2001 V70 HELP!! Sudden loss of all electrical Topic is solved

oldandbroke · Post by **oldandbroke** » 08 Dec 2017, 05:22

This car is new to me, but I've been driving it at every opportunity since I bought it on Saturday, trying to uncover any hidden problems. Up to now there has been absolutely no problem of any kind at any time.

Carfax is about as spectacular as you could hope - last recorded service was less than 100 miles prior to my purchase of the car.

Went out to the store at about 5AM for some cold medicine for the family.

About 1/4 mile away from my destination, I went over a very mild bump, and the abs warning light came on. I kinda sighed, and told myself "well they can be fluky sometimes, and have been cheap to replace on other cars" and just filed it away as "I'll deal with that later."

Literally less than 2 minutes later I had arrived at the store, parked my car, and gone in to get what I needed.

Came back out, fob doesn't unlock the car. OK, unlocked the door with the key - no lights of any kind, no ignition response of any kind. If I didn't know better, I'd think there was no battery installed at all.

So of course I decide this might be a good time to check the battery connections. The seller bought the car at auction and had it a few months, it wouldn't surprise me that the the battery was disconnected (maybe more than once) and possibly not tightly reconnected.

Well of course the tailgate is locked. It has no keyhole. There is no lever. The manual only lists two ways to unlock it, and they both involve the fob. And as far as I can tell I can't (I did crawl in) lift off the panel that covers the battery well without the tailgate open.

Please help me to:

a) open my tailgate
b)diagnose this issue

Thanks!

Edited to add: I did get a good Samaritan to let me hook up his car with jumper cables to the jumper points on the front of the car. However, this did not make a difference and did not allow me to unlock the car or provide any power to anything. I'm not sure whether this supports my "battery disconnected" theory or points to something else.

Post by **abscate** » 08 Dec 2017, 07:08

It could be as simple as a dead battery. When modern cars battery voltage sags below a certain voltage, everything shuts down, as they are all digital now, so you don't get the analogue 'leeway' anymore.

Jumping should have fixed it temporarily but it is common for people to have crappy cables that won't carry any current.

If you don't get any dash action with a jumper battery, its probably deeper.

oldandbroke · Post by **oldandbroke** » 08 Dec 2017, 07:20

Yikes, let's hope for crappy cables then. ;_;

I've got good ones, but not available to me at the moment, will grab them later.

Have been combing the internet since posting this, and found some people with very similar issues that fixed it via battery/charging system problems as you noted, some at least temp fixes from fully disconnecting battery for awhile, at least one mention of CEM (please no), various other things.

A lot of this involves the need to get to my battery though - any ideas on getting frikkin' tailgate open?

oldandbroke · Post by **oldandbroke** » 08 Dec 2017, 07:24

Also this looks very similar to Brickbat's thread here viewtopic.php?f=9&t=83180

But it looks like no firm conclusion there either.

Post by **abscate** » 08 Dec 2017, 11:15

I think I would try applying12 V to the central locking circuit in the fusebox and seeing if that will let you unlock the trunk with the door button. I thought you could get the tray up and out with the door closed on my P2?

oldandbroke · Post by **oldandbroke** » 08 Dec 2017, 12:02

> I thought you could get the tray up and out with the door closed on my P2?

Well, it's possible that I didn't try hard enough. I'm also not intimately familiar with how that tray swings up. (Well, I am now.) Still not convinced I could do it with the tailgate shut - I should practice for next time.

Well, I got about as lucky as could be. After more internet researching and talking to some relatives with related experience, and becoming more and more convinced that this would be something catastrophic, I set up AAA to come get the car and take it to my house. The tow truck driver asked me what happened, I explained, including that I had tried to jump it. He had the same conclusion you did regarding the possibility that the cables I borrowed may not have done the trick, and suggested that we give that a try before loading it on to the flatbed.

I was skeptical, but figured it couldn't hurt. He hooked his up, I had power, started the car, and unlocked the tailgate. He could tell with his jumper battery setup that charging voltage looked good. Got to the battery, and just as I had prayed, the positive cable was so loose that it took nothing at all to wiggle it around and pop it off. Tightened it down, went for a nice long drive, everything seems OK now. Battery looks brand new, but that may be just because it's not in the engine compartment.

Whew!

Post by **abscate** » 08 Dec 2017, 12:47

Pull the codes off the battery and you can date it from the interwebs.

These cars need a good battery and alternator or they will give you hell