Start/Stop D3 V70 2010

[Boatie]

I did ask this question whilst 'trespassing' on another thread but didn't get an answer so I'll try again here.

I really dislike the Start/Stop facility on my my 2012 V70 D3 SE Lux. Apart from the fact that it's erratic and abrupt when it restarts I can't help but feel that constant restarting is doing the starter, starter ring and battery no long term good. Obviously I can (and do) turn it off at the start of each trip (when I remember) but can it be legally turned off permanently by a dealer.? Doing so might impact on emissions and in turn road tax banding.

[GrantA]

Originally Posted by Boatie

I did ask this question whilst 'trespassing' on another thread but didn't get an answer so I'll try again here.

I really dislike the Start/Stop facility on my my 2012 V70 D3 SE Lux. Apart from the fact that it's erratic and abrupt when it restarts I can't help but feel that constant restarting is doing the starter, starter ring and battery no long term good. Obviously I can (and do) turn it off at the start of each trip (when I remember) but can it be legally turned off permanently by a dealer.? Doing so might impact on emissions and in turn road tax banding.

I know nothing about the stop/start facility but if it can be switched off "at the start of each trip" then IMO there should be the ability to switch it off permanently through VIDA. As for the legality of switching it off, if you can already switch it off any time you use the car who is to know you don't do that ALL the time anyway.

[andyg]

Originally Posted by andyg

I have an S80, D3 geartronic stop/start, first registered July 2013 and sourced from Motorpoint last October. The car is an ex Volvo UK demonstrator. When I first drove it the stop/start was very unpredictable. On some trips it would kick in correctly, on others just once and that was it, until the ignitition was switched off and a new journey started.

I read somewhere that the main car battery (not the small backup) has to be in very good condition and properly charged for stop/start to work reliably. Thinking about it I assessed that between Volvo and Motorpoint the car might have been standing still for many weeks. So for Xmas I got a modern battery charger that is specifically designed to charge AGM batteries. The charger is by CTEK but there are others out there. On Boxing Day I whacked the battery on a good auto charge for 7 hours. Since then I have made > 10 trips, long and short, and the stop/start has worked correctly each time.

A couple of points to consider: 1) Even when working correctly, there are many conditions when the stop/start will not kick in. The owners manual explains them. 2) The manual is very clear that when charging the main battery the negative lead from the charger should not be connected to the battery terminal, but to an earth point on the car chassis. The manual specifically says that if the charging lead is connected to the negative battery terminal then erratic stop/start can result.

Hope that helps. It worked for me anyway.

The charging fix in my post above lasted maybe 6 weeks. Start/Stop now back to original failure mode. Will be investigated by Volvo at first 18k service in May/June 2014.

[andyg]

My S80 went to Snows Basingstoke for the 1st, 18k service last week. They investigated the car for fault codes affecting the 2 x batteries and the Start/Stop and could not see any. So they decided to do the whole car software update that comes as part of the Volvo service. After that update they found it was working. Since getting it back from Snows I have driven 500+ miles in town and country and it is working like a dream. I now realise probably it has never been working properly from new. Fingers crossed for the next few months, but I think the problem has gone away.

[St Evelyn]

Originally Posted by St Evelyn

I can't comment on the battery point, but I have a 2012 D3 S80 that has had constant start-stop problems from day one.

Without going in to the whole story, my local dealer had a Volvo tech come to site for a week to investigate the same sort of problems I have on another customer's V70. They stated that there was a software fault that prevents the system from charging the Start-Stop battery to it's full capacity. The tech guy ended up installing a very old version of the engine management system to over-come the problem, then informed the garage that they were going to arrange another re-write of the current software to resolve the issue.

This all happened about 6-8 weeks ago, and we're still waiting on the software release. I'll post back when the new software gets deployed and let you know if it has resolve any of my problems (although, to be fair, I believe that I also have other underlying issues).

Well, it's taken a while for me to post back on this issue to say that the new software has been developed and deployed, but it's now finally happened after over 12 months - gotta love software development, lol!

I got a call a couple of weeks back to say that the new software was available and could I pop in to get it applied, so it went in on Thursday 10 days ago. Long story short, stop-start works now like it never has done before.....it brilliant!

Don't know if it's purely because I've done a few longer motorway journeys since the software was applied, but there's been a significant improvement in my MPG also - brim-to-brim calculation this morning came in at just over 50 Vs around 44-46 of late.

Anyway, if anyone else has been awaiting the software update (I seem to recall there was at least one other person in the same boat a while back, but can't find the thread), then it's worth having a word with your dealer now as they should be able to apply the update and sort things out for you.

[andyg]

Glad to hear that yours is fixed. My stop/start has been behaving to spec since the whole car software update was done in May. I was worried that recent cold mornings (around 6 degrees C) would cause it to revert to bad old ways, but all is going well. As you would expect. stop/start does not kick-in on cold mornings with the heated seats, demist and hi-fi all going full blast, but otherwise all seems fine.