How to end Charging issues permanently

[peacock]

This is it its done!
After trying the jumper cable between the starter and battery + terminal and having no change in charging patterns it was time to take action

i took it to the Volvo dealer in Rochester ny (Best Volvo) and paid them $50 t test the charging system, a half hour goes by and then y come back with the diagnosis that the battery is bad and needs to be replaced, So i drive up to adavance basically slap the papers down on the counter and get to business, guy checks battery AGAIN and it tests better then ever but i convince him that is was because i just drove the car for an hour in stop and go traffic so not only is it very warm but its fully topped up from the drive time, he breaks down and says that it cant be the battery no way everything else looks great on the car so it cant be the battery!!!
He claimed that the ignition coil on Volvos can be "Leaky" and drain power, either way he said fine and exchanged the battery for me. since then (tuesday the 14th) i havent jumped it, i leave my radio circuit on all the time now, i made two short trips and then parked it over night and it wasnt dead, and i even left a dome light on by accident from 7am to lunch at 12 and it didn't die on me, it continually starts strong even after using just the radio for 30mins in a parking lot.

Long story short: I was right They were wrong. Thank you MVS forum members

and by the way. i will be calling Advanced Auto Corporate and requesting at the VERY minimum my $50.75 it cost me to get tested.

[reds70turbo]

I went through a hell of a charging system battle a year or so ago. I started seeing very low charge so I bought an alternator from my local Volvo dealer. Made sense, usually that is the culprit on any other car if the battery is good.

I'm surely not saying the alternator wasn't at fault but after the new alternator I was still having problems. A volt drop test from my alternator post to the battery showed over a 1 volt drop which told me the cables were to blame. Another tell tale sign of bad cables is heat. If your positive cable is getting burning hot more than likely there is too much resistance in the cable itself.

Basically I ended up with a new Volvo alternator, Volvo battery, Volvo B+ cable, Volvo alternator to starter and Volvo starter to battery cable and finally a new Volvo ground harness.

All this totaled something crazy like $700 in parts and consumed quite a few hours of my time. The majority of my labor was spent on the B+ cable and alternator, the other things weren't too bad.

Moral of the story is don't jump to suspect the alternator when getting a low charge, volt drop your cables first! Also be aware how old your battery is.

[peacock]

I went through a hell of a charging system battle a year or so ago. I started seeing very low charge so I bought an alternator from my local Volvo dealer. Made sense, usually that is the culprit on any other car if the battery is good.

I'm surely not saying the alternator wasn't at fault but after the new alternator I was still having problems. A volt drop test from my alternator post to the battery showed over a 1 volt drop which told me the cables were to blame. Another tell tale sign of bad cables is heat. If your positive cable is getting burning hot more than likely there is too much resistance in the cable itself.

Basically I ended up with a new Volvo alternator, Volvo battery, Volvo B+ cable, Volvo alternator to starter and Volvo starter to battery cable and finally a new Volvo ground harness.

All this totaled something crazy like $700 in parts and consumed quite a few hours of my time. The majority of my labor was spent on the B+ cable and alternator, the other things weren't too bad.

Moral of the story is don't jump to suspect the alternator when getting a low charge, volt drop your cables first! Also be aware how old your battery is.

Agree,did all the drop tests and they seemed acceptable,also circumvented the cables and cleaned the ground - alt is two years old and battery was just 1 year old

[reds70turbo]

Nice. I had something similar happen in the beginning of my voltage battle. Before any component of the charging system was replaced my old 6 yr. old battery shit the bed. No big deal, replace the battery. After a while from suffering from low charge I ended up replacing the battery after I replaced my alternator as the low charge had killed the old yet new battery.

[zhenya]

I really hope this is in fact the solution for you, because I certainly understand how frustrating thus issue is, but I went through 3 batteries in 3 years before (I think) I have now finally solved it by finally fixing the drain. Each time I replaced the battery, it seemed to fix the problem, but as the larger than normal parasitic drain took it's toll, the problems would slowly begin to re-occur, getting worse as the weather got colder, and the battery's full charge capacity is diminished. What I'm saying is that you might just be seeing the temporary benefits of a brand new battery.

What did the dealer's diagnostic report say was wrong with the battery? Again, are you sure you measured the parasitic drain properly, because your stated numbers seem too low.

[peacock]

I really hope this is in fact the solution for you, because I certainly understand how frustrating thus issue is, but I went through 3 batteries in 3 years before (I think) I have now finally solved it by finally fixing the drain. Each time I replaced the battery, it seemed to fix the problem, but as the larger than normal parasitic drain took it's toll, the problems would slowly begin to re-occur, getting worse as the weather got colder, and the battery's full charge capacity is diminished. What I'm saying is that you might just be seeing the temporary benefits of a brand new battery.

What did the dealer's diagnostic report say was wrong with the battery? Again, are you sure you measured the parasitic drain properly, because your stated numbers seem too low.

With my radio circuit off i red .011A with the central locking fuse pulled it read .04A on the 10A scale of the multimeter.

[Retired MVS Contributor]

Something isn't right...Your "radio off" parasitic drain was 11ma, and with the central locking fuse removed, it jumped up to 40ma...It should have gone down, not up...

All meters have an error tolerance stated as a percentage of full scale for the range that you have set the meter for, usually 3%...If you are reading on the 10 amp scale, a 3% error would be 30 ma...On the 1 amp range a 3% error would be 3 ma and 100 ma could read anywhere from 97 ma to 103 ma...You should take your final meter readings on the lowest scale possible without going over range...That will place the reading in a better range for more accurate reading...An error range if 3% is common for inexpensive meters...If it is an analog meter, the percentage is usually printed on the meter face in fine print near the bottom...

It is best to do what you did, start on the highest scale to protect the meter from damage...When the reading is obtained and it is obvious that a lower scale can be used, you should scale down to the range that will most closely be able to obtain your reading with out going off scale...You might get a reading of 100 ma on the 10 amp scale and 90 ma on the 1 amp scale for the same measurement...The 90ma reading is the one you believe...

Jerry

[Pauloil]

I agree with reds70turbo comment:

"Moral of the story is don't jump to suspect the alternator when getting a low charge, volt drop your cables first! Also be aware how old your battery is."
I went through this with my 850 few yrs back, finally figuring out the starter to batt cable was bad after replacing alternator twice.

volvo's instructions for testing an alternator start out with advise to do voltage drop testing on the cables under load, as discussed in many proir posts.

[peacock]

So to add a conclusion to this topic i think i can summarize the issue in the following ways

1. Battery was the problem. im 90% sure of that.
2. the managers will do pretty much whatever it takes to make you happy if you put up a big enough fuss,
3. if you have proof from a dealer or other higher authority it helps alot.
4. trust your gut.

The battery was indeed bad, I now have an upgraded unit(at no cost if u exclude the $50 paid to best volvo) Its a 650CCA at 0*F and 760+CCA at 32*F the thing is so giant im gunna modify my battery tray to hold it in.

the car starts very strong now and ive even accidentally left a dome light on over night before and starts like nothing happened, finally a little piece of mind when it comes to my car, now im looking forward to the drive in this summer!


Thanks and have a happy new year everyone!

[jblackburn]

Glad to hear they honored the warranty on their product. Most of the time, unfortunately you do have to put up a pretty big fuss or continually bother most people out there to get anything done.

I've always been one to go by the gut feeling, and I find that most of the time you're right with that, even if sometimes you don't want to be.

Happy New Year!...well, when that gets here anyway