I got the warning sign while driving at 60mph on an expressway.

Thought it might be that the starter conked out and it might not be charging the battery.
Is it possible that the battery is at fault, old or something?

how could i get all of that checked out?

my ride is 2001 V70 T5 with manual transmission

on some threads it says voltage regulator might be at fault, while on others it says to change the battery while my hunch says its the alternator

help please, I'm confused

also when i park and leave the car in neutral while not pressing the brake or anything that sign leaves and it seems the car is idling fine

 

If you are in USA go to Autozone or other autoparts store and they can check your battery for free. I would check all wires and connectors to battery and alternator. It could be just bad ground connection due to rust.

 

Thank you very much BlackBrick

i am going to take it to the Autozone and have that checked out as im not too keen on changing the alternator cause it seems difficult due to the power steering pump right there

once again, good advice

anybody else have any experience with Volvo V70 T5 like me that cares to share

BTW: i love both of those cars you have in your avatar

*one more thing, anybody has directions (pictures or diagrams) how to change the alternator if thats the case?

 

almost guarantee its the battery or a bad earth, batteries get a flogging in these cars as you will find out if you leave the key on "ACC" for more than 30 mins.
Even though there is a truck battery in the boot the load on "ACC" must be huge as even a brand new fully charged batter is lucky to last more than an hour.

 

Make sure the voltage regulator is not bad. When they go bad usually the longer you drive the less the Alt. charges.

 

Thanks, I love them too!
And about your problem,
rule of thumb is: if you got advice from many people and one of them is tech you listen to tech. He is right on 99.9 % of the time

 

so what was the fix??

 

Well, that's the thing.

I drove it to AutoZone (6 miles) and just as I was pulling in the parking lot I got that same warning (low battery voltage)

As a person came out with something that looked like a battery charger(it was big) to read out the battery and alternator outputs the sign turned from yellow to red. As they put the clamps on that thing seemingly sucked out the juice out of the battery and the car died. Wouldn't even crank how dead the battery was. They put that weak cheap recharger but the car would barely start and the second they would hook up those clamps to check things the car dies. So I took out the battery, put it in their heavy duty chargers they said the battery was good cause it charged in 15 min, actually it got a bit overcharged to about 13 volts. I put it in and pissed off drove it home, knowing that it should last at least that long. I checked all connections, all wires, ground wire, that wire sticking into the alternator. No clue as to what it is.

When I drove home a red battery signal popped and left at the right corner saying "battery and electric circuit meintenance required", I think its due to overcharged battery, dissapeared now.

Ill do as tech says, ill check all the wiring, then I might change the alternator as voltage regulator is on it and I can't get my hands on that part (many things FCTGroton doesn't have for my Volvo) so I might as well change the alt.

That begets my question guys: where can I get it the cheapest and yet the best part?
I know they all are refurbished, but only ones I see are Duralast, Bosch, and one found all over internet called hi-lite or something like that.

 

The Bosch is OEM.

 

That generic brand I was talking about is called Hi-Test and every online store has them.

Yet something tells me that I should go with either Duralast or Bosch .

So Tech, as a seriously respected dude, due to your knowledge of these cars I see that you recommend Bosch but I was wondering cause of its high (really high) price, what else do you recommend?

Anyone else wanna pitch in if they had the same problem?

Also Tech, I changed the alternator on other simpler cars, it was outright simple, any pointers with this one? Since its got powersteering right above I would need to take out before it?

 

The pump is held in with 3 bolts and it can be moved out of the way. Also before moving it remove the upper radiator hose from the motor. Then the pump and all lines still connected can be moved out of the way.Then there is 3 screws holding the Alt in. But the trick is you also have to loosen the 2 lower A/C comp. bolts to be able to get the Alt out. Then the wires and work it out.

If you want to try searching by the Volvo part # for the regulator here is the part numbers. The 120A 9459741 the 140/160 8637851. On the back of your Alt on the plastic cover there will be something like 70-120A that is a 120 amp one 90-140 is the 140 amp.

Also check discount and auto zone and see if they carry a regulator.
Funny thing lately on some parts they come in a duralast box or other brand but the parts inside have Volvo stamped on them. They are usually ignition coils and a few other things.

 

Thank you very much, im gonna look into the regulator part and see what i can do about that. maybe it might be cheaper and easier to swap just that. either way, thanx a lot for the tip of changing the alternator, knowing what to do and following your instructions i know it is gonna make my job easier

once again, youre a good bro, thanx for the help

 

I knew I can put money on tech.
By quick search I found this
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Volvo-Rep...-2002-XC70.htm

 

and this
http://europartsamerica.com/parts/pr...FRkNDQodewlSmw
and this
http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/200...lternator.html

 

Thanks BB, I really appreciate that, you're very resourceful cause I couldn't find those parts. But I think ill get the whole alternator just in case

Also today my battery was sooo drained out that I couldn't even open the windows. Meanwhile when I drove the car back home from AutoZone the other day I made sure it was fully charged. When I parked it it was able to restart and all electronics worked. Now NOTHING.

Is that normal? Could I have killed the battery? Am I gonna need a new one as well as the alternator?

Oh well, the time will tell I guess.....

 

In the first link that I posted they listed all of your symptoms. It eventually kills your battery.
Here is video how alternator work and how to fix it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VzvhfI4UpA

 

Once again, I really can't thank you enough bro. This is coming in really useful. I love the support on this site and from what I learn I'm going to try and spread my knowledge on to other guys with problems resembling mine.

Bang up job bro

 

Hopefully it will be an easy swap for you.