V40cc D3 starting / battery issue?
 

Hi
Our D3 (13 plate) appears to be reluctant to start on fairly frequent occasions. Its not that it doesn't start, but it may take several presses of the button to get it to fire up.
Also the start/stop system has stopped or rather is in active. In the DrivE menu it shows as being due to battery charging, even after quite a reasonable journey.
My suspicion is that the battery may be on its way out so not providing enough oomph for a quick start and therefore the S/S is deactivated.
Went out this morning - a good frost, car showing -3deg.
checked the battery voltages: opened bonnet 12.3v, ignition on 12.0-12.1 volts, engine running 15.2v (it started with no hesitation this morning) with all electrics on that I could turn on 13.2v, engine and ignition off 12.5v, ignition back on 12.0v, ignition off slowly recovered to 12.2v.

it strikes me that the battery voltage is a bit low and I am surprised that the cars basic ignition on (no select-able systems on) drops it noticeably. The charging system seems to putting out plenty and more than enough to deal with cars demands.

Am i thinking in the right direction?
(it had the rear door lock replaced a couple of weeks ago, the garage checked the error codes - the only current one related to the power steering module and was apparently unwilling to clear. They also put the battery on charge, they didn't say but that makes me think they too thought it low)

Sounds like the battery is on its way out.

Yes I would say battery also. A friend has a v70 on a 65 plate and the battery has just failed in that to. Volvo batteries used to be good quality, the Volvo battery in my S40 was still original at 12 years old!

battery standing voltage is a little low , give it a long long charge to top it up ( overnight or 24 hours ) and give it another chance . The alternator only charges to get the battery up to 80% then it uses power saving, it only charges after this if you are braking or foot off the accelerator . All this is controlled by a complex module on the negative battery terminal

get battery checked either via vida or hand held tester

thanks for the replies,guys.
I've a C-tek charger so I'll put that on to make sure it is fully upto charge and see if that makes a difference.
A bit of an update, we were out on saturday morning when we went to start it to head home pressing the start button failed to start the car but we did get a 'buzzing' noise repeated a couple of times from the passenger side of the front of the car (battery/control area?) this happened 2/3 times. turned ignition off then retried and it started fine.

As it sounds as though my thoughts on the battery may be on the right lines i am tempted to get a new battery any way, not having the car working correctly is driving my wife pippy

A few months on and thought that i should update this in case it helps anyone else out.
charging the battery up seemed to make no difference. Charger took it up to 12.7V but this dropped back to 12.3v after about 24hrs with the car stood unused or used for the usual 40min commute work day.
Bit the bullet and took it into the dealers with a full written description of the issues and also spoke to the workshop tech. Their opinion;
1, battery voltage slightly low (but the in car system is not reporting this as a problem, despite it being 'very sophisticated') so give it a good charging since (as Clan said) the car will only take it to 80% but the start/stop will not operate if charge is below 80% - how does that work in the real world???
2, starter motor is sticking - hence random failure to start - and recommend replacement - at about £450.00 I know they only had the car for a couple of hours and in this time it behaved itself but i am pretty convinced from recent experience on my other vehicles that this is not the issue.
Credit to the dealer, they did not charge me for the diagnostic time.

My actions - replace the battery. This seems (touch wood) to have sorted out the issues with start/stop, the random non-starting and a couple of other minor changes in 'behaviour'.