Duder
Watch it man, there's a beverage here!
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2009
- Location
- Torrance, CA USA
Nice lady down the street has a 2001 S60, an NA 5-cylinder she bought new and drives rarely. It has just over 70k miles. Since the pandemic started she hasn't driven it at all, so of course the battery died.
They replaced the old battery a few months ago but now the new one is dead so she asked me to take a look since I'm clearly the neighborhood's resident Volvo guy
I confirmed the battery was stone dead, showing 0.64 volts. I charged it with my smart charger at 15A for about 5 hours and it came back to life just fine (again, newer battery, less than 1 year old). It started up immediately and seems to run great.
I haven't ever worked on a P2 car and therefore don't know all the ins and outs.
They told me that the alarm was going off incessantly a few months ago, and wondered if that was the reason for the short battery life. I can definitely see the logic in that. The red alarm status light is flashing rapidly which they said isn't normal behavior either. What are the common alarm issues with these cars? I found something about the siren failing and causing issues, but I haven't dug into the system any deeper than that.
There's a slow coolant weep at the thermostat housing, looks like an easy fix. Owner said she smelled "something weird" inside the car too... I looked under the dash and saw clear coolant stains on the carpet near the center console / gas pedal area, so clearly there is also a leak at the heater core, or one of the hoses or the valve maybe.
The other bit of useful evidence here, beside the extended sitting and the alarm issues, was rodent droppings in the engine bay. I didn't see any evidence of chewed wiring but only did a cursory look.
Any links, resources, or tips would be appreciated, as I told the neighbors I would do some research and get back to them with a few hypotheses and maybe help them fix whatever the root cause of battery death is. Thanks!
They replaced the old battery a few months ago but now the new one is dead so she asked me to take a look since I'm clearly the neighborhood's resident Volvo guy
I confirmed the battery was stone dead, showing 0.64 volts. I charged it with my smart charger at 15A for about 5 hours and it came back to life just fine (again, newer battery, less than 1 year old). It started up immediately and seems to run great.
I haven't ever worked on a P2 car and therefore don't know all the ins and outs.
They told me that the alarm was going off incessantly a few months ago, and wondered if that was the reason for the short battery life. I can definitely see the logic in that. The red alarm status light is flashing rapidly which they said isn't normal behavior either. What are the common alarm issues with these cars? I found something about the siren failing and causing issues, but I haven't dug into the system any deeper than that.
There's a slow coolant weep at the thermostat housing, looks like an easy fix. Owner said she smelled "something weird" inside the car too... I looked under the dash and saw clear coolant stains on the carpet near the center console / gas pedal area, so clearly there is also a leak at the heater core, or one of the hoses or the valve maybe.
The other bit of useful evidence here, beside the extended sitting and the alarm issues, was rodent droppings in the engine bay. I didn't see any evidence of chewed wiring but only did a cursory look.
Any links, resources, or tips would be appreciated, as I told the neighbors I would do some research and get back to them with a few hypotheses and maybe help them fix whatever the root cause of battery death is. Thanks!
