Hello all! This morning I was gonna take a drive in my 2011 Volvo S40 T5 when I notice my doors wouldn’t unlock with the fab, at first I was thinking the car battery, so I had to manually unlock the door. I get in and everything seems fine, I put the key in the ignition and turn it all the way to position 3, the starting position, and when I turned it, nothing happened. No sounds, clicks, anything. The key then gets stuck in the ignition between the positions 0 and 1. Now I’m not sure what’s going on so then we tried to jump the car because we still think it’s the battery. We bring the good car to my Volvo, we connect the wires but when we put the last one on the Volvo battery, sparks came out. Im not sure what is going on but the key is still stuck on the ignition and is not turning on. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Sounds like a very weak/dead battery - and you simply connected the jumper cables wrong. Positive to positive, and negative (on the good battery car) to the frame of the Volvo - away from the battery. That's to keep sparks away from the battery - sometimes batteries emit hydrogen gas - that is very explosive. Very rare but I've seen 3 explode - battery acid everywhere! Including all over the person connecting the cable!

 

Oh crap, glad that didn’t happen to us! But thanks for your input, I’ll see what’s up with the battery.

 

Sparks can be normal when connecting a good battery to a dead(ish) battery, since the amount of current flowing from the good battery can be substantial. It tends not to happen if the "bad car" battery isn't really dead, so I'd have to guess that's what your problem is.

As hoonk suggested, make that final negative connection to a ground on the "bad car" like the engine block or bolt connected to the body, etc.

 

Check for corrosion also. Clean terminals with a wire brush, or can of Coke soda.

 

Check the battery with a volt meter before starting , should be 12.6 v then check when staring if it drops bellow 10v or lower the battery is gone when using another battery always connect the negative (-) from the donner source to a good body point and NOT THE BATTERY , + from one battery to the other , I hope that is the fault as the key lock sometimes fails and it difficult to replace good luck !

 

Update: Thank you all for your input! We found out that it was the battery so we replaced it. But when we put it in everything started to work fine and everything turned on except the car itself. When I turn to to position 3 nothing turns on and it gives an “anti skid” warning and then a “immobilizer start again” warning. Not sure what to do now. Thanks in advance!

 

Yes had this once many years ago a opel astra it was unbelievable the whole battery imploded , had to get the hose pipe quick fortunately not much on me but it did destroy a T shirt
So never connect the negative (-) to the battery but to the chassis

 

First, make sure that the battery is actually charged (they aren't always).

If there's no battery problem (voltage at the battery over 12 volts), then the immobilizer is the key (pardon the pun). If that's the case, it's possible that the car's computer "forgot" the keys, and will have to be reprogrammed. If you have another key, try that - it's possible that the immobilizer will remember the other key. I don't believe there is any alternative other than to flatbed the car to your local Volvo dealer and have them reestablish the communications with the chips in the key(s).

 

[QUOTE=EzekielM13;499111]When I turn to to position 3 nothing turns on and it gives an “anti skid” warning and then a “immobilizer start again” warning. Not sure what to do now. [\QUOTE]

A couple of things to try before the flatbed ride -

Have you tried to lock and unlock the car with the remote? Then try to start the car again? - And as another has mentioned - try your other key

Or you may have to read and erase codes with a scanner that can talk to all the modules (not just obd)