I am NOT a mechanic, but this car has stumped two mechanics.

2008 v50, 138,000 miles.

On vacation, drove to beach, very hot weather, stayed at beach about 3 hours, went to start car but would not start (no clicking, no trying to turn over sound) and would not shift out of park unless I pressed the override button. Still would not start.

All lights on strong.

Something humming/whirring in front of car.

Towed the car. At garage, car started right up, battery was good. They could not duplicate the problem.

Drove car home, 300 miles, and for two weeks. Heatwave at home. No problem.

Two days ago, same thing happened. Won't shift out of park. Won't start. All lights on. Towed to garage. Starts right up, can't find anything wrong.

Some added info:

-- This last time, if I depressed the brake pedal several times, hard, I could shift car from park to neutral, still wouldn't start. When I shifted back to park, it was stuck again.

-- There's something hanging from the lower left side near the hood release -- looks like a bunch of wires attached to a grey piece of plastic, looks like it broke off and should be attached to underside of dash. All wires still attached.

-- Plastic cover inside shifter broke into a million pieces. I cleared it out. Thought a stray piece might be problem, but the mechanics said it shifted out of park fine for them and started right up.

So...any thoughts? I'm finally bringing the car to my Volvo guy next week. But wondering if anyone has any leads on this.

Thanks! Coincidentally, we have a 1991 240 station wagon with a different problem. I'll post in other forum, but it's not been a good week for Volvo wagons at our house.

 

My guess is that it has to do with the shift gate cover (blind, IIRC). I can easily imagine the debris getting into the mechanism and Park (starter) lockout and causing problems. Additionally, the cover also has a tiny little magnet on the right side that's used by sensors and the car's computer to determine the position of the shift lever. When that cover is broken, your manual shifting doesn't work.

The good news is that a new blind isn't expensive, and it's really not difficult to install.

So I'd recommend spending the $20 for a new shift blind, and replacing it - cleaning out the debris from the old one while you're in there. Even if this isn't the cause of your no-start problem, it's well worth doing for several reasons (aesthetic, protective, and so you can shift manually).

 

Thank you so much!

Will do!

I'm still going to bring to my Volvo guy, just in case there is an issue B or C.