V40 Central Locking

I have a 1997 V40 2.0, 5-door estate. My car suffered a heavy collision in
the rear from a vehicle behind while mine was stationary at the traffic
lights. As a result there was considerable damage. Among other things, the
central locking, which had worked fine before the accident, no longer
worked. When I tried to lock the doors, it seemed to lock for a moment and
then unlock again. I briefly mentioned the locking problem to my insurers
when I rang to report the accident, and also mentioned it to the man who
came to collect the car for repairs.

My car was scheduled to be brought back from the garage, when the garage
suddenly cancelled the trip and mentioned a problem with the central
locking. It sounds as if one (or all) of the doors do not lock. I have
heard nothing which suggests that what is wrong is other than what I found
to be at fault immediately after the accident, although there may be some
difference, as I have not had a detailed description of the problem. It
seems, reading between the lines, that the locking problem did not receive
any attention from the garage until it was due back from the repairs and
they appear not to have estimated for such work.

Unfortunately, my insurers are now saying that they doubt the central
locking fault is related to the accident. They have proposed to return the
car with the locking at fault. To me it seems obvious that the damage
occurred at the time of the accident because that is precisely when the
symptoms arose.

Does anyone have information which might help my argument? I am not at all
technical. For example, can anyone confirm that a heavy collision in the
rear might cause such symptoms?

I would be very grateful for any information.

Best wishes,

John

The exact same thing happened on my 1998 V70XC! I had to take it to the
dealer (with my insurance agent present) for a repairman to confirm
it...apparently, the central locking system is a sort of circuit, where
if one of the doors or the trunk won't lock, nothing will. It begins to
lock and then unlocks, right? There must have been some sort of damage
to the trunk locking mechanism that broke the circuit, or maybe the
repair shop installed the new cargo door locking mechanism incorrectly.

Either way, this sounds like a direct result of the accident, I
recommend taking it to the dealer or some other insurance-trusted
service center where a trained Volvo repairman can account for it.
Definitely DON'T go to a service center operated by your insurance
company, they will try to pay as little as they can and make you pay as
much as they can for this.