My brake lights (both) have stopped working, changed bulbs, bought replacement light kits for both sides. Still not working. Occasionally the Driver's side front head light goes out or dims, but after wiggling it a bit it comes back on. Now dash warning lights are coming on for no reason, but will go off on their own. Even after turning the key off and removing from ignition the lights remained on in the dash. Today on the way into work the car was running fine, had my computer messages saying my mileage and all. Then I looked down and my messages would not display, my gas guage wasn't reading, speedometer said I was at 55mph even at a complete stop. My turn signal came on as if I had turned on my hazard lights, my battery light, hazards, weather condition, and warning light were all displayed. Shut my car off, removed the key, and this still occurred. Continued on my way and about 15 minutes later they all went off, my messages displayed, gas guage reads, and so does speedometer. Any ideas on what would cause this? Or what needs to be done, without going to dealership?

 

Hello, Post back with the year, trim level and mileage of your car please. Do make sure your battery is: a)clean with tight clamps, b)charged, and capable of holding a charge. Lift the hood and see if the grounding bolts along both fender edges are tight. After that checking is done we can guess. FWIW, the only thing which I've ever heard of which lights up the instrument panel is the "common" ABS unit failure. Hear from you, Kira

 

2002 Volvo V70 2.4T, Bought vehicle at 54k had about 3 yrs and is now at 104k. Car ran fine on the way home from work today for the first 20 minutes or so, after that lights on instrument panel started to flicker and guages started jumping, the flickering was very rapid. This continued for approx. 5 minutes then stopped. Drove approximately 30 minutes more, including a few stops, and did not have any issues. I do have the husband out checking everything you suggested right now. Will post after checking all these items and see how car runs in the a.m. on the way to work. Approximately 30-45 minute ride in stop and go traffic.

 

As of this morning nothing new to report. My ride was uneventful I got not error codes displaying, no flashing lights, and all was well. My husband made sure the battery terminals were tight, grounding bolts good, and so far so good. I'll keep updating if I receive any additional error codes.

 

So the ride in to work this morning very uneventful, after a full day of work I get in the car, start it, and nothing is working on the instrument panel. No messages, no warning lights, turn signal lights work on the outside, but don't show on the inside. Gas gauge, speedometer, oil guage, odometer, nothing displays or reads. Stopped by auto parts store and had a diagnostic run on it, no codes are pulling up. Any ideas on what the problem could be??? Any help is appreciated.

 

Had an in-law take a look at the Volvo this evening. He tested all the fuses, again checked the ground, checked the battery terminals. Wasn't any of those. He ended up removing the instrument panel and testing the wireing, still nothing, went further down and behind it and found that the relay panel up underneath the dash had a card that went into it, apparently somewhere along the line I knocked it loose and it wasn't reading properly. He reinserted the card and voila, everything is functioning normally again.

 

Hello, Great find. Please tell us a little more about the location of this panel and its location. Thanks, Kira

 

I'll try to explain in full detail where he located this "card". First he popped out the plastic casing behind the wheel, overtop of the instrument panel. Then he removed the instrument panel which is attached by a group of wires and a plastic connector. The relay panel is underneath of this group of wires. He found the card hanging loose from a slot near this relay panel.