I'm 5 months in to my first Volvo owner experience and things have been good....until this week!
On Thursday while my wife was on a 50 mile highway drive, the battery warning light came on and the message center said "EL SYSTEM SERVICE REQUIRED." Things seemed fine so she kept driving. Made a stop for a couple hours, turned the car back on to come home and the light/warning was still there.
On the next morning, light/warning still present. She stopped by the tire shop that installed the battery 3 months ago, they said that the battery was fine and it was likely an alternator issue. While driving home, the ABS warning light came on, as did the Airbag warning light. The AC stopped, the radio stopped, and by the time she got home, she couldn't roll up the windows.
This afternoon, about 20 hours after it was last turned off, I started the car to turn it around so I could look under the hood and get to work. To my surprise, it started just fine and there were no warning lights. Thinking it was odd, I drove the car around the neighborhood and within about 5 minutes, the battery light came on, and a few minutes later systems started shutting down. I got home and parked it, turned it off....then turned it on just to see if I could. It turned over, but the warnings were still present.
Thinking it was odd that I could start the car and that the warnings didn't come on until the car was warmed up, I decided to test a theory that the problem only happened once the car was at operating temperature. I let it sit and cool for 4 hours. Sure enough, I turned the car on and there are no lights, no warnings.
I was originally thinking it needs a new alternator, but this cold/warm thing has me confused. Is it something else? Maybe the regulator or even a belt/pulley issue? Help!
Bookmarks