Help needed: 2000 S80 T6 stalled

Hi all,

My 2000 S80 died today as I was pulling into a parking lot. I was doing about 10-15 mph (in the lot) when it happened. Lost steering, brakes, etc. It just flat out died. No sputtering. So, I immediately took it in to my Volvo dealership -- generally very good guys. They thought it might be a battery problem due to something that happened last week (door open and key in ignition in 2 position for about 3-4 minutes as I loaded car and chatted....when I got back into car, I saw a "low battery" warning on the console and car wouldn't start. It did after I turned key to full off position and restarted....low battery message went away).

So. They found no fault codes, and tested battery, and apparently nothing wrong. They did note that some of the software is out of date (!) and could use upgrading, one of the upgrades does address an "intermittent" stalling problem. I haven't had an intermittent stalling problem, only today :) Wouldn't I have seen this earlier? The car is about 4.5 years old.

Any ideas on what this might be? I am obviously concerned about driving a car that can stall out on me.

Thanks in advance for your help, and time. Cynthia

Any car can stall out on you, don't try to fool yourself. With newer cars it's particularly important to keep the electrical system in good shape. Don't run the battery down and replace it when it starts showing signs of age. I've had my S80 for over 4 years and it still has the factory battery and has never stalled out on me.

It has never been drawn flat except one time when the guys at the tire store figured it was a good idea to crank my stereo while they did the tire change. What idiots, I leave the car with them for 1 hour and they draw the battery flat, something I've never done in 4 years of ownership. I guess they didn't realize the upgraded stereo has something like 12 speakers and can kick out some serious bass. It didn't help any that the CD I had in the deck was trance and had a really heavy bass line. Plus, since they opened all the doors (to let the sound out) the courtesy lights were all on.