Well, by way of update, I tinkered with the removed DIM hoping to get it working, but to no avail. I sent it to XeModex and they repaired it and it works perfectly. In the meantime, i put it up on the lift and changed EVERY wear part in the front end. The pulling upon acceleration was apparently due to wear in the bushings at the top of the strut assembly (the metal bushings mounted in the black rubber piece in the top mount). The car now drives great. Yesterday, my ignition key wouldn't turn past the first or "I" position. Long story short, using information I gleaned from a ignition key removal tutorial on YouTube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzUduzjR9W4

and from the Matthew's volvo site at:

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/key-wont-turn-in-the-ignition-past-i-need-help-asap.html

I was able to remove the bottom shiny metal plate after some Dremel tool work to free the edges, I popped the plate off and found the offending broken guide piece that seems to fail and jam the lock mechanism. In the process, I removed the conical spring and tapped the plate back in place. The key now starts the car and I save the $300 cost of a new ignition key assembly plus the cost of programming and labor at Volvo, most likely a total savings of $600-700. We will see how long I can go before something else fails. The car only has 137K miles on it, but doesn't seem to be all that durable. I am glad I did at full transmission flush at 70 K miles as I would probably be looking at a new auto tranny as well.