Auto Stop Start "unavailable" on 2016 V60 D4

[mgwright]

I suspect that the reply to this might be along the lines of "there are all sorts of reasons" but.....

The Auto Stop start on my V60 seems to have stopped working. It was working fine about a week ago. It's status is always "unavailable" according to My Car. I know it does this sometimes when it thinks that stopping the engine might not be a good idea, but I haven't had it stop for this long before.

Should I worry or get it checked out or is there an obvious reason for it?

Thanks
Mike

[andymcp]

I think there is a car menu that will tell you the reason. I'll take a look in mine later but I think it's under Eco settings or similar in the My Car menu...

[mgwright]

Well there's spooky for you!

I drove home this evening and the Stop Start started working! I didn't realise that my car read this forum!

By the way - I found the menu that was mentioned.

Regards
Mike

[cadaron]

It may just be that the support battery was flat or low on charge. We drove 2 hours through London recently in heavy traffic with start/stop on but it did not cut in once.
My garage told me that if the support battery charge is low then the car computer will not instigate start/stop in case there is insufficient charge to re-start the engine.

[ericy]

Originally Posted by cadaron

It may just be that the support battery was flat or low on charge. We drove 2 hours through London recently in heavy traffic with start/stop on but it did not cut in once.
My garage told me that if the support battery charge is low then the car computer will not instigate start/stop in case there is insufficient charge to re-start the engine.

It happens to me from time to time. Once when the car had been sitting for a week without driving when I am out of town, and another time when the car had been in for service and they had flashed some new software.

My guess is that there is software that tries to estimate how much charge is in the secondary battery, and it seems to be kind of conservative. Which makes sense, I guess - you wouldn't want the engine to cut out in traffic and then have the car unable to restart itself.

[rallychris]

I suspect it won't work when the outside temperature is below a certain value - on my wife's Mini it switches off start/stop when the temp is something like 5 degrees C so that could be your issue last week?

Chris

[Mr O]

I had the same issue with my V60. I doubt very much that it will be the support battery. It will most likely be the main battery, how old is the main battery?

I would suggest that , if you're in a position to do so, you replace the main battery - but make sure it's an AGM battery. I replaced mine and have had no problems since. The Start/Stop function works perfect now, even on colder days and shorter journeys etc.

Only had my V60 a number of weeks and that was one of the first jobs I tackled.

Best of luck, let me know how you get on.

[Volly2]

Similar problem with my 2014 XC60 D4 owned since January. Start stop has always been "unavailable". A friend checked the main battery which was fine but at the time we weren't aware of a support battery. Is the support battery likely to to be the issue? if so is it easy and worthwhile doing? I can like without it as mainly rural driving but nice to have working again if its not too expensive and hassle. Thanks

[Zebster]

Originally Posted by Volly2

Similar problem with my 2014 XC60 D4 owned since January. Start stop has always been "unavailable". A friend checked the main battery which was fine but at the time we weren't aware of a support battery. Is the support battery likely to to be the issue? if so is it easy and worthwhile doing? I can like without it as mainly rural driving but nice to have working again if its not too expensive and hassle. Thanks

If you look into the Sensus eDrive menu it'll tell you which vehicle system is causing the stop/start to be inactive. There are many reasons, common ones I experience are climate system (if the AC is a long way from the set value), engine system (when warming up and for extended periods when an active DPF regen is occurring), driver's seat belt (when I reverse up the drive after opening the gate) and/or - quite since the car passed 4 years old - electrical system (because the battery charge is low). If I regularly leave the main battery on charge overnight it 'cures' the electrical system and the stop/start works like it always did when the car was newer. If I don't charge it then it still always starts OK so the battery is still good enough, just not as good as the new one the system was designed to assess. It's a very common issue with this generation Volvo.

The support battery is just to keep the radio, etc, running when the stop/start kicks in. I assume that battery is charged indirectly from the main battery; I've never accessed it to charge it separately.

[Volly2]

Originally Posted by Zebster

If you look into the Sensus eDrive menu it'll tell you which vehicle system is causing the stop/start to be inactive. There are many reasons, common ones I experience are climate system (if the AC is a long way from the set value), engine system (when warming up and for extended periods when an active DPF regen is occurring), driver's seat belt (when I reverse up the drive after opening the gate) and/or - quite since the car passed 4 years old - electrical system (because the battery charge is low). If I regularly leave the main battery on charge overnight it 'cures' the electrical system and the stop/start works like it always did when the car was newer. If I don't charge it then it still always starts OK so the battery is still good enough, just not as good as the new one the system was designed to assess. It's a very common issue with this generation Volvo.

The support battery is just to keep the radio, etc, running when the stop/start kicks in. I assume that battery is charged indirectly from the main battery; I've never accessed it to charge it separately.

Thank you. I think you've hit the nail on the head. the message says that at the moment the electrical system does not support start stop - reasons either that battery is charging or temperature too low. Cant be the latter so I'll see if i can obtain a charger and see if that helps.