XC70: Electrical Problems after leaking windscreen

[franciskingsmith]

Volvo XC70 2010, D5, SE Geartronic

Hello All

Thank you for letting me join this very informative forum. How I wish I'd known about it before....I am new here, and this is our first Volvo. I hope some kind soul out there may be able to help me?

Well - after the very dry summer I took my car on holiday to Slovenia where our 2010 D5 encountered very heavy rain one evening a couple of weeks ago.

Water must have poured in as the interior light was wet inside, water around the gear shift, and about 2 inches (to my absolute horror) was sitting in the drivers footwell. Via google and this forum I've now read about and seen all about the windscreen issue, of which I had little idea. I bought the car in 2020 from a volvo specialist on the Fylde. I asked them about leaks as a friend had mentioned something vague to me once, but they said the XC70's didn't suffer from it. This does not seem to be true.

Now at present the car is drying and the carpets are out and I have removed most everything round the centre console with help from a local mechanic/ friend. A dehumidifier is inside, and we have been nervously waiting.

Today we plugged in the heater blower which had stopped working, and so had the heated seats. As of testing today they still don't work, though the blower we tested with 12v directly and it does spin. The controls on the centre console display all light and seem to work (seats and fan speed etc), but don't actually do anything.

Unfortunately we do not have a VIDA system here but the local guy does have an expensive diagnostic tool that's coming out with 42 errors when we plug in to do with various circuits of the heater blower and the heated seats not working.

Does anybody have any advice on what to do with this? I've checked the 40 Amp fuse for the blower and sadly it's not that.

To get to this stage, I think I made a fundamental error in starting the car and driving it to get it under shelter in the storm, as I've probably put voltage through everything when stuff was still wet.

I don't even know where the ECU is and wonder if it's fried.

Sad and scary times.

[Pidgeonpost]

Commiserations on what must be a very worrying situation. With regards to the 42 errors, did your local fella try to reset them, as doing so might narrow things down a bit? Also it's often suggested that the battery is disconnected for a while to see if that resets anything.
Beyond that I suppose that it may be possible to dry out specific modules or areas using a hairdryer (low heat) or removing them to dry indoors.
As you've now discovered, leaky screens are pretty common, our V70 screen was removed and resealed a couple of weeks ago. Many owners have had success in getting this done FOC by Volvo dealers. This might be another avenue worth pursuing even if it means trailering the car there and getting their assessments of electrical issues. Could be a bit uncomfortable financially though.
I'm sure others more knowledgeable than me will respond. Best of luck.

[franciskingsmith]

Yes he has tried to reset them. They all came straight back. I did have the battery off when I took the fuse box apart to get to the lower level.

What’s a pain is I don’t know what’s actually broken, there’s so much junk coming off the scan tool.

I have read now that there’s 2 or 3 of us on this forum who lost heated seats and A/C. I’m thinking a climate control module maybe the solution.

[SnineT]

It's not always the screen, a leaky fin ariel and the car parked nose down can also account for the water.

Sorry to say but it looks like you've been sold a pup, gut reaction would be sling it straight up the auctions and cut losses.