Hello,

I browsed the forum when I had ignition problems, but right now, I'm really stuck. It started some days ago, the car would start and shut down right away, it was left overnight and next morning it started. I read up that the cause might be the ignition coils + spark plugs. Seeing how it is the holidays now, I had no time to get ignition coils ordered, but I changed the spark plugs at least, car ran a bit better, but eventually didnt want to run again. When this happened, I took a 30 min nap in the car, tried again while keeping revs around 1200 for a minute, and it ran well after.

Now, today, my sister was driving the car, when she got in to start it, it wouldnt start anymore. She gave it some throttle, TOO MUCH, the car was bouncing off at around 4000rpm (wouldnt pass it), it slowly decreased to 2000rpm, and completely shut off.

... right now, if you try starting the car, it clicks and everything turns off. In fact, all the electronics are going wacko, light switch doesnt work, it says theres a brake failure, when you change from PRND, the indicator light doesn't change, radio doesn't work, alarm goes crazy...

What could this be????
I'm desperatly out of ideas, it sounds like an expensive problem :S

Car is a:
1999 Volvo S80 T6 with 240 000km

I thank in advance anyone who responds :)

Update:

Today the car decided to start. Voltage reading off battery: 12.5V off, 14.2V idling.

could it be the voltage regulator + ignition coils?

The Voltage readings you are getting are fine. So it's not that at least when you tested it. Now, it could be an intermittent problem with your Alternator, but when you start your car, your Alternator has no bearing on starting.

As a previous owner of a Lincoln with direct ignition coils, what you are describing sounds very similar to the problems I had when I'd have an ignition coil fail. Hard starting, no starting, surging and skipping, etc.

I'm new to Volvo's so I cannot help in terms of what is common, but I am good with the basic mechanics of a car.