V70: Wipers/Horn/Heater take 5+ minutes before working
 

I'm new to this forum and am turning to you experts for help. I bought my 1999 V70 new, a few years ago a problem popped up and it has been gradually getting worse: when the car is first started the wipers/horn/radio/heater/AC will not work at all, the engine has to have been running for several minutes before they all start working at once. And then if the ignition is even briefly turned off for say just running into the store they won't work again until the car has been restarted for several more minutes. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

When you start a car, the spring in the ignition switch pushes the switch back to a set of contacts that are intended to "run" the car. The contacts for items that turn on in the "accessory" position are necessarily separate, and there can be other separate sets of contacts just because the designers added them. So I think what you are seeing is the contacts that make the engine run are making up after starting, but the accessory contacts aren't. After a while, the switch may chatter around a little and some of those other contacts start making up.

So try this: The next time you start it, turn the key back little by little and see if everything turns on.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try and report back.

Well, I've tried every trick in the book - turning the key back little by little, pushing, pulling - but nothing works. Bottom line is that if the vehicle has been turned off by more than about a minute or so the accessories don't work and the whole warm-up process has to be repeated.

For whatever it's worth it seems like the colder the outside air temperature is the longer it takes after engine start before the accessories start working, if it's really cold outside it can sometimes take 10 to 15 minutes after engine start before the accessories work. Any more suggestions?