Very basic question about jump starting 2008 V70
 

I haven't thought about jump starting for years, but our last car had a battery die (terminally) on us just before the shops shut a few years back, without warning, so I am trying to do some revision.

There's plenty of articles on line about jump starting Volvos. I notice they all use a jump-start pack. Also there is a warning about following manufacturer's procedures.

This is something I can't find.

Are there any special caveats about jump starting this model from another car? I hope never to have to, but think I should ask the questions.

Many thanks for any advice.

Do you mean "bump-starting" or "jump-starting" from another vehicles's battery?

The latter is very simple, just like any other car, and described very clearly in the manual for your car.

Thank you, I have found it now. (I should have looked under "S" instead of "J" at the start ... )

I notice they don't tell you to turn the engines off before disconnecting, as one of the Breakdown companies does. I thought that was odd (turning the engine off before driving it again).

It's more than 40 years since I contributed to a bump start. There were no engine issues in those days, but I notice that all the online resources more or less say, "Don't do a bump start", and the manual doesn't mention it. Are there engine issues now?

Perhaps it's because you cannot bump start a car with automatic transmission.

Maybe. Ours is a manual transmission.

I was once told[don't know how true it is though]that you shouldn't bump start a car fitted with a catalytic converter as the unburnt fuel while it's trying to fire can damage the cat.

That's 100% true. It happened to one of our cars, when the distributor was faulty and it was running for too long on the starter.
Had to replace the catalytic converter after that.

Its no big deal, just remember to leave the Donor Car Running and connect the Red Jump Lead to both battery Red Positive Terminals and the Black Jump Lead to ether Bare Metal Earth or The Negative Battery Terminals on Both Cars. After starting your car remove both leads, but be careful not to touch the red and black jump leads together until they have been removed from the donor car or battery.

2011 XC70 D5 Lux

I know that I was warned against connecting charging cables directly to the negative terminal as there is some monitoring hardware in that battery connector. I was advised to find a solid earth point and use that. I don't know if this advice applies to jump starting where the current is much higher and might do more damage if incorrectly attached. Anyone know about this aspect of battery connection in Volvos?

I believe it’s the sudden surge of power or ‘spike’ that can cause damage to the vehicle with the flat battery if a lot of power is suddenly given to it.
To avoid this switch on the headlights of the flat vehicle, turn the engine off on the donor vehicle, then connect jump leads (red first), start the engine on donor vehicle, switch off headlights then you can start attempting to start the engine on the flat vehicle. Also as mentioned above connect the black/earth lead to the vehicle’s body or suitable engine metalwork rather than the battery, and don’t have the headlights switched on if it has xenon or HID headlights.
I have done this many times without a problem.
If in any doubt call the breakdown company if you can as if their is any damage caused it should be covered by them.
Hope this helps, Luke