Volvo alarm warning advice needed

Brie

Volvo 2016 XC60 Diesel 

OH's vehicle and in my opinion has too many bells and whistles but he likes it.  Anyways currently there's a alarm warning that comes on every time you turn the car on. 

The Volvo dealership has said it will take £150 to check if it's an actual problem but it might be that the battery needs to be replaced which would be another £250.  

Halfords offers a free battery check (not the same thing I know) and then there's a variety of batteries available for £185 - £223 including fitting.

Now I know very little about cars these days - I was ok with simpler vehicles where it was just mechanics but with all the electronic stuff I wouldn't want to even try to sort this myself.  So is the alarm warning due to the main battery or is there something else that in there someplace?

Brie

these are the options on the Halford website - haven't worked out all the details yet but it's possible there's a discount and free fitting option available for "premium" members and I think I have the premium membership.

Ayr_Rage

Exactly what alarm is sounding/showing?

Does it remain on?

Brie

Ayr_Rage said:

Exactly what alarm is sounding?

Nothing is sounding.  It's a pop up warning on the dash that you get with these fancy schmancy vehicles.  

Ayr_Rage

OK, what does the warning message say and does it clear down when you drive away?

What colour is it?

chrisw

The warning - Alarm System Malfunction -  is most likely due to failure of the rechargeable batteries in the siren under the front wing and is extremely common at that age,

The unit is very easy to remove but you would have to grind out the rivets to replace the 2 AAA batteries and often doesn't work, so it's usually easier to just replace the siren. The siren is common to a number of vehicles such as Ford and Land Rover. I replaced mine with a unit from a Mazda 2 for £12 off eBay. Theirs live in the car rather than in the wheel arch and seem to last much longer.

Plenty of information about it on the Volvo owners site:-

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/forum/technical-topics/s60-v60-11-18-xc60-09-17-general?f=187

Brie

thanks @chrisw
neither of us are about to grind out any rivets so I guess we'll have to see what Volvo (or someone) can do for us.

born_again

Brie said:

Volvo 2016 XC60 Diesel 

OH's vehicle and in my opinion has too many bells and whistles but he likes it.  Anyways currently there's a alarm warning that comes on every time you turn the car on. 

The Volvo dealership has said it will take £150 to check if it's an actual problem but it might be that the battery needs to be replaced which would be another £250.  

Halfords offers a free battery check (not the same thing I know) and then there's a variety of batteries available for £185 - £223 including fitting.

Now I know very little about cars these days - I was ok with simpler vehicles where it was just mechanics but with all the electronic stuff I wouldn't want to even try to sort this myself.  So is the alarm warning due to the main battery or is there something else that in there someplace?

That is the norm now.
Dealers are not going to do any work for free.
Even if you are within warranty, they charge this & it would be refunded if it came under a warranty repair.

Try joining a Volvo forum To get fellow owners advice. As this could be a common issue with a easy fix.

HHarry

@chrisw has probably nailed the problem - we have the same problem with my Wife’s car.
No need to grind anything - that’s only if you want to try to repair the siren, which as Chris says is probably pointless.

Volvo will happily sell you a new siren, but I bet that’s going to be a few hundred quid.  As an alternative you can get the alarm coded out as a cheaper option, but you may not behappy without an alarm.

 On my wifes car we just live with the warning message.

Brie

Thanks @HHarry
Does the alarm still work?  I'm assuming no if there's a warning. 

Of course I could try to break in to it and check that way I guess.....

rollingmoon

HHarry said:

 On my wifes car we just live with the warning message.

Yep, these are just income generating devices... if the car is still working then I would just carry on driving it. I drove my old Peugeot 405 for 50000 miles with the 'check engine' light on... I had this as an advisory every MOT, but as it was neither consuming oil or had any other symptoms of impending doom I just carried on as normal.

We currently have a Peugeot based Autocruise motorhome which used to delight in telling us  - by dent of an ear-splitting whistling noise - that one of the doors was open. Of course it wasn't, and when I enquired with the dealership with regard to getting it stopped, it quickly became apparent that they would be dining out on me for a very long time indeed without any promise of solving the actual problem. Having satisfied myself that all the doors were closing properly, I found the offending piezo buzzer and put a drill through it.

I didn't have such a thing on the 1974 Renault 5 I started driving in, and I never drove off with the doors open in that, so I'm reasonably confident that I'll manage not to die in some hideous fireball inferno without it.