2000 v70 Electrical Problem

[banjones98]

I'd recently posted about my V70 surging when I turned on the blower fan. I took it to the local dealer shop and they discovered a vacume line wasn't connected. Great, so the that problem was fixed. Driving home I was enjoying my AC, car was fine until suddenly the Speedometer quit and mileage screen displayed only -----dashes. Three lights on the warning lights lit...ABS and two others (can't remember which) I stopped, restarted and it was OK for a while then it happened again. When I got off the highway I hit a stoplight and when driving off it was as though I was starting in 3rd. All this time I'm thinking the computer was perhaps rebooting or something The speedo and display malfuntion came and went a couple more times and then the headlights then started to blink. I pulled over and then it wouldn't start. I thought I had a dead battery but when I got a jump the dash lit up like usual but it wouldn't crank. Any thoughts on my beautiful albeit dead V70?

[jblackburn]

That's a very strange and unconnected (as far as I can think) set of circumstances.

My first manner of point would be to test the alternator voltage while the car's running. A fluky voltage regulator could cause all sorts of systems to act up. See what it's putting out with no load, and then try to stress it or make it act up while they've got the tester on it. Sears, Advance, Autozone, etc. will do a battery and alternator test for you for free.

Let us know what you find out and hopefully someone can try to steer you in the right direction once we've got a better idea or have eliminated something as a suspect.