I was prompted to post to this thread after another episode of my 2010 XC60 T6 not starting up after returning from a trip and the car sitting in my garage for 5 days and investigating the issue online.
Some background:
I have been dealing with this battery/car not starting issue when the car hasn't been driven for a few days for a couple of years now. First, like almost everyone else, thought it was just that the factory battery needed replacing. I have a trickle charger so I would keep the battery conditioned when I knew the car was going to sit for a few days. After a couple of instances, I figured I would replace the battery and I went with an Interstate M7 AGM high-end battery, that was Nov. 2014. Things seemed fine for a while, I wasn't away and there weren't many instances where the car sat for consecutive days. However, less than 2 years after the battery replacement, Aug. 2016, car would not start after several days when I was away. The battery is warrantied for 4 years and I took it back to the battery dealer to have them check it out...they thought it would be best to replace it...so another new MT7 AGM installed. The latest incident occurred yesterday, car was sitting in my garage for 5 days. Needed a jump from a tow service truck, neighbor's car couldn't do the job with jumper cables.
Upon doing the usual forum searches and investigation...clearly I'm not the only one with this problem. Lots of information and advice out there spanning the range from alternator, battery condition/replacement, charging system issues, possible battery drain from a system/component, software updates, etc.
One thing that caught my attention was a forum post by someone that mentioned the Volvo On Call system and its function to "monitor" and possibility this was a source of battery drain. Investigating on how I might disable this feature and more searches resulted in finding articles and websites noting a class action lawsuit filed against Volvo Cars NA on this exact issue:
Volvo Battery-Draining Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Theresa Jenner v. Volvo Cars North America LLC, Case No. 2:15-cv-06152, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-...ction-lawsuit/
http://www.seegerweiss.com/news/inve...battery-drains
I thought this was good information to pass along, apologies if someone has already posted on these specifics...
So my question to this community is this:
1.) Volvo is obviously aware of this issue...does anyone know if there is a specific s/w update that will resolve this problem that I can go to my dealer and request that it be installed? To my knowledge my car is current on s/w updates, perhaps this is something that is "off-menu" that Volvo doesn't want to publicize.
2.) Other than keeping my battery on a trickle charger every time I'm traveling, anyone have insights on how to disable the Remote Digital Audio Receiver (RDAR)? FYI-I pulled the fuse for the Sirius Satellite Radio in my fuse box...just in case this satellite system uses the same fuse.
Thanks,
Chik
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