2018 V90 - Electronic modules and thunderstorms

[GilbertR]

Our 2018 V90 purchased in 2017 for its beautiful styling has shown some weakness on the electronics side: need to reboot or upgrade the main software a number of times. What we experienced is hard to believe: in one year interval , the driver side window rolled down by itself under thunderstorm conditions (no direct lightning strike)
No consequence the first time but the recent down pour in Wash. DC got the car drenched inside and within 24 hrs impossible to move it out of our driveway.
Has any body experienced such an occurrence? Hard to believe, but guaranteed truthful. Now we are in a fight with Volvo re warranty.
I heard from my service manager that it happened on an XC90.

[matthew1]

Sorry to hear of this. That's terrible.

Please post photos, let me know if you need help doing that. The more the better.

Photos provide a good deal of legitimacy.

[mrbrian200]

These newest vehicles are so complicated on the software/electronics side they practically need a full blown event logger (along the lines of what is built into modern desktop computer operating systems). So that techs can go back and see what exactly is triggering the window down. Otherwise it's sounds like a pretty wild west guessing game trying to figure out something like 'why a window is rolling down on its own while the vehicle is parked'. Presently as far as I know only the engine control module has such functionality, and only stores engine management snapshot data when a DTC is triggered. This is probably appropriate for engine management. But for the rest of vehicle/body control systems an event logger that saves record of every little button pushed/autonomous action (such as a light sensor triggering main beams on, or a door module/software/remote trigger of a window down command) would take the guessing game out of tracing freak/isolated problems such as this. I don't envy the tech at whatever dealership you go who is trying to figure this out. And the vehicle may well end up being claimed as a total loss (insurance) before it's all done. Over something, at heart, is likely rooted in a relatively inexpensive part/fix or minor software patch - but if the root cause is effectively untraceable, and thus potentially unfixable because the software systems aren't adequately complex to track and trace unintended events, the vehicle could effectively be lost.

[jimmy57]

I had that happen once on a 2017 XC90. I left the window cracked about an inch and the rain dropped on window switches and then that window plus another rolled down. I dried the interior with towels and dried off the doors around the switches and went in the house and looked out and they all had rolled down. I disconnected the battery and put fans blowing into the car through open doors and dried it and never had another problem. I have wetted a lot of doors and window controls by leaving windows cracked and a storm sneaks in on me. On non-networked ones it only damaged switches, usually fixed with contact cleaner and air blower nozzle.

[matthew1]

Follow up from Gilbert via email:

Volvo Cars NJ HQ never acknowledged that window glass motor controllers could be activated by stray currents or other RF in thunderstorm conditions. Just said external factors are not their responsibility and I should talk to my insurance company. Talk about [passing the buck. The car floor had to be stripped and carpeting put to dry, the modules were not affected just corrosion on the connectors . Don Beyers Volvo made the right decision to splice the wires at the connectors. Might be useful next time around. Passed the $ 1 000 deductible State Farm paid a bit less than that to cover what was essentially labor. We got the car back after a month, looking good as always and as if nothing happened , except that we start worrying as soon as we hear thunder. I will contact the VA AG to put the case in the record. The question is whether we should we keep the car or not.

[June]

You need to get a security camera pointed at that car so the window can be proven to be at fault. Without video proof it would take a rash of the same thing happening before a company will take notice.

Here in Florida where it floods, unless a photo of the car actually in 1/3 or deeper in water the insurance company won't total it. And 1/3 deep in salt water rots out a car quick. So photographic proof is indisputable. June