Volvo reviews or opinions

Just a tip on the battery drains, as it might help someone out there in the future. Few mechanics will ever practice the patience needed to find these - they just check a few relays to see if they're stuck - and move on to the next truck.

The only way to find a mystery battery drain takes time that they really don't have. The steps are pretty simple, and would apply to any vehicle.

Disconnect the batteries, and check them for voltage and state of charge. If one battery has an odd reading, replace it - or at least charge and load test it (auto parts stores will normally do this for free). In banked batteries (connected together) one bad battery can swamp the rest of them.

When you have healthy batteries, reconnect them, and make sure all the connections are solid and clean. Then go to your fuse panel(s) in the vehicle, and with the ignition off and the key in your pocket, pull one fuse at a time and test between the fuse contacts with a multimeter ($10 and a good thing to have in any truck) set on AMP. If you get a reading, write it down - along with the circuit number. You also want to check the size of the fuse against what should be there (either the panel cover or the manual will show these). When you have finished testing the fuse panels - you should have a good idea where the power is going when the vehicle is shut down. This will give you some information to talk to techs about, or to work from on your own.

There should be nearly no drain at all from any circuit in the vehicle when it is shut down. Any power usage is suspect. Even the slightest amount of drain will sap the batteries over time.

Hope this helps someone in the future - all trucks have electrical issues sometimes. And now back to our regularly scheduled thread......

 

Ill throw in my 2 cents worth. I am a technician from a mack volvo dealer. I think a volvo chassis with an ISX engine is one of the best combos on the road. Trucks drive very nice and the cummins is very dependable. Volvo engines are smooth refined and powerful, but they have had their problems. The 2007 and back engines used 2 egr valves that we have seen a lot of failures on. If they are replaced with new ones and not the remans they seem to last a lot longer. They also had a problem with oil leaks at the passthrough harness at te rear or the engine. That can usually be repaired in a few hours with an epoxy process thy devolped. The 2007-2009 ones seem to have solved the egr problems (went from 2 to 1 better one). The biggest problems we have seen is dpf regeneration issues, injector cups and flaking camshafts witch have all usually been covered under some sort of warranty and have not ususlly required more than 1 or 2 days in the shop. I have not seen many major failures of thier engines and most people I talk to say they get great fuel economy. I have seen that they are hard to get serviced becouse a lot of places wont work on them due to their complexity, they are probably the most technologically advanced truck on the road and we go through a lot of training to work on them. Hope this helped a little.

 

That helps alot, actually, and it's great to have a tech on the forum - welcome!

I hope you find a reason to stop in and write once in awhile - we could all use some insight and help at times - now about disconnecting the EGR valve on my '05 ISX....... heheheh Best to you, and thanks for your hard work and training!

 

Tookdelivery of my Volvo on Monday. I had to laugh thinking about you guys and Volvo electrical problems. The dealer picked me up at my house with the truck. About a half block away it died. No warning, just died. Turned out to be a fuse had blown in the battery area. The problem was a slightly corroded fuse holder causing the fuse to heat up and pop.

They replaced the fuse holder and did a couple of other things I wanted done. We mleave on our maiden voyage tomorrow.

 

I want a Volvo now!!!!

 

They would probably take whatever you're driving in trade.

 

A corroded fuseholder?! Buddy, your luck is with you - how crazy would that have made you on the shoulder somewhere - and what are the odds?

Just for kicks, I'll be greasing all of the fuseholders near the batteries, and most other plugs on the truck with silicone grease. Hard to believe in this day and age that any connection under a truck would be dry - but leave it to someone to think that's a great idea.

I made sure to get the spare fuse pack, and all the manuals with my truck. Hope I can figure out the puzzle if it ever happens to me. Thanks for posting that - we'll all be looking for that one in the future!

 

Removing side skirts strategy is right on, but removing the hood strategy is what real hard-core supertrucker genius would do to gain competitive advantage
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I----> tip: wrap the engine with plastic foil to make it waterproof

 

i don't get it

 

Me neither, but I'd say it was attempt at humor, so right on!