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What kills a battery in 6 hours?

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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abscate
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Re: What kills a battery in 6 hours?

Post by abscate »

Definitely finde source of that drain - you don't want to cycle a battery like that too many times.
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erikv11
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Post by erikv11 »

rocketman4321 wrote: 16 Jul 2017, 19:13 ...
One oddity: when I first connect the battery, the clock/trip display turns on every segment, and the "icy road" warning light is lit. This goes away after maybe 45 seconds, and the clock is displayed as expected. Is this normal?
...
Just for the record - yes. Totally normal.

THat's all I've got on this one, alas. My first reaction is "maybe the voltmeter was screwy when the 8 V measurement was taken." For example, my smart charger thingy (it's a cheap-o from HF) will refuse to charge a battery with V that low.
'95 854 T-5R, Motronic 4.4, 185k
'98 V70, T5 tune-injectors-turbo, LPT engine, 304k, daily driver
'06 S60 R, 197k
'07 XC70, black, 205k
'07 XC70, willow green, 212k
'99 Camry V6 :shock: 153k
gone: '96 NA 850 210k, '98 NA V70 182k, '98 S70 NA 225k, '96 855 NA 169k

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erikv11
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Post by erikv11 »

rocketman4321 wrote: 16 Jul 2017, 19:13... One oddity: when I first connect the battery, the clock/trip display turns on every segment, and the "icy road" warning light is lit. This goes away after maybe 45 seconds, and the clock is displayed as expected. Is this normal? ...
Just for the record: yes, totally normal.

That's all I've got on this one, alas. My first thought was "maybe the voltmeter was screwy on the 8 V reading." For example, my cheap-o smart charger thingy (from HF) will refuse to charge a battery that low.
'95 854 T-5R, Motronic 4.4, 185k
'98 V70, T5 tune-injectors-turbo, LPT engine, 304k, daily driver
'06 S60 R, 197k
'07 XC70, black, 205k
'07 XC70, willow green, 212k
'99 Camry V6 :shock: 153k
gone: '96 NA 850 210k, '98 NA V70 182k, '98 S70 NA 225k, '96 855 NA 169k

rocketman4321
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Year and Model: 850 Turbo 1996
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Post by rocketman4321 »

Voltage read by the charger was pretty consistent with my DVM. Charger is a Solar ProLogix 2310. I've only had it a few months, but happy so far. It did read 3% state of charge when it started that low!

rocketman4321
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Year and Model: 850 Turbo 1996
Location: Virginia USA

Post by rocketman4321 »

A bit of an update. After a half-hour drive in local traffic today, the battery was at 12.6 V. However, when I restarted the car, I was seeing 13.5-13.6V at the battery terminals. I've tested the harness drop and it's in spec. Could this mean the voltage regulator is short a diode? The voltage was reasonably stable with engine speed, and dropped slightly under heavy load, as expected.

I also yanked and pulled on the battery terminals to see if anything was obviously fractured, and they seem solid--voltage stable.

crlande
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Post by crlande »

On average four years is getting up there for battery life. Pull the trigger and get a new one and move on.

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