Flat Battery

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by harveys

I know some new cars the alternator doesn't work all the time.
If the engine is under high load the Air conditioning and alternator are turned off for a time to help deliver more power to drive the wheels & emission levels.
Do Volvo do the same ?.

Yes, under Wide Open Throttle the AirCon is disengaged (on some Volvo cars...)

[Billggski]

The battery on my wife's cooper s has just failed. Through the cold weather. But it is eight years old.
When I have researched it, it needs an agm (gel) battery and my smart battery charger isn't suitable as it doesn't have a gel setting.
The car has an intelligent charge system, so needs resetting after swapping.
The BMW dealer apparently wants £400+ to fit a new one and re programming.
So, I'm getting the identical battery for £140 and fitting it myself. I hope.

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by Billggski

The battery on my wife's cooper s has just failed. Through the cold weather. But it is eight years old.
When I have researched it, it needs an agm (gel) battery and my smart battery charger isn't suitable as it doesn't have a gel setting.
The car has an intelligent charge system, so needs resetting after swapping.
The BMW dealer apparently wants £400+ to fit a new one and re programming.
So, I'm getting the identical battery for £140 and fitting it myself. I hope.

As long as you can reset the intelligent charging parameters, you'll be fine

Eg: even in the Volvo P2 cars there are counters that monitor the battery state and need to be reset when changing the battery.
These counters are invaluable when determining the state of the battery and whether it is simply flat, or needs replacing.
Eg: a battery that has triggered the low battery warning 100 times would be evaluated differently to a battery that triggered the low battery warning only twice.

In my Volvo, I am currently at around 55 low battery warnings... so that and the age of the battery tells me that I should expect to replace the battery in the next 2 years.

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by Billggski

When I have researched it, it needs an agm (gel) battery and my smart battery charger isn't suitable as it doesn't have a gel setting.

PS: the CTEK smart chargers can handel AGM batteries, mine has an AGM setting

[AB-UK]

Would following the instructions on this page work on the XC90 (Mk1 or Mk2) so that a new battery could be fitted without interrupting any of the car's systems?

https://www.tayna.co.uk/tutorials/ch...ing-radio-code

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by AB-UK

Would following the instructions on this page work on the XC90 (Mk1 or Mk2) so that a new battery could be fitted without interrupting any of the car's systems?

https://www.tayna.co.uk/tutorials/ch...ing-radio-code

The Volvo's car audio security system is much more sophisticated and does not loose it's security code when the vehicle battery is disconnected. Those methods of adding extra batteries for power backup can be done but BEWARE the positive battery cable will be live AT ALL TIMES, it must not come into contact with any vehicle metal areas or bodywork. This critical piece of information is missing from the Tayna instructions.
Of course, the advantage of a backup battery is you will not loose the clock time, you will not loose your trip computer data.

Otherwise, changing a battery is as much as turn off vehicle, remove keys, close doors (apart from boot where the battery is), wait 15min for all control modules to shut down, then disconnect old and fit new battery.

Afterwards, reset the low battery voltage warning counters using VIDA.
And reset the clock and trip computer as required.

[Driver Dave]

Well the car went in today and within an hour of dropping it off I had a call to say the technician had replaced the main battery. He spent the rest of the day running checks. When I picked it up every thing seemed to be working fine - Start / Stop and VoC RES included.

Will have to see how it behaves over the next few days.

[Razer]

Good news. Sounds like the same as me then, perhaps it really is just a bad batch of batteries? Ive used RES twice since posting in the RES thread and its worked on both occasions too, its noted as one of the things that people have had stop working after their batteries being replaced on swedespeed. Start/stop is working fine for me too,

Had to pop into my dealer on the way home to collect my boot mat and they have had one other 66 plate car with this issue and that hasn't seen the issue return.

[Jabbar40]

Originally Posted by Razer

Good news. Sounds like the same as me then, perhaps it really is just a bad batch of batteries? Ive used RES twice since posting in the RES thread and its worked on both occasions too, its noted as one of the things that people have had stop working after their batteries being replaced on swedespeed. Start/stop is working fine for me too,

Had to pop into my dealer on the way home to collect my boot mat and they have had one other 66 plate car with this issue and that hasn't seen the issue return.

That's good to hear. Mine is booked with the dealers later this week. I've done two long journeys on the motorway over the weekend and now suffering from low battery warnings every time I drive. Quite shocking to be honest and I hope dealers can sort out this week. Probably my first and last Volvo at this rate.

[Razer]

Note sure why as there are so many variables but start/stop didnt work on my journey to/from work today (worked fine yesterday) when stopping at the same junctions/traffic lights. Will monitor.