Battery Status

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by loed1002

Hello

My VOLVO V60 hybrid (2014 model) would fail to charge once per week. I always leave it plugged in overnight. I get the green flushing light (meaning it is charging), I also pressed the approach light button on the remote control to see the charging info on the dashboard (last evening I pressed it and it showed that it is charging and that at 1:15 it will be fully charged). Came in the car this morning, diesel engine started and the battery was completely empty. This is about the 5th time when it happens in the last month. Any hints?

PODPoint (or similar) or Volvo provided cable?

[nu11eaf]

Originally Posted by Owee

Hello again, an update on progress.
I plugged the car in at 10:00 yesterday. Dash said will complete by 13:00. started charging all OK. Come 13:00, I notice this had changed to 1415. Come 14:15 changed to 15:01. Come 15:01 it had moved to 17:30. Then around 15:10 (after 5hrs of charging) only had one light flashing on control box (which I believe means standby) and the charging port was yellow.
See picof dash, battery counter still showing under quarter.

Disconnected everything for 20 mins. Plugged it in at 15:30 and it says charge will complete by 20:00. After 5 or so mins says 23:00. Bounces between those times then at 16:01 it says charge will complete by 16:02. Come 16:02 it says 16:03....and so on till about 16:15 where it changes to 'Charge Complete'
Turn car on, battery counter is at quarter. In Hybrid mode says 9 miles, Pure says 10.

So has anybody experienced anything similar. Is this normal behaviour? Thank you PF for linking the thread to the other owner with similar problems.
Have I got duff batteries? Should I be sending it the car back to the dealership as 28 days are not up yet.

I would just go back to the dealer and explain your problem and ask them to check it out and charge it to see if it holds a full charge, this has got to be your first course of action.

[Owee]

Update. I had booked it in to Johnsons Volvo to have it looked at today. Just received phone call to say one of the battery cells is faulty. I was told only a handful of dealerships can repair this and they have someone who can so they need to order a tool and want to book my car in next week to have this cell repaired.

Am left wondering, did the dealership that sold me the car know of this as Johnsons Volvo rang me back within 2 hours of dropping it off.
Don't they do a full diagnostic on Selekt cars?

[Owee]

Final update on this hopefully and everyone likes closure on a thread....

Dealership decided against repairing the cell. Think he said there are 48 and one was faulty.
In the end they replaced the whole battery. They got a new one delivered from Volvo and took about a day to fit. Car charges fine now and displays 21 miles on dash with the battery gauge at full. Used the car over the weekend and drive seems a lot better too.

Johnsons Volvo were very good. In the 12 days it was with them, I was stuck for a car after a week so were happy to arrange hire car for me.

P.S Any tips how I can 'look after' the battery and how do I know if they fitted the upgraded 10.6kwh battery or the original size 9.2kwh that came in the car with MY16/17.

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by Owee

P.S Any tips how I can 'look after' the battery and how do I know if they fitted the upgraded 10.6kwh battery or the original size 9.2kwh that came in the car with MY16/17.

Whilst the car has a very complex battery management system in it, there are a few things you can do to help prolong the life of the battery

Avoid extreme heat (like Africa) and cold (like Norway) when parking the car. If you have a choice, park in a garage, under cover in Winter, in the shade in Summer. The extreme heat and cold affects the chemicals of the battery. The more you can do to avoid heat and cold when the car is not in use, the better for the battery, and the longer it will last.

Avoid charging the battery when really hot or cold. If it is a really hot Summer's day, and you come home and park in the garage, wait until the middle of the night to start charging (set a timer) so that the battery can cool down. Likewise, in Winter, if the car is below freezing, and you come home and park in a garage, wait for the car to warm up to garage temperature before you start charging. Use a timer. Again, the battery management system will take care of a lot of this for you, but it's good to know.

Ideal charging temperature of batteries is around 20°C (room temperature). 10° to 25° is OK, about 25° things start to get warm.

Avoid draining the battery completely. Whilst the management system will take care of this for you, you can also help with your driving style.

Avoid extreme power demands on the battery. Don't drive with a lead foot. The less major power demands you make on the battery, the longer it will last you. Tesla even warn the driver that Ludicrous mode will cause accelerated battery aging. It's a chemical thing.

And pretty much all of the above applies to any rechargeable battery system, be it Nicad, LiPo, Li-Ion, etc. They hate extremes.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Owee

Final update on this hopefully and everyone likes closure on a thread....

Dealership decided against repairing the cell. Think he said there are 48 and one was faulty.
In the end they replaced the whole battery. They got a new one delivered from Volvo and took about a day to fit. Car charges fine now and displays 21 miles on dash with the battery gauge at full. Used the car over the weekend and drive seems a lot better too.

Johnsons Volvo were very good. In the 12 days it was with them, I was stuck for a car after a week so were happy to arrange hire car for me.

P.S Any tips how I can 'look after' the battery and how do I know if they fitted the upgraded 10.6kwh battery or the original size 9.2kwh that came in the car with MY16/17.

There is not much if anything you can do yourself to look after it , There are inbuilt systems which do that very well including heating the battery with the coolant when cold and cooling it with the AC when hot . the battery is never allowed to go below 10% full or above 90% when full , the gauge is calibrated to show full and empty of course . One thing you can do if you are leaving the car parked up for a long time , make sure the battery is about 25% charged that is the optimal state of Charge for storage .

[loed1002]

Originally Posted by Philip Fisher

PODPoint (or similar) or Volvo provided cable?

Charging cable os Delphi. Every now and then it just not charging the battery. I observed that when I plug it in there is a click sound coming fromwherenthe battery is and then another sound coming under the hood, then it blocks the charging plug then it goes green. If one of the sounds is missing it will just not charge it. If I take the car out and drive (on diesel since electric is empty) then I come back and try again to charge, it works. It is just a random thing ehen it refuses to charge