I’m absolutely livid. My XC60 is one month old and parked on the 3rd floor of a parking garage in NYC and entirely dead. We have no idea how we are going to even get it out since it can’t get into neutral and there’s little room to work with. It’s on a raised parking elevator that has been lowered to the ground but has to be able to get off that. Is there any fix that can be done outside the dealer to at least get enough power to get it into neutral?

 

Info from your owners manual -

https://www.volvocars.com/en-ca/supp...nother-battery

 

Sounds like another 12V battery drainage issue to me. Lot of folks are having this issue. As hoonk linked, you'll need to jumpstart it.

Also note, XC60 Owners are being told that we must drive these cars a minimum of 15 minutes per week to keep maintain the 12V batteries OR we need to have a battery maintainer attached to keep it topped up...

 

What software version do you have? 2.5 was supposed to fix this, but apparently it isn’t.

 

This dead car issue is no joke anymore. Someone could be placed in a threatening situation with these cars – middle of nowhere, middle of the night…

‘Volvo’, what will it take for 'You' to take ownership and responsibility for this issue? I dread to think…

Volvo is slithering around this issue like a snake, by telling people to drive 15min a week or use a charger is just sick.

 

My car was already on v2.5 when it died.

 

My 2005 BMW M3 battery would go dead after sitting a couple of weeks. So it's not just a Volvo problem. My solution, a battery cut off switch when the car was to be parked for a while. Problem with a new Volvo is there are 2 or three batteries. Starting, support and 48v hybrid on some cars.

Or a trickle charger

 

We got it jumped and out of the garage but it’s at a Volvo service garage now. There were a bunch of warnings on after it came back to life, the guy at the Volvo garage said that you have to drive “these kinds of cars” “every week or two” so the computer doesn’t drain the battery. I explained that I park in a NYC multi floor garage which is a risk if my car is going to die and my other parking environment is a remote mountain home in NC, also not ideal for a battery randomly dying. He said as long you run it once a week it’s fine. I assume that is NOT true *sigh*

 

I am not car savvy, just a person who bought this dumb car. How complicated would a trickle charger be? Or the battery cut off switch?

 

I’ve had to concede to this Volvo recommendation blackmail and purchase a charger out of my own hard-earned cash (CETEK mxs 5) until such time as I get ****e of this car or Volvo decides to wake up and fix these cars.

I think trying to disconnect the numerous batteries could create an equal amount of grief and maybe even invalidate the warranty. If we are living in a time when cars are now going to routinely drain their batteries, then the manufactures need to increase the battery amp-hours rating to something more in line with a commercial truck or JCB.

BThom – glad to hear that you got your car out of the parking garage.

 

Sitting for a couple of weeks is different than what's actually happening to people. These XC60s are failing to start after sitting for a few days, less than a week. In my case the car was parked in a garage for 4 days. Most recently the center console failed to turn on after multiple restarts and the root cause was deemed to be the 12V only having a 33% charge (this was with v2.5 software btw).

 

This is even more concerning!

From my recent dealer experience, all they seem to be able to do is plug in a reader and go from there. The dealers appear to be just as much in the dark on this issue as we are.

I wonder when this dead-car issue will hit the mainstream news media as currently it’s only discussed within these community forums and how many further people have experienced this same issue that have not put pen to paper on these forums? Are those of us here just a very small unlucky minority or is it a much bigger issue? Would J.D. Power be gathering any dealer insight statistics I wonder?

My worry is that until Volvo gets put in the spotlight, they will continue to put the onus of this issue back onto their customers by stating their handbook recommendation:

“To keep the starter battery in good condition, at least 15 minutes of driving a week is recommended, or connecting the battery to a battery charger with automatic trickle charging.”
.

 

Do we know if all owners have this issues or a subset of vehicles? The service manager said he has the exact car as me, color and interior, and he’s never had the problem but he “drives the car every single day”…of course he might just be saying that but curious why some cars wouldn’t have an issue and others would, if they all have the same computer system.

Mine definitely sat for awhile because it was in a NYC garage and we don’t drive a lot here. So that “makes sense” I guess, even though I think for the cost of the car I shouldn’t have to worry about my car being dead if I don’t drive it weekly. I leave for vacation next week, what do I do then? Hire someone to drive it?