Hi Every One

My name is Eva, and we bought a V70, 2002, 5 speed from my husbands parents about 2 years ago. It has been doing great until recently.

In the last year - we have had to replace the clutch pedal position switch 5 times.

Talk about frustrating.

what happens is the car suddenly will get hard to start, then will not start. Our regular mechanic fixed it 3 times, then we decided to take it to the local volvo dealer.
Even there - they do not understand why it keeps shorting out.
usually we can get 3-4 mo and it shorts again, we tow the car and they replace it - all under warranty for the part.

The frustrating part - is there is no warning now - the car just won't start suddenly, and with no back up car - how do you get to point B. Plus the towing.
Last replacements was about 30 days ago.

Any one ever hear of this?
Any reason why the clutch pedal position switch keeps shorting out? There has to be a short draining the switch somewhere - but where?
There has to be another reason. The equipment supply place for volvo claims the only time he has sold or shipped this part in the last year was to US - all 5 times!!!!!

Volvo USA main line couldn't help me.
ps - the switch died this morning and I was 30 minutes late to work. No car.
Thanks for any suggestions

Eva

 

Either..

1. something in the circuit is not correct causing excessive current through the switch (is it melting?) making the contacts fail..
2. or something (clutch pedal maybe?) is mechanically misaligned so it's physically damaging the switch.

If a competant tech has ruled out both of above, then the switch is poorly designed POS. Do you have any more info about what is happening to the switch?

 

Similar problem here. Original owner 2001 V70, switch first went bad about 20 months ago, my independent Volvo guy replaced it, went bad again about 15 months later (no warranty), then again after about 4-5 months (warranteed). I took apart the 2nd replaced switch, no obvious misalignment, nothing burned/melted/mangled. I have had electrical gremlins (bulb failure alerts that come and go, vent system fan that dies and comes back, and most recently, a 7 year battery that died after 2 years.) Very mysterious. Considering some sort of switch bypass, rendering it permanently "on". The whole idea for the switch is idiotic. Rule 1 of standard transmission is to start in N or with clutch depressed. If manufacturers think that product users need to be protected from themselves, who will protect the users from the manufacturers?