V60 D3 MY2013 - intermittent electrical problems

[fiftyeight]

Hi,

Apologies in advance for the long thread but I have been experiencing a number of strange electrical problems with our V60 which has me and our local dealer stumped.

We’ve had the car from new and never had any problems with it until February this year. Symptoms have included the following:

* Random "bonnet open" warning messages.
* Remote control wouldn't open the car. Used the manual key, opened the door, alarm sounded. Alarm goes off after putting the "key" in the slot.

During one long drive:
* Serious brake warning - all alert lights shown on dashboard. Cruise control ended. Stopped the car and turned it off. Restarted the car and no further warnings.
* Warning that parking-assist needed a service.
* Sensus crashed - dashboard went blank. Restarted after a few minutes. No impact on the car whilst driving.
* Distance sensor stopped working (button no longer green). Stopped the car and restarted - distance sensor working again.

Reported to the Dealer and they duly “checked it out” and can’t find a fault…

* Engine Management failure alert reported, stopped the car and it then reported “SRS Airbag Service Urgent”. Restarted the car and the problems went away.

Back to dealer (which coincided with regular service interval). No faults found…

A month later I started the car and had no dashboard instruments. Tried restarting - no change. The car does start though (and is “drivable” albeit not safely). Unable to lock the car or open the boot. Ended up using Volvo Assist to recover the vehicle back to the dealer.

The dealer has the car for a couple of weeks and “changed a wiring harness” - no idea which one.

A few weeks later similar problems recur and the dealer changes some wiring “terminals”.

All good for a couple of months and then, whilst driving along the motorway, the car reports general engine management failure, brake failure, the power steering cuts out and the parking brake tries to apply (at 70 MPH!).

Pulled over to the hard shoulder, restarted the car - same problems. Waited 5 mins and tried again - problems gone. Travelled a further 2-3 miles and the problems returned.

Called Volvo Assist and was recovered home. Volvo Assist unable to release the parking break whilst it was on the back of their recovery truck and tried “rebooting the car” each time. After 4 attempts they were able to unload the car.

Back to the dealers for over two weeks and again they were unable to find any faults.

The following thread seemed to be very similar:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=251695

Driving conditions for each of my incidents were dry so its unlikely to be water ingress. I also seem to remember the weather being “warmer than usual” on each day. I don’t know if that’s significant.

I can appreciate that it’s really hard to fix a problem if it doesn’t manifest itself to the technician but it seems to me that there is a sensor issue and/or a general network/data transmission error.

Should there be logs persistent within the system that point to where the problem might lie? [I work in IT and logs are our life blood...]

All in all my confidence in the car has been severely dented. Can anyone suggest how to restore it?

Thanks for reading…

[rbcohen]

Sorry to hear about the issues, I appreciate how frustrating it can be.

The car does log errors, I bought a VIDA and DICE pack on eBay (fake but works) so I could view the logs myself and look for patterns. It didn't help in the end but made me feel I was doing something. At the least it's interesting to play with.

I may be wrong but I believe the electrical modules are all wired in series. A problem along the circuit chucks up false positives making it difficult to pinpoint the cause. I had a long list of faults logged from just one cable with a damaged sheath (as you've probably read).

Sorry I can't be of more help but just wanted to say good luck, hope you/they find it soon.

[JRL]

My first thought would be go to a different dealer or an indy. The dealer you are using sounds like they simply can't be bothered and if the car shows no faults on the day they hook it up to diagnostics then there is nothing wrong with it as far as they are concerned.

So try somewhere else.

[fiftyeight]

Thanks for the empathy!

I'll maybe try customer care @ Volvocars to see what they have to say on the matter.

I do feel the dealer is trying but just not getting there...

And it is being treated as a warranty issue (or rather I haven't paid for anything...).

[Wobbin]

As they are all seemingly very random problems I'd be looking at the points where the electronic modules are 'earthed' to the car body.

Clearly the main chunky earth cable between battery and chassis is OK otherwise you'd have starting problems.

Good luck with that !

Robin (fellow V60 owner, electronics engineer who spent far too long in I.T and now back in electronics... Yay !)

[Rooster]

It does sound like a bad connection somewhere,

Now actually finding the issue is harder sometimes than it seemed,

From the description it sounds like a high speed can network issue,

have they checked the power steering pump connections behind the bumper and the big connection block in the similar area

[volvo for ever]

sounds like poor connection somewhere it must be logged on car/vida

[fiftyeight]

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

I've been using the car "nervously" for the past month without incident - until today.

Once again I spent an hour at the side of a motorway waiting for a recovery vehicle to take me back to the dealer <sigh>.

Similar symptoms but this time the initial warning was of brake failure. I stopped on the hard shoulder and turned off the engine. The ignition lights wouldn't go out and nor could I restart the engine (I could hear relays "clicking" when try to do so). The doors wouldn't unlock and the car had to be winched on to the recovery truck.

Fingers crossed that the dealer can find a real fault this time...

[Baxlin]

For me, it's a tad early to relax, but almost a week into a new battery on my D3 car, and it SEEMS ok.

Other threads have recommended cleaning all the CEM contacts (if that's the correct terminology)

[volvo for ever]

V60's early model down nsf kick panel there is washer hose that used to leak and there is is 3 big multiplug there worth ruling out ive seen this 3 times