Hello everyone, I'm looking for guidance to figure out what the heck went wrong with my V60 today. It's a 2020 V60 Cross Country. I tried the dealer but they were unhelpful, probably skeleton crew since it's a holiday. I'm going to try them again tomorrow.

Here's what happened: I was driving down the highway around 65mph when the collision detection suddenly chimed a few times. Nothing near me except a vehicle maybe 2 seconds ahead of me, and I didn't think much of it. I may have felt a slight blip in the pedal but it didn't actually apply the brakes.

A mile or so later, I took an offramp and was braking lightly to slow for a corner when the chime sounded again. A second or so later, the brakes came on full and the engine shut off. We stopped almost instantly right in the middle of the offramp with cars behind me almost rear-ending me. I believe the shifter went into park on its own as well, I don't remember doing it but I was a bit panicked at that moment.

At this point the shifter could not be moved, it was locked in park. The steering wheel was locked and the parking brake came on and locked itself on so I could not disable it. The brake pedal was stiff as a board, there was no moving it. The electrical system could not be turned off, rotating the on/off switch had no effect besides making some of the instrument panel turn on/off but I could not get the car to fully turn off. The car was completely unresponsive and unmovable. I couldn't even pull off to the side of the road or get it to respond at all besides accessories (stereo, windows, 4-ways thankfully, etc).

Volvo was able to give me instructions to unlock the shifter using the hidden button on the center console. With that, I was able to get it into neutral. Eventually after fiddling with it enough, pressing with extreme force on the brake pedal with the shifter in park, I was able to disengage the parking brake. Then using the hidden switch, I was able to force it back into neutral and managed to coast onto the shoulder so I wasn't blocking traffic anymore, then I put it back in park and re-engaged the parking brake. I was also able to get the electrical system to turn off at this point.

After about 30-45 minutes of trying and failing to secure a tow truck (again, holiday), I decided to try starting the engine again and it worked! Everything appeared to be back to normal...

I got off the highway and took some side streets so I could keep the speed low and safe back home. The collision warning sounded once more as I was cruising down the shoulder at 30mph, again with nothing around me that would represent a collision risk. I pulled over and turned off the collision warning system thinking maybe it was the cause, and continued driving home slowly. The rest of the trip was uneventful, it seemed back to normal but I wasn't willing to test it on the highway again.

Does anyone have any clue what the heck happened? I've never heard of a car doing anything like this, it was extremely dangerous and very nearly resulted in me getting rear-ended. I had supreme faith in my Volvo but that's been shaken. Thanks in advance for any clues that can be provided.

 

My 2020 xc60 had a similar problem - Wife called me outside and reported she could not move the car after starting one morning. Car started but the shifter wouldn't move, engine wouldn't turn off, parking brake was engaged, After getting the car out of park (accessing the owners manual to find the manual shift lock release) the trans was slamming into gear and the dash was lit like a Christmas tree.

Once I drove the car I heard water sloshing - we had heavy rain the week before - So I suspected a water damaged CEM. (I owned a Volvo garage from 1980-2018 and saw this many times) The dealer kept the car for a few weeks (busy, you know) and removed the carpets, dried them and replaced a module. Hopefully fixed the leak also. I'm betting it was the CEM but I've not gotten an invoice to actually know. (The tech that worked on the car was one of my old employees and the service writer hurried to get the car back to me before the paperwork was ready.

Hopefully you simply have a water leak (easily fixable) and need a new CEM (under warranty). BTW I've been in the car repair business since 1972 - I will only buy or lease new cars now (and sell them before the warranty runs out) - new cars today are so filled with technology that NO ONE understands or can easily diagnose without spending $$$ - I've been there and seen that.