I have had a 2003 S40 5-speed manual without alarm system for a couple of years. A couple of weeks ago, I suddenly could not start it. I turned the key, but nothing happened ... no clicking sounds from the solenoid trying to engage the starter gear. I live in Costa Rica. A local guy who specializes in car electrical systems dug around for over an hour connecting, disconnecting cables and fuses. He eventually made an adjustment internal to the ignition switch. The car now starts. However, the radio no longer shuts off with the key, the remote control no longer unlocks the doors and the battery runs down after about 48 hours of non-use. After 3 battery deaths, I bought a new battery. It has died twice in less than a week. Another mechanic who specializes in European cars (mine apparently is designed for Europe) says the computer is 'considering' that the car may be stolen because of connecting the car to another car to try to jump start it. He says the ignition switch must be changed and the computer re-encoded. That the computer may finally decide at any time that the car is stolen and simply shut all system down leaving the car dead. The collection of symptoms just don't make sense. I can find no mention of such a feature in Volvo's on the internet. Does any of this make sense or did the original electrician simply mess up the wiring? He had cables hanging down from under the dash and under the hood. One last thing, a local garage connected a tester to the charging circuit and said that it was working correctly.

 

Update Aug 30, 2016 - I took the car to the garage where I normally go ... not back to the car electrician that caused the problems. They found that several wires had been connected to the wrong places. They believe that the battery will no longer go dead. I won't know for certain for a couple of days. The remote control now works again. NEW PROBLEM: the radio now doesn't work. They turned it on and put in the code earlier today. The radio presented the word OFF. Pressing the on/off control cause the display to go blank, the display illumination to go dark and the antenna to lower. Pressing it again causes the display to light, the antenna to rise and the display to say OFF. We disconnected the battery and reconnected it to force the radio to ask for the code again. It did not ask for it. It sill just displays the word OFF and raises the antenna. Can anyone tell me what I need to do?

 

Update August 31, 2016 - Everything is resolved. This car does not have an alarm and will not refuse to start the engine because it 'thinks' that it is being robbed ... of course, it will not allow the engine to start if the chip in the key is not near the steering column. The remote control did not work because a wire was reconnected to the wrong terminal by the first electrician. The battery was dying because the adjustment that the first electrician made to the ignition switch caused the accessories to always be powered. The radio allowed me to re-enter the code after an hour or so. So, all of the problems were caused by the first electrician. The foreign car specialist just made up a mythology about the car's computer being in a state where it might shutdown all systems at any moment in order to gain a profit from re-coding the computer. I'm surprised that no one told me about needing to keep the radio powered up for an hour after the mechanic entered the code incorrectly three times. I found this info at several sites. Case closed.