Had a 2000 S-40 in the shop complaining about the fuel door not locking. I dutifully replaced the lock motor someone else had ordered, and still no lock. After tearing my hair out with wiring diagrams and taking half the car apart looking for a wiring problem, I decided it must be the control unit. Went to order the part and get a cup of coffee. Got back, and found the gas door locked! Started asking around, and sure enough, the guy that had just been to new product class said they mentioned it at school. So I got out the new features manual, not a word. Checked the VADIS computer, nothing. The only place I found anything was on the new car window sticker. (Remote Central Locking With Fuel Door Delay). Thanks for the easy to find info! Half a day wasted only to find out it was normal! By the way, you mentioned in previous post problems relating to remote door locks, rear wiper, etc. Ask your dealer to check Tech Net Notes regarding upper electronic module and rear electronic module if they haven't allready done so. There is a software upgrade that corrects fuel guage, rear wiper, rear door locks, etc. Another possible upgrade for remote problems. Give them a chance to fix it. There is so much coming at us in the last 2 years it's hard to keep up. The cars are also a lot harder to work on. Example, 2000 S-70 transmission replacement, about 4-5 hours for moderately experienced tech. 2000 S-80 turbo, 10-12 hours. 95 940, about an hour and a half. And no printed manuals. All service info is on CD rom, and sometimes extremely difficult to find. A lot of stuff just isn't there. And what is there is often so vague, that you just tear into the job and hope you don't break anything. Just had to vent. Hope your car gets back to normal.

> Volvo owner. But, why are there so many undocumented features and why

> is it that the dealers don't seem any more informed about overall

> operating features? Even Volvo customer service can only seem to

Theory: With so many vehicle systems controlled using software the

vehicles are becomming "feature rich". It is easy to add a 10 minute

delay if the solenoid is computer controlled, so someone did. And,

the ease of adding this stuff has exceeded the engineering/support

organizations ability to document it. (This applies to many

industries with software being the biggest example of feature creep

exceeding documentation and support capabilities.)

I bet the radio, alone, has a dozen undocumented features.

Now, why the 10 minute delay? I suppose it is so you can pull into

the station, lock the car, walk up to the booth and pay, walk back

and then pump the fuel without unlocking the car. Clever, but a

good example of feature creep.