Hello everyone! Hopefully you can shed some light on what I feel is a CRAZY flaw in these 240's. So I was driving to the airport the other day and some of my dash lights (5 of them) were barely glowing, alt light included. I think to myself, GREAT! a quirky short somewhere in my beloved Volvo. The lights went out and came back on at random times through the drive. I get back from my trip and get into the car, and guess what? There are my dim glowing dash lights again. As I am driving home, the lights are getting brighter and brighter until the car sputters to a stop, battery is dead. I call my father in law and he picks my wife and I up and takes us home. Turns out that the alternator was going bad, duh. Short brushes, loose bearings and a loose terminal meant that I was just going to replace it and I did. I have owned many cars, and expereinced many alt failures in my day, and all of them had the alt light go on as the alt was failing. NOT the brake failure light, alt light, "you've got a bulb out" light, service enging soon light all at the same time. Here is the million dollar question... why in the #$%& would Volvo design it this way? I have read that it's 'normal' for that to happen. I am a car guy and I can't figure out nor explain why they would have designed it like this. I am far from giving up on my Volvo, but once a car makes me walk (and this is the FIRST car to ever make me walk) it's partially ruined in my eyes. If my kid had been in the car, it would have been FOR SALE the next day. I bought this thing for reliability, and would expect that it would give me a clear signal of what was happening.

Thanks in advance!
SCott P