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Electrics going crazy?

Passion, instruction, buying, care, maintenance and more, any form of vehicle discussion is welcome here
stevensfo
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Electrics going crazy?

#439956

Postby stevensfo » September 6th, 2021, 9:04 am

My 6-year old Volvo XC60 has never given much trouble, though I think the motor sensors must be very sensitive, since I sometime get 'Motor requires attention' when I top up the oil.

This morning I was arriving at work when the radio switched off by itself. The whole screen went blank. Then I got error message about the brakes 'Stop immediately' followed by error messages about the ABS and then the airbags!

Nothing happened, and the screen and radio came back on after about 20 seconds. Brakes feel fine etc. Error messages still appearing.

The closest Volvo garage is a hell of a drive, though there's a VW garage that is much closer.

In the meantime, any idea what's going on?

Steve

PS I once had a similar problem with my old Passat while on the motorway which was terrifying, but it turned out to be a simple electronic bug.

pje16
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Re: Electrics going crazy?

#439958

Postby pje16 » September 6th, 2021, 9:12 am

Not sure if this will help...
but on my BMW a few years ago the dashboard started showing what looked like Chinese symbols
Solotion was disconnect the battery. and reconnect it and that did the job
Yep the old chestnut of switch it off and on :!:

jfgw
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Re: Electrics going crazy?

#439959

Postby jfgw » September 6th, 2021, 9:15 am

I had a similar problem when my alternator failed but the car died quite quickly after. This was with headlights on so the battery voltage would have dropped fairly rapidly.


Julian F. G. W.

richlist
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Re: Electrics going crazy?

#439968

Postby richlist » September 6th, 2021, 9:41 am

I guess what's needed is the car plugging into a diagnostic check. If that can be done at the nearby VW dealer then go there. It may be something simple that they can fix.

pje16
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Re: Electrics going crazy?

#439973

Postby pje16 » September 6th, 2021, 9:55 am

I reckon most garages shoul be able to do diagnostics
I have Carly
https://www.mycarly.com/
and can do it myself (probably to a limited degree)

bungeejumper
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Re: Electrics going crazy?

#440206

Postby bungeejumper » September 7th, 2021, 8:39 am

jfgw wrote:I had a similar problem when my alternator failed but the car died quite quickly after. This was with headlights on so the battery voltage would have dropped fairly rapidly.

I had exactly the same experience earlier this year, lights and all, when the alternator failed on my otherwise impeccably behaved Toyota. I decided to drive on for half a mile or so, although the power steering had cut out. (Phew, life's tough without PS!)

Four hundred yards later, my electrics died completely. A catastrophic short-circuit had killed the alt, and it had taken a year-old battery with it. When the AA patrolman tried to jump-start the electrics, we yelled at him that there was smoke coming out of the engine bay. I wouldn't leave it too long before getting yours checked out. :)

BJ


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