What did you do to your Volvo today? Topic is solved

[MrAl]

Hi,

Took the car out on a drive first time in many 2 months now. Went to the dollar store about 1.2 miles away.
Doesnt sound like much, but after all the problems i have been having it's a milestone.
Had to replace a lot of stuff mostly ignition stuff.
Ran pretty smooth all the way. Hope it stays that way.

I like dollar stores. I pick up cleaning supplies from them, like sponges, and scrub brushes, and a few cleaners, like LA's Totally Awesome from Dollar Tree. I've also gotten something from Dollar General.... Mean Green, I think. The cleaners often get used for cleaning up car parts in prep for reassembly. I don't like working with dirty parts.

I'm glad to hear the car ran well.

Also updated my car telemetry. Now it automatically logs the battery voltage 24/7 and i can read it from inside the house. That's a milestone too been thinking about doing that again for a long time now. Next i will probably add the temperature from inside the car or maybe engine compartment. That will allow me to log the voltage, temperature, and date and time stamp.
Was also wondering if other people would be interested in such a device with wireless remote measurement of the battery voltage 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

That sounds interesting. I don't think I have a reason to do it myself, but I'd appreciate hearing the way you're doing it... the nutshell version would be fine, as the details are probably more complicated than I'd understand.

I finally decided I better shovel the hood of the 850 off, and get my battery charger/maintainer connected, so that's what I did to my Volvo today. I should have measured the voltage before hand, but I didn't think of it...power locks worked, so the battery isn't dead. I used my new extension cord out to the car, that I bought for the purpose. That vinyl insulation sure is stiff at 21F.

I think I may spray something on the top of my 850's engine. I noticed a bit of white corrosion on the "valve cover" today. I'd guess it's because while sitting the moisture isn't being driven off. I'll have to decide what to use... might go with some sort of aerosol oil, but some sort of dressing/protectant might work too. Maybe even a spray wax?

Hi,

Yeah it's a shame i have a really nice battery maintainer/charger but cant use it out there because i park on the far side of the driveway and to get the cord to the house it has to cross the driveway. Cant even plug into neighbors house because their driveway is in the path also. So it's either of these (so far):
1. Get a solar panel and get it to work right, and good enough.
2. Carry the battery up and down the stairs maybe once a month.
3. Drive the car every day.

#3 is probably the hardest because i dont need to go out that often, so i guess either 1 or 2.

You said "LA" but you cant mean Los Angeles can you? I dont think they have 21F weather in that area, ever.

Yeah sounds like you have some work to too also, but at least you can feel confident about your battery due to the fact that you can always connect your battery maintainer. I wish i could do that i'd never have a problem again with the battery.
BTW the battery in there now is my third battery within the course of about 7 years. That's more than any other car i ever had in my entire life. Im not using cheap azz batteries either, either Interstate or Delco. In the old Hyundai i used Walmart batteries at first and they lasted at least the entire warrantee period, if not more. Once i went to Napa though i started having battery problems. I dont like Napa batteries because of that, and i got a replacement for the first one too and that wasnt working right either with that car.

Oh almost forgot to talk about the telemetry thing.
The device in the car measures the battery voltage, then transmits a code over something like bluetooth.
The device with the receiver is in the house and is plugged into the USB port of a PC computer.
A monitor program runs in the background so that when a transmission is received, it logs the data to a file on the hard disk.
The data right now is mostly the voltage.
A secondary program runs in the background that waits for the data transmission to be complete, then logs the date and time into the same file so i know what time the measurement is made. With this i can calculate the rate of discharge.
The only reason for the secondary program is because i did not write the monitor program myself yet i used a downloaded version and that does not log the date and time with the other data so i had to create a second program to just do that. Eventually i will just write a custom monitor program that logs voltage and date and time, and eventually i hope to add temperature because it would be good to know the temperature also due to the battery reaction to temperature.
If i do go solar, which i am seriously thinking about even more now, this will help keep track of the effectiveness of the solar panel in keeping the battery up to speed over a few days or so, or if we get snow and cant get out there for some reason. I suspect i will have to clean the snow off the car though if the solar panel is going to work right.
Im glad somebody reminded me about the solar idea. I have a small panel i never used yet maybe that will be enough. Mounting will be tricky though to get at least some sun on it for a reasonable time during the day.
Now would be a great time to have long distance wireless power transmission to power the battery right from the house, but i dont think that is too practical yet.

[scot850]

Hey Al, I am not clear why you can't use the cable to use a maintainer. I know here we are not allowed to have cables going over the sidewalk for obvious reasons. People of course do in residential areas unless someone complains. I bought cable covers to try to reduce the chances of people tripping on the cable. Can't fix stupid though if people aren't paying attention to where they are walking even with hi vis yellow flashes on them. Might be worth a look:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Guardian-2- ... /313246197

Neil.

