Volvo Electrical

[DrivingZiggy]

Okay, so the first thing that began happening is that my starter seems to drag sometimes. Cleaned up the batteries and connections and that only helped a little. Then I got the new AGM batteries and that only helped a little. Cleaned all other electrical connections that I was able to find and that helped more, but seems to have worn off. Any guesses? It seems to only happen sometimes where the engine will make maybe one turn, then it doesn't keep going. But then I let off the key and when I try a second time, it seems like everything is hunky dory.

Also, Volvo's "lifeguard" or whatever it's called is kicking in after turning the engine off. And I mean in less than a minute. It should only kick in when the batteries get run down in order to preserve enough power to start. Seems to be the same as once upon a time when I had installed an isolator on an old truck for the same reason. And when it went bad, I just removed it and that fixed the problem. Anybody know if Volvo has an isolator and where it's located?

[Wiseman]

How old is your starter ? Are you sure cables are tight in cable shoes ? I found out mine were looking fine , in reality they were so oxidized and rotten inside , I have to cut them out and install new ones ,and I solder them the right way . Not crimped!!! Alternator cable goes to starter and than via the big one to batteries . There's the culprit for your problem . At least that was mine . Same description , same symptoms . I'm talking about the big cables attached to starter solenoid. If you twist and pull hard enough you'll see what I'm talking about . Don't forget to disconnect batteries before whatever you do !!!

[Waterloo]

Like Wiseman said, check your cables. I have a 2008 ProStar, and I can tell you the cabling was a mess. The main cable going to the starter from the battery had nearly a foot of exposed copper, that is how it left the factory. All of my cabling on this truck was sporting bare copper under the chassis and all of it was green. I had to replace all of it, including the grounds, all of it, around 80 feet of the stuff. How this passed any kind of QC inspection is beyond me, I'm lucky the truck did not catch fire, it was that bad.

After inspecting the cables I would check the starter, may be time, they do not last forever.

[simon999]

If you hear "click" when you try to start the truck then you have bad starter solenoid. If you have low cranking then its cables, connections, batteries. If you start the truck on cold easy but have problems starting when hot then its also starter solenoid sticking.

[hhow55]

https://www.engine-light-help.com/voltage-drop.html

[DrivingZiggy]

(04-27-2016 )Wiseman Wrote:  How old is your starter ? Are you sure cables are tight in cable shoes ? I found out mine were looking fine , in reality they were so oxidized and terrible inside , I have to cut them out and install new ones ,and I solder them the right way . Not crimped!!! Alternator cable goes to starter and than via the big one to batteries . There's the culprit for your problem . At least that was mine . Same description , same symptoms . I'm talking about the big cables attached to starter solenoid. If you twist and pull hard enough you'll see what I'm talking about . Don't forget to disconnect batteries before whatever you do !!!

Starter is factory, so 5.5 years. Cables haven't been touched except to clean, so they're as tight as they are. Don't know if that's good enough. But I've had that problem before with another truck, so I know what you're talking about. Got some new cables for that one and then everything was good. So I'll check it out for sure!

(04-27-2016 )Waterloo Wrote:  Like Wiseman said, check your cables. I have a 2008 ProStar, and I can tell you the cabling was a mess. The main cable going to the starter from the battery had nearly a foot of exposed copper, that is how it left the factory. All of my cabling on this truck was sporting bare copper under the chassis and all of it was green. I had to replace all of it, including the grounds, all of it, around 80 feet of the stuff. How this passed any kind of QC inspection is beyond me, I'm lucky the truck did not catch fire, it was that bad.

After inspecting the cables I would check the starter, may be time, they do not last forever.

(04-27-2016 )simon999 Wrote:  Yeah, and since I have an APU I guess I give the starter more of a workout than it was designed for.
If you hear "click" when you try to start the truck then you have bad starter solenoid. If you have low cranking then its cables, connections, batteries. If you start the truck on cold easy but have problems starting when hot then its also starter solenoid sticking.

No clicking. Just usually a big WHOMP! then a pause of several seconds, then crank like there was never anything wrong.

(04-27-2016 )hhow55 Wrote:  https://www.engine-light-help.com/voltage-drop.html

Looks like I've got some studying to do!

[Billdozer2]

I had a starting problem with my truck for a while. Mine would start really slowly. I always thought it was the battery cables because it would get better after I had loosened everything up, clean the cables, and then reconnect everything. A couple of days later, same thing. Slow starting. I finally decided to do a voltage drop test and found that the battery cut off switch had an insane amount of resistance through it. I removed the battery cut off switch and have never had a problem since.

Not sure if your truck has a cut off switch or not. But figured I'd throw in my two cents.

[DrivingZiggy]

Yes, it does have the switch. In fact, it came with the wires loose from the factory and it was arcing and cooking the wires. Took the mechanic--actually a ThermoKing mechanic working on my APU--to find the problem. They replaced it and it has been fine for a while. Maybe that's it again. I'm gonna check everything you guys are saying!

[Vin]

Rawze has a Thermographic camera that would make it easier finding electrical resistance (corrosion causes resistance, which causes heat). It would show bad switches glowing hotter than the wire coming to them.