I just bought a mint condition Volvo S40 2006 with only 50,000km. The warranty is expiring in 2 months. Two days ago, while driving home, all of the electrical systems comems completely shutdown for about 2 seconds while I was cruising at about 60 miles an hour. Today, it happened again but this time the blackout was protracted, lasting about 3 or 4 minutes. I coasted to the side of the road and absolutely everything was completely dead. I did not even have hazard flashers.

About 2 minutes after I pulled to the side of the road the electrical systems just came back on line. I drove home without further incident.

This is a potentially deadly fault. Where I live, if my car stops and I cannot get off the road and have no hazard flashers I am pretty sure to be run over my the next car that comes racing down the road not able to see me.

I have read about some electrical problems but the dealer says they can't diagnose it if they can't recreate it.

Any advice or suggestions?

 

I have a 2005 S40 T5 with 60000 miles. During the early life of this vehicle I took it to the dealer since they provided free servicing. A couple of years ago, after one such servicing the car went nuts. With the car stopped, the key out of the ignition, lights were flashing and the wipers were wiping. The car was towed to the dealer where they said it appears one of the electrical connections pins on the ECM was found to be bent. I've never at the problem since. I would look for possible bad or intermittent electrical connections to the ECM.
ColoradoZ28