad ground from the engine / transmission to the chassis, or a bad connection that could have been damaged during the tranny removal / install. If you can get your hands on a Dice / Vida diagnostic cable / computer, it might well give you a lot more info - probably well worth the investment if you do plan on keeping this car for a while.

 

Like habbyguy says, if all the dash issue occurred just after the transmission job, it could very well be a connector/wiring issue around the transmission. The reason is the car has a communication network that once perturbed, various non directly related symptoms occur, such as the dash going crazy.

In addition, I would make sure that shop put the right type of transmission oil and the right amount inside. Those transmissions are sensitive to the oil type (3309).

Now, the "brake failure", odometer and the lights on the right side of the dash can also happen when the dash itself gets bad, and that will happen with many Volvo at a certain point, well known issue. I had all the issues you are describing, including the clock cycling on it's own. It all comes down to one or two electrical solders inside the dash. All this can be repaired by an experienced electronics shop, or send for repair at places such as xemodex