Hi guys, I put a new battery in my 96 850 Turbo within the last 8 months. It's been fine until yesterday when I go to start the car and the battery is nearly dead. Nothing was left on, of this I'm sure.

Put her on the smartcharger for the day and she starts strong. Didn't drive it in the last 24 hours, go to start this eve and she's nearly dead again.

Terminal connections are solid.

What can I check? I have a meter if that will tell me anything.

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

Your glove box light most likely. Over time it seems to warp outward at the handle part of the door. What I did was cut a little square piece of those pads that goes under furnitures that prevent them from scratching floors to help close that gap to push on that switch to turn it off when the glove box door is closed.

 

boxpin did a nice writeup awhile back; here's the link
https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...g-101-a-42655/

And like MC92 said, i would ck the glove box light first.

 

ya, he did

 

Evidently it was in fact the glove box light. Thanks for the suggestions!

Stacked a couple small circular felt 'feet' on the box-plunger contact spot and so far no more deadness!

 

theman- You know I've been having the EXACT same thing going on with my 95 850 wagon. I've been suspecting the glove box also. I will give it a good charge and try the felt pad trick tonight. Dave

 

I have recently had the same problem, something was draining my battery, alarm worked ok, so was scratching my head to the cause, until i read this thread. Same thing here, glovebox light stayed on, checked battery with a multi-meter and sure enough was losing volts, not at a drastic rate but as i dont use my t5 that much, enough to drain the battery after a week or so, so i removed the glove box lightbulb, started the engine to get a full charge and again checked the battery after an hour, no drain. Also fixed my rattling glove box door in the process (probably the overall cause as it wasnt closing properly, Thankyou very much for the excellent advice.

 

Speagle, how do you remove the light bulb? It's behind this plastic lens but no place I see that you can stick anything under. Does it just pop out?

 

You have to remove the whole inner glove box case to pop that plastic lense cover out, the screws are at front behind the glove box door but you have to detach the two side arms from the glove box door first, then push the arms back and remove the inner casing.

 

Thanks Speagle. If I can't jerryrig that switch to shut off with the felts and all, I'll just remove the bulb. I hardly use it anyway. Thanks also to everyone else.

 

No worries, i just took the bulb out and now use a little stick on push on/push off light stuck to the back of my glove box, cheap and cheerful and it works. thanks to mc92 for originally pointing me in the right direction.

 

Speagle,
Does the bulb screw out or is it bayonet? I couldn't get the arms out of the box, so will have to try taking the bulb out with a thin nose pliers so would be help to know if it screws out or not.

 

Its a bayonet fitting. Yeah the arms on glove box lid are tricky to get out, you have to slide a thin flat ended screwdriver into the tiny gap and press outwards (towards the arm) really hard to explain and just as hard to do, but can be done. making the whole glove box insert easy to pull out revealing that pesky little bulb, mine was really rusty and almost welded in so took a pair of pliers too. Best of luck.

 

Thanks, Speagle, that helps to know so that I don't break more things. Again, like many of the release "buttons", it's counter-intuitive, since the space for the screwdriver is on the side you're supposed to push towards (the arm side). I'll try it. Right now I have four of those felt things that's barely keeping the light out.

 

you're very welcome, any more probs just get back to me.