V40 CC Low Battery Message

[robpenrose]

Hi all,

My wife has a 66 Plate T3 V40 CC, which we have had since Feb 2020. Its the facelift version with the LED headlights.

When we first purchased the car from Volvo, it had a low battery message flash up, but after the first decent drive, it went and never returned.

The car hasn't been used much during lock down and is now getting a low battery message again. The car recently went on a reasonable journey, completing about 3hrs running in a day. This cleared the message for a couple of days, but the message is back.

Im guessing the battery is on its way out, and not holding a charge properly. I was going to just put a new battery in it, but i cant see any straight forward instructions anywhere.

Is it ok to just swap the battery out? Ive seen people mention setting airbags off and all sorts! Surely a battery swap isn't anything special?

I was going to go with this battery as ive had it in my car for about 3 years, and its been faultless.

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/exide/ek700/

Thanks

[robpenrose]

No replies then?

Do people on this forum generally not do much maintenance themselves then? Has no one changed a battery on a T3?

[Zebster]

I think most of us have learnt that once they get a few years old, this era Volvos give lots of low battery warnings... I've been ignoring mine for nearly two years!

But if you really want to swap the battery it'll be fine without any special considerations; while mine still has the original battery I've disconnected it overnight a few times to reset problem issues.

[VOLVOBOY]

Another thing we find is that with the ign. in position 1 or 2 ,with the engine not running, and with perhaps a couple of ancillaries running it will be a matter of minutes before the "low battery " warning appears.

[robpenrose]

Thanks for your replies and help.

Interesting that lots of people regularly get the message, but it doesn't effect anything.

Bit annoying Volvo didn't sort this issue though. Its not a small battery, and the T3 is only a small engine, so disappointing it doesn't seem up to the job.

I will keep an eye on it for a while, and mention it when its serviced, and see what they say.

Can anyone recommend a code reader for the car?

Thanks

[Clan]

Originally Posted by robpenrose

Thanks for your replies and help.

Interesting that lots of people regularly get the message, but it doesn't effect anything.

Bit annoying Volvo didn't sort this issue though. Its not a small battery, and the T3 is only a small engine, so disappointing it doesn't seem up to the job.

I will keep an eye on it for a while, and mention it when its serviced, and see what they say.

Can anyone recommend a code reader for the car?

Thanks

The battery is most probably fine , you need to understand that the charging system works in a different way on modern cars :
Once the battery gets to 80% charge it stops charging and only charges further on braking and when your foot is off the throttle hence it is unlikely to get to full charge unless you are around town all day .

During this period of inactivity volvo have old their dealers to recommend you charge the battery every TWO WEEKS to prevent the message you are getting ...

What you need to do is to charge your battery with a 10A capacity charger for as long as you can . 2 days ( 48 hours) should be enough to get it back to full capacity .. Then charge for half a day or so every 2 weeks whilst you are not driving it .

[NickKerin]

I am getting exactly the same on my 69 plate V40 T3 auto which I recently bought. The dealers claim to have charged it fully in one day in their workshop, but a week later I am getting the same message, and the S/S system is constantly 'unavailable' as a result. I have asked the dealers to have another go but not getting any response from them....

Can anyone recommend a home plug-in battery charger which would be suitable for the V40 T3? So many available online, it's hard to know which are of decent quality etc.

Any suggestions? THanks.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by NickKerin

I am getting exactly the same on my 69 plate V40 T3 auto which I recently bought. The dealers claim to have charged it fully in one day in their workshop, but a week later I am getting the same message, and the S/S system is constantly 'unavailable' as a result. I have asked the dealers to have another go but not getting any response from them....

Can anyone recommend a home plug-in battery charger which would be suitable for the V40 T3? So many available online, it's hard to know which are of decent quality etc.

Any suggestions? THanks.

Its difficult , Volvo recommend the battery is charged for 48 hours when this happens , its not easy for a dealer to do this of course .

a charger capable of 10A and staying on without its internal computer cutting out after a few hours is what you need , a good old fashioned type ...

if the car is not being used in today's conditions an over night charge every 2 weeks is recommended by volvo ... its all to do with today's " advanced" batteries and charging systems ..

[ghostwalker]

how often is the car driven? as i got my 66 plate t3 and did about a 1000 miles in it between feb and july. and the stop start stopped kicking in and i got the low mbattery message once

advice on here and volvo was drive it more.

i don't get messgae at all. and the stop start will kick back in depending how much i drive it. longer drives are the best i've found

[robpenrose]

We haven’t been using ours much to be honest.

It’s my wife’s car and she ended up working from home due to COVID, so the car was barely getting used.

Even at the weekend, we generally used our other car.

But, we have used it on a few long journeys and the battery message was still popping up.

I have decided to keep an eye on it, and replace the battery if it starts playing up.