V70: Electrical Help: Totally unresponsive electrical system.

[Mini35LE]

Mrs had to be recovered off the A1 at the weekend and we currently have a dead 2012 V70 2.0 D4 SE Lux geartronic outside the house. Lost power at 70mph so pulled onto the hard shoulder with the DIS cycling through seemigly every error message in it's repetoire. But prior to the engine stopping there was no battery warning light or Low Battery warning in the DIS. Mrs noticed when she had stopped and turned the ignition off that the headlights would not turn off. Handbrake would not disengage either. Recovery guy could not get car to respond when connected to his jumper pack so had to use slipper mats to get it onto the truck. To add insult to injury he must've had a screw on one of the mats as next morning I woke up to a flat rear tyre. Jacked car up and sandwiched between the road and the screw was a sliver of slipper mat that had scraped off as the car was slid off the back of the truck. Multimeter shows 11.8v on the battery so took it back (under warranty). The factors tested it and said it was OK but needed a charge. Left it with them, fetched it back tonight. Showed 13.1v. Fitted it to car, it allowed me to disengage the handbrake but brought up an error on DIS "Not in P" with a lot of bonging when the driver door was open. Put it in P, no change, still bonging away and insisting not in Park. Disconnected battery. Left for 10 minutes, reconnected it. Depressed brake, pushed Start...first message Brake Failure, no cranking, you have 10 vehicle messages, bulbs out, immobilizer reset please retry, ABS failure, headlamp levelling failure, SRS failure, etc etc. Pressed start again to turn car "off". Opened door, bong bong bong, not in P. Took battery off. As the battery voltage was so low I suspect the alternator might well be dead but unless I get car to start I don't know how I can check it. Currently at a loss what to do as car is at 150k miles so understandably I'm reluctant to get it towed 15 miles to the Volvo Service Center for them to tell me it needs a new ECU which will probably be a million pounds plus another million to recode it to the car.

[Peter2400]

Battery is dead i think. The shop has charged it, but it doesnt hold it, because it has internal short (or something like that) so as soon as it gets load, it drops the voltage. Happened to mee once too. One day car would just do nothing, all error messages. Car ran fine 2 days before. New battery in, problem solved.

[Sotosound]

Originally Posted by Peter2400

Battery is dead i think. The shop has charged it, but it doesnt hold it, because it has internal short (or something like that) so as soon as it gets load, it drops the voltage. Happened to mee once too. One day car would just do nothing, all error messages. Car ran fine 2 days before. New battery in, problem solved.

This would also be my first suspicion, especially if the battery is the original one.

It happened to my son last year with his 2011 XC70. He and his family were about to set out home at the end of a summer holiday in Cornwall. Everything was packed up, the kids were in the back, and the car wouldn't start. Everything started going wrong. Error messages popped up. The alarm was going off when he unlocked the car. The car insisted that Valet Locking was on etc. etc.

Out came the recovery service, who got the car started but advised that the battery was done for. It had a received a charge of sorts during the journey down, but a number of very short runs into the local town during the holiday week had finished it off. A new battery sorted it all.

One thing that I would say about Volvo electronics is that they're great when they're working properly, but with even the first sniff of a problem they go all over the place.

Please also note that my son's XC70 was nine years old at the time.

[eternal optimist]

I’ve used www.tayna.co.uk for the last three batteries I’ve bought. Excellent range and good prices. Not had to buy one for my XC70, it’s still on the original according to the date stamped on the battery post.

[FreshAir]

It's not just Volvos that do this when battery is low, Jaguars do it as well, tell you the world is ending with every error known. It's a dead battery on them.

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by Sotosound

with even the first sniff of a problem they go all over the place.

Every CANbus car is like that. It's not a Volvo thing.

[Mini35LE]

Originally Posted by Sotosound

This would also be my first suspicion, especially if the battery is the original one.

