Battery question on 69 plate V60

[westcountryjim]

I have a 15 month old V60 D4 and battery at rest is reading 11.9V but seems to be quite happy? Okay a few details.

I am retired and would normally do 12K per annum. We live on the border of devon and cornwall, so any journey out of the region is relatively long.

Under normal circumstances the car would do at least one round trip of 300 per month, a couple of round trips of 100 per week, 4 or 5 round trips of 500 per annum and a trip down through France each summer, circa 2000 to 3000 miles.

My car has 8000 on the clock. 4000 of that was in the first 3 months and the balance of 4000 over the last 12 months i.e., an average of 75 per week.

I make sure the car does a round trip of 30 miles up a local dual carriageway twice a week.

Because we were having problems with my wifes 15 year old 206 I purchased a little gadget that you plug into the 12v lighter socket and it gives battery health and alternator charge rate.

So my battery is just over a year old and has done at least a couple of decent journeys twice a week. It starts first time and has not given any warning messages. A few times I have had to wait in a car park for 20 mins and have listened to radio and have not received a message to close down.

So i have tried the gadget on the on the Volvo expecting to see at least 12.4/12.5V and got 11.9V and a charging rate of 14.8V on the move. The day after a journey the standing rate of 11.9V has increased to 12V.

Should I be worried, I wish I hadnt checked it in the first place!

[Deck1ng]

If I where you NO, I don’t pretend to understand all the tech, that’s about today, I don’t understand my car half the time. You say it starts, no messages, longish runs keep it topped up. We are only talking about 0.1 here.
Your right, you should never have plugged that gizmo in. Give it back to the wife 😃.

[scbamber]

Hi Jim,
I suspect you are in the wrong forum if your D4 is only 15 months old. There's a different forum for 2019 onwards.

That said, the answer would be the same.. It is almost certain that the only thing 'wrong' is that your battery has slowly dropped its charge over the last few months because your mileage has been inadequate, and the mileage you have done per longish trip is still not enough to charge it properly. It is very unlikely that a young battery is a dud, or that the alternator/voltage regulator are duff. Your meter too may be cheap and inaccurate.

Our colleague Clan of this parish often reminds us that Volvo recommends a fortnightly charge when mileage is so reduced. Get a decent modern charger and leave it at least 24h on charge. The problem will vanish.

[Whyman]

Each battery consists of 6 separate cells each of which on a healthy battery gives 2.1 volts so a healthy battery should be giving 12.7 volts.

As said above buy a smart battery charger and leave it on for at least 24 hours.

Also a buy or borrow a good multimeter, it may be able to tell you if the plug in gadget is accurate or not.

Running the car for relatively short distances is not a very efficient way of recharging the battery.

[Easington]

I have fitted a digital voltmeter to the battery box in my S60. It reads about 12v most of the time and 14.5-14.9 with the engine running. (Checked it with a multimeter and it read the same)

I had to fit a new battery about a year ago and I've not had any problems since

[westcountryjim]

Are you saying the new battery reads 12V at rest?

[TeamG]

Buy a CTEK CT5 start/stop. Around £70 from Tayna batteries online in Abergele. Use it fortnightly as suggested and you’ll have no problems. It’ll charge and condition, but gently as it’s 3.8Amps or so. I use mine on multiple cars, one of which is doing around 4miles per week and the others doing 10 to 12 each. Batteries all being kept in tip-top condition.

[westcountryjim]

Yes, I had thought of that but my problem is that I have no off street parking and I have a fear that constantly taking the battery out would open a can of worms.