V70 Electrical problem

I drive a manual 1997 V70 AWD; it has 66k miles on the clock. Today, when
re-starting the car after having driven it yesterday with no problems for
150 miles or so, all the warning lights on the dash remained lit even after
the engine was ticking over normally, the rev counter did not work, and
neither did the speedometer. (I ran the car for a few hundred yards or so,
and the speedo remained solidly on zero). The on board "information centre"
(ie that tell external temperature, mpg and average mpg and so on) also did
not work properly - temp and mpg both gave a series of dashes as a reading.

Thinking that the problem must be a fuse, I turned the engine off. But
before trying to find the fuse box (I haven't had the car that long), I just
thought I'd try starting the car again. I did, and to my surprise,
everything worked perfectly well, and I drove the 150 miles home with no
problems.

Any ideas on what the problem might have been? Is it a common problem? Any
thoughts on whether this is the start of something expensive?

Martin

 

Almost certainly a dying battery. On the first start the battery was
too drauned to supply the correct level of voltage to the ECU and
sensors for them to set properly. The restart would gave been easier
on the battery , thus the correct setting of sensors. Th e150 mile
drive would have been OK because the battery was off the lower levels
of charge.

That happened to my V70 T5 last year but the battery died slowly and
the electrical gremlins were a littlr puzzling, like clock restting to
00.00 and trip computer resetting plus an throttle control light. A
new battery and no more problems.

I would suggest that you get it done before you find yourself 150
miles from home at midnight when a cheap job could be expensive and
inconvenient. From your description you almost certainly going to get
in the car very soon and that battery will be totally dead.

Traduk

 

You may have the very first symptoms of a dying ignition switch. With the
engine running, try wiggling the key back and forth whilst in the run
position and see if you can re produce the symptoms.

Tim..