It happened to my son last year with his 2011 XC70. He and his family were about to set out home at the end of a summer holiday in Cornwall. Everything was packed up, the kids were in the back, and the car wouldn't start. Everything started going wrong. Error messages popped up. The alarm was going off when he unlocked the car. The car insisted that Valet Locking was on etc. etc.

Out came the recovery service, who got the car started but advised that the battery was done for. It had a received a charge of sorts during the journey down, but a number of very short runs into the local town during the holiday week had finished it off. A new battery sorted it all.

One thing that I would say about Volvo electronics is that they're great when they're working properly, but with even the first sniff of a problem they go all over the place.

Please also note that my son's XC70 was nine years old at the time.

Sadly not the battery by the look of it. It’s only 10 months old and is still showing 12.8v. Full diagnostic indicates that the Central Brain has completely lost its connection with the Brake Control Module. The BCM isn’t present on the vehicle network at all. This lack of connection is being seen as a major fault and has kicked in the immobiliser as Central Brain says you can’t drive the car with faulty brakes. Looks like a trip to the Volvo dealer is unavoidable. Or I just scrap a perfectly good car that I’ve had from 9 months old. Full service history. Just put 4 new Pirelli’s on it recently and it’s got a full tank of diesel too. Not happy.

[Whyman]

Do you use Claytons of Mansfield? Probably the nearest one to you.

If not give them a try.

[RdX]

Originally Posted by Mini35LE

Mrs had to be recovered off the A1 at the weekend and we currently have a dead 2012 V70 2.0 D4 SE Lux geartronic outside the house. Lost power at 70mph so pulled onto the hard shoulder with the DIS cycling through seemigly every error message in it's repetoire. But prior to the engine stopping there was no battery warning light or Low Battery warning in the DIS. Mrs noticed when she had stopped and turned the ignition off that the headlights would not turn off. Handbrake would not disengage either. Recovery guy could not get car to respond when connected to his jumper pack so had to use slipper mats to get it onto the truck. To add insult to injury he must've had a screw on one of the mats as next morning I woke up to a flat rear tyre. Jacked car up and sandwiched between the road and the screw was a sliver of slipper mat that had scraped off as the car was slid off the back of the truck. Multimeter shows 11.8v on the battery so took it back (under warranty). The factors tested it and said it was OK but needed a charge. Left it with them, fetched it back tonight. Showed 13.1v. Fitted it to car, it allowed me to disengage the handbrake but brought up an error on DIS "Not in P" with a lot of bonging when the driver door was open. Put it in P, no change, still bonging away and insisting not in Park. Disconnected battery. Left for 10 minutes, reconnected it. Depressed brake, pushed Start...first message Brake Failure, no cranking, you have 10 vehicle messages, bulbs out, immobilizer reset please retry, ABS failure, headlamp levelling failure, SRS failure, etc etc. Pressed start again to turn car "off". Opened door, bong bong bong, not in P. Took battery off. As the battery voltage was so low I suspect the alternator might well be dead but unless I get car to start I don't know how I can check it. Currently at a loss what to do as car is at 150k miles so understandably I'm reluctant to get it towed 15 miles to the Volvo Service Center for them to tell me it needs a new ECU which will probably be a million pounds plus another million to recode it to the car.

Leave the battery out for at least 24hrs. I almost bricked '05 S40 1.8 by removing spark, ignition coil and injector on a cylinder that I know has bad valve stem seals (had the idea I could get it to friends garage without the car running like a weed eater on the other 3cyls)... anyways the symptoms were headlights dimmed and not turning of after key removal from ignition, car unable to lock, no messages on dash, steering lock not engaging, no change when turning light knobs... general ****storm. A day later got to the car with another car with mind set to towing it back to my place, reconnected the battery and the car reacted to locking/unlocking so I decided to reconnect the injector, got the spark back and attached coil back on it and the car unbricked itself. Got it running back on it's own power.

Hope this helps.

[Mini35LE]

Originally Posted by Whyman

Do you use Claytons of Mansfield? Probably the nearest one to you.

If not give them a try.

Yes, going in next week.