Volvo XC70 loses electrical service

I have a 2004 Volvo XC70 with 142K miles. A few weeks ago while driving the car, it seemed to lurch/slip out of gear and then I lost the AC, odometer, speedometer, power windows, turn indicators, etc. My mechanic said connections to the CEM were fried and he replaced them. Yesterday, the same problem occurred. Anyone else experience this problem and, if so, were you able to correct the problem? Also, what was the problem and how much did the fix cost? Thanks.

It sounds to me the real trouble is just simply a bad connection to power somewhere. The trouble could be before the ignition switch (fuses and wiring under the hood need to be checked), with the accessory position of the ignition switch, or after the switch and that would mean checking the dash fuses and wiring to/from it. Hopefully the trouble isn’t real intermittent and stays bad so the bad area can be pinned down fairly easily. Using a wiring diagram and a meter the fault should be pretty easy to find and fairly inexpensive to repair, as long as it remains bad. The tech needs to find out where the common connection to power is for those things that are going out and start the hunt there…

I agree with @cougar. Volvos are notorious for having weird gremlins like that pester the owner.

I owned a couple of Volvo V70XC’s (a '98 and '00) and as they aged they became huge, and I mean HUGE, problems. Eventually the cost of repairing them was a budget breaker.

Just consider that this car is going to cost you incredible an amount of $$$ if you keep it. Time to trade it in before you drown in repair bills.

Thanks, everyone. The problem has happened twice, both on days that were in the mid 90s. It hasn’t happened since. I am hoping that the cooler weather will keep the problem from happening again. As it is, I am done putting money into the car. Next incident will result in me getting a different car.

You’re welcome for the help. You might try to locate the problem yourself by tapping lightly on suspected electrical areas using a screwdriver handle. It is a very good way to flush out intermittent problems like this. Using a hair dry to heat up things along with the screwdriver can work also since this trouble seems to be more heat related than vibration.