I have a 2007 Volvo s40 with just under 24,000 miles on it. The problem with this giant paper weight is that it each year for the last three years the battery has died on almost exactly the same date. Needless to say November has not been a good month. The first time the ?battery failed? the dealer claimed that the battery had a bad cell (replaced with a new battery). The second time the dealer claimed that the alarm/message center could have been sending a faulty or fake signal, thus tripping the battery( volvo replaced the battery, and alarm switch). Finally, this past week the car was returned and surprise, the dealer claimed the battery had a bad cell. I find it odd that the battery dies exactly one year to the date of its replacement. Volvo claims that no one in their system has reported this problem. One more thing, each time the old battery was tested, it was incapable of holding a charge. In other words, once the battery went dead-it could not be brought back to hold a charge. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
The entire charging/starting system needs to be evaluated. The alternator, battery, and starter all work together, and a problem with any one of these can lead to failures in the others.
Busted Knuckles has got you covered on the main question.
re: the batteries going dead and could not be brought back to life by charging them…
This is evidence that they DO have a dead cell like your mechanic told you. You can’t charge a battery with a dead cell because the electric charge can’t get through the dead cell to continue on to charge the next. Thus the charger runs and runs all day but the battery never gets charged.
The second time this happened (the second dead battery) the volvo dealer checked the alternator and starter-and claimed that both were working. This is a good place to start -i’ll be sure to ask when this happens the next time. thank you.
Does the dealer put in one of their own batteries? If so you might try a better brand of battery next time.