Stop/Start

[ushes]

Just wondering if anyone has had Stop/Start problems?
I have a 69 plate D4 inscription Auto and the S/S is niggling me. It's not available for long periods at a time. It may not be available for 3/4 days then suddenly starts to be available again, maybe for a day or so and then its not available again for a couple of days. This is happening regardless of the journey length or type. I rarely use any electrics apart from the radio. I have no warning messages.
The car is under warranty from a local garage and they're looking at it next week, they say the diagnostic check is £120 + VAT and their software may not be smart enough to find the problem !!
They say its meant to be unavailable to protect the battery when there's a risk it wont start again. I can understand this on a temporary basis but for 3/4 days at a time seems unacceptable?

I'd prefer to take it straight to Volvo but the garage warranty says they must see it first.

Any comments please ?

Steve

[benterrier]

If they supplied it and its under warranty i wouldn't be paying for the diagnostic check. Probably end up having a new battery in my experience.

[ushes]

It's actually the warranty company that specify that they will not pay for any diagnostic time. Its in the small print of the agreement. Rather than pay £120 to the garage who may/may not find the fault I've decided to put it straight into Volvo for diagnostics.
Volvo charge around £140 for the diagnostic check and I'll have to pay that anyway, it goes in Tuesday so lets see if they can pinpoint the problem.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by ushes

Just wondering if anyone has had Stop/Start problems?
I have a 69 plate D4 inscription Auto and the S/S is niggling me. It's not available for long periods at a time. It may not be available for 3/4 days then suddenly starts to be available again, maybe for a day or so and then its not available again for a couple of days. This is happening regardless of the journey length or type. I rarely use any electrics apart from the radio. I have no warning messages.
The car is under warranty from a local garage and they're looking at it next week, they say the diagnostic check is £120 + VAT and their software may not be smart enough to find the problem !!
They say its meant to be unavailable to protect the battery when there's a risk it wont start again. I can understand this on a temporary basis but for 3/4 days at a time seems unacceptable?

I'd prefer to take it straight to Volvo but the garage warranty says they must see it first.

Any comments please ?

Steve

firstly take the 12v battery out and charge it for 48 hours continuous.. it will have sulphated whilst hanging around not being used before you had it. this usually works. preferably I use a DC power supply set to 5 amps and 15v.

[Rustyfrog]

Ushes..........##
Hope you got sorted.
I had a similar problem with a V90. It turned our to be the battery.
If you havent yet got sorted, take the car and have the battery tested. That bit is usually free.
The battery cost is something else of course.
If you have got the problem sorted, please let us know.
It might just help another member in the same situation.

[ushes]

Hi,
Thanks for the responses.
I think Clan got it spot on, low battery charge, why it was low is another question altogether. I bought it in November last year and its not worked properly since then. It was only standing I think for a couple of weeks before I got it.
I took it to the main dealer, they rang me after a couple of hours and asked to keep the car overnight to charge the battery. I went back next morning, picked the car up and it's been fine since. They charged £140 to charge the battery and for the diagnostic check which I assume they did to check everything. In hindsight I think if I'd charged the battery myself it would have solved the issue but there we go.

[benterrier]

I invested in a Noco genius 2 trickle charger. If your vehicles have not been used and left standing pop one of these on over night all completely sorted the following morning. Can be left connected no worries it shuts it self off.

[X70LVO]

Originally Posted by ushes

Just wondering if anyone has had Stop/Start problems?
I have a 69 plate D4 inscription Auto and the S/S is niggling me. It's not available for long periods at a time. It may not be available for 3/4 days then suddenly starts to be available again, maybe for a day or so and then its not available again for a couple of days. This is happening regardless of the journey length or type. I rarely use any electrics apart from the radio. I have no warning messages.
The car is under warranty from a local garage and they're looking at it next week, they say the diagnostic check is £120 + VAT and their software may not be smart enough to find the problem !!
They say its meant to be unavailable to protect the battery when there's a risk it wont start again. I can understand this on a temporary basis but for 3/4 days at a time seems unacceptable?

I'd prefer to take it straight to Volvo but the garage warranty says they must see it first.

Any comments please ?

Steve

I’m aware of this on my D4 too. Lockdown didn’t do it any favours but it now seems to need 100 mile minimum before it kicks in

[Geozyg]

I have done a lot of chasing on this.
My XC70 2016 constantly has S/S Unavailable.
From new, previous owners, the 06-2016 car had a new main battery in 2020 and then again in 2021. So 3 batteries in 7 years.
There is a long version of this story if anyone is interested but it seems S/S is to do with the BMS (Battery Monitoring System) wanting the SOC (State of Charge) to be over a certain level.
I have overnight charged the battery, using the body for negative to ensure the charge current goes past the BMS sensor on the negative battery cable, resulting in a SOC of 64% raising to 84% after a 2nd overnight rest period.
At 88% the S/S was working.
Over the next week the SOC dropped back to the 60's and S/S was unavailable again.
Right no I have the SOC at 82% and still no S/S.

My conclusion is the SOC has to be in the mid 80s for S/S to work. My battery is 2 yrs old and I don't belive there is anything wrong with it. But it's not brand new.
Volvo seem to have set their SOC to an exceptionally high level that no mid life battery can satisfy. I will live without S/S as I think it's more environmentally friendly to have the engine ticking over for a few mins a day then replacing a battery every year with all its environmental manufacturing costs.

As a foot note, all modern volvos use AGM batteries, these are suposed to last longer and be stronger than the older liquid filled batteries. So I really think 1-2 years life is wholy unacceptable and Volvo really need to drop the SOC level down to be more realistic.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Geozyg

I have done a lot of chasing on this.
My XC70 2016 constantly has S/S Unavailable.
From new, previous owners, the 06-2016 car had a new main battery in 2020 and then again in 2021. So 3 batteries in 7 years.
There is a long version of this story if anyone is interested but it seems S/S is to do with the BMS (Battery Monitoring System) wanting the SOC (State of Charge) to be over a certain level.
I have overnight charged the battery, using the body for negative to ensure the charge current goes past the BMS sensor on the negative battery cable, resulting in a SOC of 64% raising to 84% after a 2nd overnight rest period.
At 88% the S/S was working.
Over the next week the SOC dropped back to the 60's and S/S was unavailable again.
Right no I have the SOC at 82% and still no S/S.

My conclusion is the SOC has to be in the mid 80s for S/S to work. My battery is 2 yrs old and I don't belive there is anything wrong with it. But it's not brand new.
Volvo seem to have set their SOC to an exceptionally high level that no mid life battery can satisfy. I will live without S/S as I think it's more environmentally friendly to have the engine ticking over for a few mins a day then replacing a battery every year with all its environmental manufacturing costs.

As a foot note, all modern volvos use AGM batteries, these are suposed to last longer and be stronger than the older liquid filled batteries. So I really think 1-2 years life is wholy unacceptable and Volvo really need to drop the SOC level down to be more realistic.

Have you tried taking the battery off and feeding it 15.1 volts for 48 hours non stop via a DC power supply unit with variable voltage output? I find that works in most cases of this problem, The battery has been standing around at some point in its life and got sulphated.