Hey guys,

Took my 2000 volvo s40 in to a Sears auto place to get the battery changed because i had to jump it and it didn't seem like it was holding charge. They confirmed it did not and charged me a nice bundle for a new Sears battery. After installing, the car promptly refused to turn on.

The key will not turn to the III (third) position in the ignition. It will get to the part where the lights turn on, but it will not let me keep turning to the part where the engine would turn over. It's in the Sears lot now and an employee drove me home..

Help! How do I get my Volvo to start again? I'm pretty sure some kind of anti-theft system has been activated, but I don't know how to deactivate it and the manual did not have any information

Thanks so much!

 

My '04.5 did that when I changed my battery, but instead of not letting me turn the key, the screen said "IMMOBILIZER, SEE MANUAL", and wouldn't let the engine turn over, but would let me turn the key all the way. I called the local Volvo dealer and they said that I would have to have it towed in so they could reset the security system. Dejected that such a simple repair broke my car, I disconnected the battery overnight, and when reconnected the next morning, the car surprisingly started just fine.

It does sound like we set off different antitheft systems, but that's how I fixed mine. Just my $.02

 

yip thats how to fix it

 

fapling, what did you end up doing? Im about to change my battery on the same model/year car as well.

 

hey guys,

pretty sure it's a tumbler in the lock cylinder that's failed. took it to the dealer, they confirmed that. gonna charge me $140 for the part shipped from Sweden (it's specific to your VIN), then another $270 for labor then $30 for misc **** (the screws are anti-theft so they tear **** up when unscrewed is my understanding). total of about $450. not happy, but what can i do?

 

and pretty sure mine was not an anti-theft thing after all, as "immobilizer" did not come up on the screen.

wow, this forum censors "****," huh? that's kind of disappointing...i expected better responses here too, but thanks to those who posted