C30 Electrics : Volvo C30 Expensive faults- Advice Needed!

[Mike2019]

Hi,

At a bit of a loss and hoping someone might be able to shed some light on this or provide a bit of guidance as admittedly this is a little outside of my wheelhouse.

A few weeks back my 2010 Volvo C30 (R Design) broke down. Having driven 5 or 6 miles and recently turned onto a dual carriageway the engine just turned off. All of the lights, power steering, radio etc were still working, but the engine wouldn't start. I turned the key and tried to turn it over again, but it was completely silent, there was no attempt for it to engage the engine again. The dashboard would throw up faults saying "Immobiliser failed, try again", and other faults relating to the ABS.

A guy from the AA came out and had a look, had a look at the fuses under the passenger footwell (simply dropped the fuse box down, and pushed it back into place). The car then started up, and I managed to get a few miles further up the road. He ran a diagnostics test, which threw up a number of faults, some of which he couldn't clear namely (1A41) Ignition Starter Switch Signal Faulty.

After driving for a few miles the same issue occurred. I left it for a few minutes at the roadside, dropped the fuse box, pushed it back in. And managed to get it home. By which point it wouldn't run for more than a few seconds without the engine cutting out and the same dashboard warnings appearing.

It's been in the garage for several weeks now, and this is where I need some advice. After trial and error they garage has established it was a fault within the ECU, and have since sent this off to be repaired/reformatted and placed back in the car. As of last week I was told this had been done, and looked to resolve the issue- the engine doesn't cut out anymore. I've been quoted £560 for the work carried out. I was told by the garage carrying out the work that they wanted to keep the car a few more days just to make sure the problem had been resolved, and to also look at some other faults that had since appeared.

Skip to today where I've spoken to the garage and they now say there's an intermittent issue with the cars exterior lights, and the central locking system has stopped working. They stated this is an issue with the fuse box/fuse board (excuse my ignorance!) and this will also need to be repaired for a further £450+, and the likely cause of this being water/condensation damage. A week or so prior I had been told there were no obvious signs of water damage and these issues were not present prior to the work being carried out on the ECU and (maybe to my naivety) seems too much of a coincidence to not be related to that.

I wondered if anybody is aware of what might be happening here? Or has come across issues like this in the past? Is there something the garage may or may not have done as part of the ECU repair that could have triggered this issue?
Apologies for the long post, I've tried to add as much info as possible. Any help would be hugely appreciated! Thank you.