i just had my battery changed a few days ago and today i come back to my 4 year old s60 and the car's totally electrically dead. remote wont work, had to manually open the car with the key. when inserted in the ignition, no sign of life whatsover as if there was no battery. no light, no power locks, starter wont turn, no light in instrument panel, no horn. i checked battery connections and that was okay. i checked battery voltage and it was okay also.its as if the main electrical switch was off. what do you think?
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2002 volvo s60

Did you check the battery voltage at the posts or at the wire connections? Check the ground wire, follow it to where it connects to the car, and check the voltage again.
Loosen the clamps on the battery posts and try cleaning the connections again, make sure it is very snug when you use the 10mm wrench to put it back on.

Klaus
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Please answer your responses. We need to know if the advice is good or bad. The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are 2 turbos :)

thanks guys for the answers. its with the dealer now. the battery was installed by the dealer last monday so it wasnt an indie who "messed" it up. its a 2003 s60 turbo

the clamps on the posts are very snug. you can lift the battery by the clamps with no wiggle. the battery was checked at the posts. i did discover that the CD changer at the back had power. you can remove the 10 disc cassette. so that was the only electrical thing in the car still with juice.

the dealer without inspecting suspected that a ground wire was loose. will update you what happens.
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2002 volvo s60

it was a loose ground wire. btw, i might be trading it in for a c30. what do you think? my s60 gave me trouble with the tranny, then the cooling fan, then some minor oil leaks, then some electrical problems like a faulty turn signal (all in a span of 6 months, the cars 4.5 years old). everything was fixed but still gives me the jitters on what else could happen soon.
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2002 volvo s60

I'm assuming a Volvo dealer didn't perform the battery replacement, right?

I don't believe in coincidences, so it's got to be something that the indie did to your car -- you have to go over everything you've checked very, very carefully a second time. And what battery voltage ("it was okay") did you measure, exactly? If you measured 12 volts, that would mean the battery is 90% discharged, while if you measured 12.6 volts or more, that's a good number.
And did you have the indie do anything else on the car -- any extra service or work in the engine compartment?

On newer cars (I don't know if yours applies here, since you didn't speifically mention the model year: 2002, or 2003?), there's also an antitheft device (a relay) that, if the car is tilted (as in being towed), it can trigger a shutdown. Same with an antirollover relay (to cut out things to prevent a fuel spill igniting if the car rolls over). Maybe somehow one of these (if your car has either one) was triggered unintentionally.

In any case, I'm confident that you'll trace the cause to something the indie did, or did not do.

Good luck.