[MrAl]

Hey Al, I am not clear why you can't use the cable to use a maintainer. I know here we are not allowed to have cables going over the sidewalk for obvious reasons. People of course do in residential areas unless someone complains. I bought cable covers to try to reduce the chances of people tripping on the cable. Can't fix stupid though if people aren't paying attention to where they are walking even with hi vis yellow flashes on them. Might be worth a look:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Guardian-2- ... /313246197

Neil.

Hi Neil,

You are right of course, but i would have to do it short term, like maybe for a few hours then unplug and take in the house.
One of the problems is we get random cars and trucks coming in the driveway here and so i would probably have to stay out there and make sure nothing went wrong. It's a tricky situation. Not everyone that lives in this house is genuine family so they have their own agenda.
Not sure if everyone would like seeing that there every day 24/7 either, some of the people are very touchy about some things.

Those look very heavy duty though very nice. I think the only solution here would be to go underground and install an outlet on a pole out there. That could cost some bucks though.

I am looking into solar again now so i'll try that first.

[Sveedy]

You can get direct burial 12/2 w/ ground romex wire, and run that to a GFIC receptacle in a irrigation box with a cover set in the ground. Everything available at Home Depot etc. No one would ever notice it, and you'd have power out there for anything you might want, such as lighting, power tools etc. Probably get it all for less than $150. If you need to go under a sidewalk, then a garden hose turned on high can be used to accomplish that.

[scot850]

I hear your dilemma Al. I wish you luck finding a solution. There are solar panel chargers out there so shouldn't be too hard to find. Cost may be the issue with solar. Something like this should be able to keep ahead of parasitic drain:

https://www.amazon.ca/Waterproof-Mainta ... 11123&th=1

I like it as you can plug it into the cigarette lighter (assuming it stays in!) and put the solar panel where it sees sun inside the car.

Worth a shot!

Neil.

[WhatAmIDoing]

Was able to get a junk yard alternator and PS pump with ~100k miles. Hopefully I'll be driving the V70 again this weekend.

[MrAl]

Was able to get a junk yard alternator and PS pump with ~100k miles. Hopefully I'll be driving the V70 again this weekend.

Hi,

Can i ask what year?

[MrAl]

You can get direct burial 12/2 w/ ground romex wire, and run that to a GFIC receptacle in a irrigation box with a cover set in the ground. Everything available at Home Depot etc. No one would ever notice it, and you'd have power out there for anything you might want, such as lighting, power tools etc. Probably get it all for less than $150. If you need to go under a sidewalk, then a garden hose turned on high can be used to accomplish that.

Hi there,

Oh i'd love to do that but it's about a 45 foot run underground. I've done underground before it's not easy digging all that and this time i'd have to get it done before anyone had to use the driveway again. Quite a nasty situation out there.

[MrAl]

I hear your dilemma Al. I wish you luck finding a solution. There are solar panel chargers out there so shouldn't be too hard to find. Cost may be the issue with solar. Something like this should be able to keep ahead of parasitic drain:

https://www.amazon.ca/Waterproof-Mainta ... 11123&th=1

I like it as you can plug it into the cigarette lighter (assuming it stays in!) and put the solar panel where it sees sun inside the car.

Worth a shot!

Neil.

Hi Neil,

Can see the picture but i know what they look like and some of them are not that expensive around $22 USD. So that's next on the list.
I checked out the back window today when i went out to do some manual measurements and start the car again. It looks like it may work if it is inside the back window. If not i'll mount it on the dang roof (ha ha) i dont care at this point as long as it works.
There is a slight problem though and that is like today it was overcast so not much direct sunlight. I tested my small solar panel i had for years and it does have enough power to do anything at all, lucky if i get 10ma out of it in this weather and ideal placement outside.

I'll be doing something with it in the next few days.
Working on a custom monitor program for now.

[scot850]

Normal parasitic drain on earlier P80's I have had as little as 10-20mA. That is what I would call normal. My 00 R runs much higher than that due to the aftermarket alarm system and so it is in the 45-50 mA range. So even if you are only getting 5 mA on a bad day, I would expect it to be able to keep it charged sufficient for starting for much longer than now. The brand I looked at was called Powoxi at Amazon. The one I linked is 7.5W but they do do them up to 20W. What I liked about this brand is the options that come with it and the rubber suction cups that stick to the windows. This link should hopefully take you to Amazon.com website:

https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Maint ... 0cnVl&th=1

Neil.