Hello,

I am new to the site, and have a 1990 740 and 1996 850. My problem is with the 850. It seems to have a key off drain that my guy can't find. He has replaced the alternator, battery, and the thing will still drain the battery after a week of not driving.

And, it seems to be getting worse. When I start in the morning, cranks fine, and then the radio goes off, the gauges go dead, runs real rough, ... after it runs a bit, all things seem to run well.

Must be a key off drain. Any ideas how to troubleshoot?

Thanks,
850Hokie, Go VT!

 

Check this out, it is in the DIY thread.

https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...g-101-a-42655/

 

Thanks Brick850. I will gentley give this to my mechanic.

 

The most common drain is the glove box light. You can toss your phone in the glove box and record for a few seconds to see if the light goes out.

 

That sounds like the classic symptoms of a bad electrical portion of the ignition switch. Try to jiggle the key around while the car is running - if things change then that is your problem. It is a very simple fix and, in Volvo terms, a relatively cheap part.

...Lee

 

Your diagnosis of a key-off parasitic drain is incorrect. A parasitic drain/draw would pull the battery down when the car sits w/o running, so it would crank slow and hard to start when cold (if it indeed had a parasitic draw).

+1 to what Lee said.

 

I only read the first paragraph of your thread and not the second, my bad. Therefore I'm with Lee as well. Read this thread:
https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-260-760-960-28/major-electrical-issues-56256/

 

Or you have two problems.

If your car goes dead after sitting a week you do have a drain. You shouldn't need to replace parts to find it. You or someone should be installing an amp meter between the battery terminal and battery cable end to read the draw and then start pulling fuses to find out what circuit is drawing the current and then go from there. It's rare to find an alternator that has a bad diode trio and allows current to drain and it's fairly easy to test without actually just spending your money replacing it to see if it's the problem.


If it also starts up fine and once you let go of the key it keeps running but you lose the radio and gauges it's likely a separate issue and I'd be inclined to think it's your ignition switch.

Is it a wagon ??

 

Yep, I think I have two problems. It definitely had a key off drain. He replaced the battery (Advaned Auto battery, not strong enough), and then the alternator (not putting out the full amps to recharge). I only have a five minute drive to work, and he said the alternator was slowing killing the battery with such a short drive.

So, it seemed to work fine. Meanwhile, he was working on an AC problem. Finally decided it was the compressor clutch, as posted on this site. I can live with it.

Put it in my garage for a week, and was driving my Red Rat (1990, 740 Turbo, four door, red, 5-speed, 274,000). I started the 850, and it started, but radio went dead, gauges, ...

I think it must be two problems; drain might be solved. I will get him to check the ignition switch.

Problem is my wife is all over me for dropping $2k to fix all this on a 1996. Car runs great, when it runs.

Thanks,

 

Short trips will kill any battery in any car. My wife was doing the same in a newer Jeep we had. Driving 5 miles to work 4 days per week and not going anywhere else. 60 Days of that and the battery would die. Sorry to hear that the mechanic took you for an alternator instead of having you drive the car 30+ minutes twice per week. I hear people say that the alternator should be charging at 14+ volts while running but mine never has. Mine is closer to 13v, sometimes as low as 12.7v. It's been like that since I've had the car.

 

An alternator will charge at different voltages depending on the condition of the battery and how much load the car is putting on it. If the battery is in good condition, fully charged and everything is off inside the car it could be in the low 13's and be fine but if you just jump started it then you should see 14+. But it's still a matter of amps to charge the battery and voltage is just the "push". Voltage is a good backyard gauge but a tester that reads the amperage output is the real measure. You can have 14+ volts going to a drained battery but have a bad diode trio inside the alternators regulator and it's only able to put out 25 to 30 amps. In the winter it's not going to have the amps to charge the battery and run the car so the battery slowly drains down. You never get an "Idiot" light because the warning system reads voltage and doesn't sense the lack of amperage.

You might find it worth your time and money to purchase a small 1 or 2 amp battery charger that will float when the batteries charged and plug your car in overnight once a week. That way the battery is brought all the way back at least once a week and you won't be pulling more out than you can put back in with your short drives. Gets worse in the winter when you're running the heater on high, headlights and wipers all at the same time. More so if you have working seat heaters too !! With what batteries cost they are worth a little maintenance.
I have a Town Car with dual batteries that doesn't get driven much and I permanently installed a 2 amp marine charger under the hood as I leave it plugged in most of the time. The marine charger is waterproof.

The reason I asked about it being a wagon is I ran into a problem with mine going dead intermittently a lot when I first bought it. Every time I tried testing for a draw I found nothing. I finally found out I wasn't closing the back hatch fully and it was leaving the interior lights on. Couldn't see it happening during the day and it was dead the next morning. I pay more attention to making sure it's latched all the way now.
I also changed over to LEDs for the interior lights so I can actually leave the doors open for a couple days and they don't drain the battery.

 

Ok. So, he believes it was really one core problem. A bad relay. Old Part Number9130269New Part Number9494424 Part NameElectrical Electrical components Relay Starter Starter MSRP$20.44

He replaced it. What ya think? I picked it up on Friday, and have not started it yet. Want to see if the battery will die.

Could this be the key-off drain and the gage issue?

Thanks,

 

That's the problem with electrical gremlins ... they don't always make sense at first and the oddest symptom can sometimes have the simplest cause. Then again you can have an easy symptom that should be a slam dunk and it turns out to be at the other end of the car.
The old Volvos, 70's would give the wildest problems from having corrosion in the tail light assemblies. It got so bad that if a Volvo rolled into the shop with something electrical the first thing I used to do if the cause wasn't obvious was to check the tail light circuit boards for corrosion. Here in Minnesota with all the salt they toss on the roads it would get into the tail light boards and cause some really weird problems due to it backfeeding another circuit.

Could it be the relay ?? Sure can be. Hopefully it is.

 

He changed a relay. Said it was bad. I let it sit over the weekend, and started fine. After 5 minutes radio died, gave it the gas, almost stalled, and then it jumped into gear, all gages came back on.

What ya think? I think I am back to bad ignition.

Thanks,

 

I wish there was I way to say it is the switch for sure but I can't. The best I can tell you is it sounds like a bad connection someplace that gets "wiggled" and causes an intermittent open in the circuit or the ignition switch. It's one of those problems that isn't easy to diagnose even if you have your hands on the car.

 

He works at the Bug Shop, and they call him the Nutty Professor. They work on imports, and he likes a challenge.

 

Thanks to this thread and others, I solved my electrical problem that has similar elements. Mostly, the dash lights were intermittent ... lately not coming on much at all. About $45 for a new one on eBay. After disconnecting the battery, removed the steering wheel column trim via torx screws from below, and pulling the column adjustment handle (column full down position 1st). Two screws to detach the switch from the left side of column, pulled the plug, pressed in the new one ... and reverse order back together. Done! It's flawless now. This is such a common problem and cheap fix, that I'd recommend fitting a new switch at the first hint of trouble.

 

I guess Zip is saying that his ignition switch was bad.

 

Oh, OK then..?

Thanks for the translation..