Flat Battery

[neon]

Originally Posted by Razer

Did they update any of your software? makes me think the software upgrade i received lowered the alarm limit.

The dealer did a software update but not sure if the 70% alarm trigger was picked up before or after the update.

[Hubcap]

Originally Posted by SwissXC90

You are very much at risk

Short journeys are a killer on any car battery on any car.

The effect of the starter motor load plus the entire vehicle electrics cannot be sufficiently compensated by the alternator due to the short charging times available.
As a rule of thumb, you need around 15 minutes to replace the charge in the battery that was used to start the car. Very approximate, as this depends on engine temperature (cold start requires much more power than warm start) and on the total electrical load in the vehicle (on cold wet winters days with demisters running, wipers front and rear, heating fans running, lights on, etc - this all reduces the available reserve charge for the battery).

I would recommend you get into the habit of connecting an intelligent charger once a week to ensure your battery has sufficient reserve capacity to see you through your daily drives.

If you do not have the ability to do so because e.g. you park on the street, then aim for a 30min to 1 hour drive every weekend to top up the battery.

Whilst I tend to do 80% 30min drives in my MY2009 XC90, I know my battery is the original now 8 year old battery, and I give it a top up charge in my garage every now and then - around once a month - just to be sure. I use a CTEK charger, they are one of the best connect-and-forget chargers on the market, and also support the AGM type batteries in the new XC90s. I connect mine to the convenient 12V power outlet in the boot space.

Whilst I only have a 5A charger, as I only top up my battery every now and then, running 5A for 10 hours overnight will put 50Ah back into my 90Ah battery, which is sufficient to bring it to full charge

The newer XC90s use 80Ah or 95Ah batteries, so a 5A CTEK charger is sufficient for overnight use. Otherwise choose a 10A charger if you wish to top up the battery faster.
Remember too that the modern XC90 with start-stop has 2 batteries: an auxiliary battery provides the extended power for the start-stop function. The auxiliary battery is however only 10Ah.

I strongly disagree with your suggestion that the owner of a brand new XC90 should have to use a battery charger on a regular / daily basis. People who have never had this problem before with any car (and who have not changed their driving habits) are suffering from this design fault. This is outrageous on a car costing circa £40k. The idea that they should have to use a battery charger is frankly ludicrous.

[nu11eaf]

Originally Posted by Hubcap

I strongly disagree with your suggestion that the owner of a brand new XC90 should have to use a battery charger on a regular / daily basis. People who have never had this problem before with any car (and who have not changed their driving habits) are suffering from this design fault. This is outrageous on a car costing circa £40k. The idea that they should have to use a battery charger is frankly ludicrous.

I totally agree, its a disgrace, the battery and charging sytstem should cope with this, even if all short journeys and hard winters.

[neon]

Originally Posted by Hubcap

I strongly disagree with your suggestion that the owner of a brand new XC90 should have to use a battery charger on a regular / daily basis. People who have never had this problem before with any car (and who have not changed their driving habits) are suffering from this design fault. This is outrageous on a car costing circa £40k. The idea that they should have to use a battery charger is frankly ludicrous.

Totally agree, never had to charge a battery in a car for the last 20 years. Closer to £50k plus though for an XC90.

Auxiliary heating took 3 attempts to start again today, looks like another call to the dealer.

[Jabbar40]

Originally Posted by neon

Totally agree, never had to charge a battery in a car for the last 20 years. Closer to £50k plus though for an XC90.

Auxiliary heating took 3 attempts to start again today, looks like another call to the dealer.

Completely agree it's unacceptable some of the issues with the battery and also suggestions that we ought to use a battery charger. Further update on mine: since the software update I've not had any battery warnings but the VOC app is not working so not able to start car remotely. Will monitor and return to Dealer if necessary. On the plus side stop start seems to be working fine.

[Razer]

My start/stop worked fine for 3 days after my battery update and now doesn't work as frequently so monitor it.

[Driver Dave]

So much for the replacement battery last Tuesday!

Went to the car this morning to be greeted with the "12 volt battery low" warning again.

Going back into the dealers on 23rd for 4 days for them to try and replicate and diagnose the problem again.

[Razer]

Hmm, thats my concern. Problem being that im now driving the car every day so am not able to leave it and see if it occurs again. Swedespeed was suggesting a faulty boot kick sensor. A number of people have pulled that fuse in the boot and it has worked a treat.

[edbanger1975]

Just dropped my car off to get it looked at after having the low battery warning on many times. Fingers crossed they get to the bottom of it, the dealer did say he has researched this issue and it seems to be a software problem as opposed to an actual physical fault.
Im not expecting to hear anything until monday though.
On the other issue of tyre noise, i have a 66 plate v60 cross country as a courtesy car, and the ride is noticeably quieter on the same roads compared to my xc90..both on continentals....

[nu11eaf]

I think Volvo should fit bigger batteries and looks like they should also have these fitted as standard the way things are going, I cant remember the last time my stop/start worked.

http://accessories.volvocars.com/en-...6/D5/Automatic