Somewhat of a back story.. I had my Volvo working well until end of March 2012 where the 1 year old battery the one morning just was completely dead, no interior lights, no nothing.

No lights were left on and only thing I did was set the "alarm" with the doors auto locking etc.

Fast forward months later I needed to get the car running again so I bought a new battery, not really thinking about a possible parasitic drain at first, threw the new battery in everything starts and runs great. Did a oil change on the car and ran it again after that and set alarm (doh) and left it til next morning. I go to run it and its completely dead again (no nothing) ($95 out the door probably for the battery)

I am thinking something ignition/alarm related since thats the only obvious commonality currently. Someone on volvo-forums.com said possible electrical ignition switch gone bad though I replaced that 15k ago who knows could happen. I'd love to test with a meter and do the fuse thing but I would need a good battery for that and now im broke at least in terms of buying another battery.. and I don't think I can get my new/old one recharged since its so dead it won't even have the interior lights come on.

Should have put a meter on the new battery before locking it up for the night since I suspected something.. argh stupid me

 

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

 

Thanks for the link.. I just have to get out there to get a multimeter

 

Main culprits are the glove box, trunk or tailgate light.

 

I had removed the glovebox bulb long ago.. I was thinking tailgate light which I just removed the bulb today.

I guess my battery is shot and can't be recharged if it didn't even have enough juice to turn anything on (ie the interior lights, blinking radio LED etc)?

 

Batteries come with a warranty. Just take it back where you purchased it and they'll give you another one.

 

Take it to any auto parts store and ask to have it charged and tested. They do it for free and it will tell you if it can be saved. If not then it's time to find out if it's under warranty. Most average batteries carry a seven year pro rated warranty with the first two years being a free exchange.

One thing to test is the alternator. It doesn't happen very often but once in a while one of the diodes will fail and allow the alternator to ground out the battery. It still charges the battery properly when it's running but once turned off it starts to slowly drain it. It doesn't trip the idiot light for charging because it still charges fine. If you find you have a draw you need to pull the heavy cable off the alternator to see if that stops it.

 

Like you I just revived my Volvo after having it sit for a while and had a similar problem and it turned out to be the alternator draining it. Like Kiss4frog said, The alt charged when running, but when off it sucked all the juice out of the battery.

I might add that i had an additional symptom which was the batt & oil lamps dimly lit when the car was off. This all got cured after I replaced the Alt.

 

ISSUE SOLVED:

Bought a cheap $25 useful multimeter from Wally World and tested battery at 4.8 volts.
Took to my shop I got battery from and they recharged it for me while I was at work.

Tested car when I got home with 4 fuses out... narrowed it down to the RADIO/AMP fuse believe its 15 amps. It was drawing like 10-11 amps when in and almost blew my cheap meter which isn't fused for DC 2amp-10amp setting

All is well now just no radio.. so if I had to fix the issue is it just a matter of a new head unit that has a built in amp like most are right?

Thanks for the help and comments

 

Maybe you have a bad ignition. That should not be getting power with the car off.

 

Well.. I can try and buy another electrical ignition switch part again and see what happens...

All I know is my amp and rear speakers pretty much went dead a year ago and I was just getting front speakers and mostly treble so not sure what that means in all this.

 

Glad you found a solution.

I guess those radios go kinda the same way because mine started with the left channels intermitently failing before they went bye bye all together. What I found when I pulled the unit was that one of the built in amp boards was getting really really hot, like shorted out, so I unplugged the whole unit.

You can get a replacement radio on e-bay for around 100 bucks or less that come with code and all, some offer warranty too.