V40 Central Locking

I have a 1997 V40 2.0, 5-door estate. My car suffered a heavy collision in the rear from a vehicle behind while mine was stationary at the traffic lights. As a result there was considerable damage. Among other things, the central locking, which had worked fine before the accident, no longer worked. When I tried to lock the doors, it seemed to lock for a moment and then unlock again. I briefly mentioned the locking problem to my insurers when I rang to report the accident, and also mentioned it to the man who came to collect the car for repairs.

My car was scheduled to be brought back from the garage, when the garage suddenly cancelled the trip and mentioned a problem with the central locking. It sounds as if one (or all) of the doors do not lock. I have heard nothing which suggests that what is wrong is other than what I found to be at fault immediately after the accident, although there may be some difference, as I have not had a detailed description of the problem. It seems, reading between the lines, that the locking problem did not receive any attention from the garage until it was due back from the repairs and they appear not to have estimated for such work.

Unfortunately, my insurers are now saying that they doubt the central locking fault is related to the accident. They have proposed to return the car with the locking at fault. To me it seems obvious that the damage occurred at the time of the accident because that is precisely when the symptoms arose.

Does anyone have information which might help my argument? I am not at all technical. For example, can anyone confirm that a heavy collision in the rear might cause such symptoms?

I would be very grateful for any information.

Best wishes,

John

Reply to
John Townsend
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The exact same thing happened on my 1998 V70XC! I had to take it to the dealer (with my insurance agent present) for a repairman to confirm it...apparently, the central locking system is a sort of circuit, where if one of the doors or the trunk won't lock, nothing will. It begins to lock and then unlocks, right? There must have been some sort of damage to the trunk locking mechanism that broke the circuit, or maybe the repair shop installed the new cargo door locking mechanism incorrectly.

Either way, this sounds like a direct result of the accident, I recommend taking it to the dealer or some other insurance-trusted service center where a trained Volvo repairman can account for it. Definitely DON'T go to a service center operated by your insurance company, they will try to pay as little as they can and make you pay as much as they can for this.

Reply to
Robert

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