Gear selector in Park but not detected

[JGEM]

After a bit of driving around today I parked the XC60 and went to turn the engine off but it wouldn't stop. Then I noticed the message about it not being in Park (oops, I was distracted and still had it in Drive), so I put the gear selector in Park but the message still stayed up and I couldn't turn the engine off. I cycled the gear lever between Park and Drive a few times and even backed out of the park space and drove forward again but still the message about not being in Park was displayed.

I held down the stop start button for several seconds and then the engine stopped. On my drive home tonight and another couple of trips things have behaved themselves so not sure if this was a one off aberration or the start of something.

Many moons ago in rural NZ I was stuck in a hicksville town with a 940 auto which had the opposite problem - the transmission switch thought it was in Drive so would not let me restart the car. I cycled it back and forth thru the gears about 50 times before it finally made electrical contact and started. Upon returning home I pulled the park switch out and managed to disassemble it and clean the contacts and never had a problem for the next 4 years until I gave the car away to a friend when I exited NZ as an economic refugee.

My wife has never let me forget the incident with the 940 (we had 3 tired and grizzly kids in the car which was loaded to the gunnels with baggage and we wanted to get home before dark and things looked a bit desperate there for a while.)

I'm worried that when my wife has the XC60 she will encounter this problem with the transmission Park detection and will freak out, and I'll get another earbashing about Volvo reliability...

Anyone had this Park detection problem with their XC60? Is there some easily replaced sensor or switch ?

John
2009 XC60 D5 AWD