Volvo XC70 – Immobilizer. See Manual.
I had my 2001 XC70 parked in the hospital’s garage while my son was being born. On one of my many trips to the car over those 3 days I found a set of keys I had lost and replaced long ago. Since it cost me $300 to replace them, I was happy to have a spare. I wondered if the remote would still work and tried it out. Doors locked just fine!
The day we were sent home I went to the car so I could pull up front and load my wife and son. Car would not start. “Immobilizer. See Manual,” read the message board. I didn’t have a manual with me. I jumped to the conclusion that I had triggered some sort of anti-theft device by using the long lost, disabled remote, so I called my dealer.
“Have it towed to us. We’ll have you back up and running in a couple of days.” This was not an option, so I searched the internet. Lots of questions about this, but no answers and I needed to get my family home. So I’m posting my answer here in hopes that it will get good Google placement and inform the next poor guy who doesn’t have time to have his car towed to the dealership.
I ended up calling a friend for a ride and had the car towed. At the dealership the guy took my keys and locked/unlocked the door 5 times in a row with the remote. This reset the immobilizer and I was on my way. Obviously they couldn’t just tell me that over the phone, but good god. I hope this info can help someone else.
Same problem. I didn’t get the “Immobilizer. See Manual” message though, so when I brought it to the dealership (Capital Volvo in Albany, NY), they said it was the batter (even though I told them I was pretty sure it wasn’t). They replaced the battery and it worked for a few days, then the same problem. I brought it back and they said it was the antenna ring. They replaced it and it worked for a few days, then the same problem but this time the “Immobilizer. See Manual” message displayed. Unfortunately, locking and unlocking the car via the remote didn’t work. Now I’m waiting for a tow truck for the third time.
Capital Volvo sucks at repairing cars.
Just a follow up – after bringing it in for the third time, they finally determined it was the starter (”hey, this car won’t start – maybe it’s a problem with the STARTER”), so they replaced that and now it starts fine. I do have to add that Capital Volvo of Albany didn’t charge me any of the service time for the 2nd and 3rd trips back, but I still ended up buying a new battery and a new antennae ring, of which I didn’t need either one. The most frustrating thing was that when I brought it in the first time, they replaced the battery and then gave me a list of 4 other things that ’should be done soon’. The price of those 4 other things was around $2,900. I feel like they spent more time trying to find additional work for them than they did trying to fix the original problem! Needless to say, after using up 3 of my 4 yearly calls to AAA for towing, and spending money on parts I didn’t need, not to mention the wasted time…I won’t be going back to them for a while…
THANK YOU I can’t believe it could be that simple. It worked for me. I had called dealer and they said sounds like a battery. We tested battery and it was fine, then tried jumping and it wouldn’t start. Dealer said bring it in. We live 150 miles from dealer and didn’t want to pay that towing charge. So would you believe you were the first site I looked at and bingo. I went out, did what you said and it worked!! THANK YOU, I’m so proud that a woman fixed her own car!!!
@jp ploetz
That is great! I’m so glad my post helped. So, what was it that set off the immobilizer in the first place?
I have the same problem with my XC70, 2002. However I do not have the remote so I cannot try this 5 times. At some other place I found the information that immobilizer resets after 5 hours. This is why I know that it starts overnight after problems in the evening. I am considering switching immobilizer off completely.
How do you switch the immobilizer off?