hi guys,im new to the volvo world,having owned an 1996 850 t5 estate for 2 weeks now....it has been fine until the other day.firstly i noticed 2 symbols on the dash,one was on the mpg ,the other on mph....they look like a no entry sign,a circle with a diagnol line through it!!!!the reason i ask this is because yesterday the car drained the battery in 4 hours!i gave it a jump and off it went,then it did it again today!!!!!i have taken an alternator reading and it seems to be fine. anyone know of any common drain spots if so do you think the two are linked!!!! oh yeah,lastly,does anybody know where i can get one of them fault finder gadgets from??if so approx how much??? many thanks everyone,really want the beast back together!!!!!

 

Do you have the manual it will tell you what the idiot lights mean.

 

annoyingly the car didnt come with a manual...i did however spend hours online last night and found a pick of the dash,it also had the circular symbols on that too,maybe they are meant to be there!!!!!!!ones next to the left mpg,the other on the left of mph!!!still got the drain though,think i might have to buy a ammeter!!!thanks

 

Hey now.

Try this as it should help, a bit, anyway.

http://new.volvocars.com/ownersdocs/.../96850_000.htm

Good luck

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Those symbols mean that the MPG and MPH are not averaged when the trip computer is set to those readouts. They shouldn't drain your battery.
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the most common drain on those cars are the glovebox, you if you had i meter such as a fluke meter id explain how to do a drain test..

 

yeeesssssss,i found the little bugger!!!!! belive it or not it was the alternator!!!!alhough i did test the alternator and it was putting the charge in to the battery, it was also taking the charge when the car was switched offf!!!!!it this a common problem does anyone know???the only true way i found out was that i diconnected the alternator overnight,sure enough,she started first turn in the morning.i then connected alternator back up again,and yep you guessed it ,it was flat as a pancake within 2 hours!!!!thanks for all the help guys.

 

when you say you disconnected the alternator, what exactly did you disconnect, I dont think an alternator can draw voltage from the batter, it doesnt use any power, it makes it. its not like a light staying on or a module not shutting off. i dont think you have found your problem.

 

Hey now,

I agree with Volvotechky, the alternator is a generator of power not a consumer.

Have you checked the for a bad ground line/wire? You must have something somewhere sucking power[sm=smiley24.gif] .

Is the battery a new one or did it come with the car? If it came with the car the cheapest way to figure it out may be to buy a new battery and go from there.

That's all that I can offer for now.

[sm=icon_cheers.gif]

 

hi guys,bit of a late reply!!!!!!basically i disconnected the main feed for the alternator overnight,sure enough it started next morning...so i bought another alternator,whacked it on and for the last 2 weeks its been a1(apart from the other post that you may see!!!).the thing was it was actually draining the battery flat in 2.5 hours,so i gussed it must be that or starter as no wires had caught light!!!cheers all.check out my other post its rather interesting....

 

I don´t understand technically how that would happen. An alternator eating current while the engine is not running?

 

It cant happen.. The wire on the back of the alt is the problem. Just that when removed and reinstalled it got retorqued and pulled on etc.. I hope for his sake it doesnt come back, but i beleive it will..

 

A car I owned once had faulty diodes in the alternator (diodes only allow current to flow in one direction) and these faulty diodes caused the battery current to go flat because they allowed current to flow in the opposite direction back through the alternator to ground.

Maybe this is what happened to your Volvo.

If you replace the diode pack your old alternator should work properly again - and you'll have a spare alternator.

 

I have seen the same problem a few times as well.

 

Yup, that would explain it.