[DreamensioN]

Hi, I'm DreamensioN and you may remember me from such threads as: (30) 36hrs of ownership and the car is broken | Volvo XC40 Forum

After 3.5 months of waiting to get the car fixed, I thought that was it. Turns out - it wasn't. My XC40 has crapped itself again - this time 107km from home after a very long day riding the trails on my mountain bike. Today was 37C (98F) which is welcome to Australia hot. I first noticed an issue this afternoon while packing up. The car had 70% main high voltage battery when I left it parked this morning. When I got back - I opened the app to start the air conditioning and the battery in the app said 61%. I thought "WTF?!" I opened the car door and sure enough - it said 61%. I've never lost 9% in a day just sitting there so I thought something was up.

I packed my bike and my gear - got back in the car and it said 70% for the battery. "Ok weird - maybe it's just a bug".

I started driving off and immediately got the "Propulsion System Service Urgent - drive to nearest dealership" or something like that. Again thinking it's just a software bug, I kept driving. I got 10km further up the road before the car fully shut down on me on the highway. Tortoise mode, full loss of power, full loss of regen, critical alerts coming up all over the place.

And of all places for this to happen it was in the middle of freaking no where, on a 2 lane highway used by lots of big trucks, and I was only able to pull over about 1m from the side.

I had to call Volvo who organised a tow. Luckily a tow truck was only 30km away. Had to call my wife to come pick me up which is close to a 1.5hr drive.

I've literally only had my car back 3 months. And previously it was in the shop for 3.5 months. Seriously over it now. I'm on the phone first thing tomorrow with Volvo to organise a loan car (I'm not waiting another month like last time), and I want to know what they're going to do about this now. It's the 2nd major failure in less than 5000km (3100 miles). Like - is this going to be my Volvo ownership experience now? 15 weeks off, 12 weeks on. Rinse, repeat.

 

[GreenViking]

Sorry to hear that - but the car looks good in the Australian sunshine even if it is being loaded on the back of a tow truck

 

[FumbleBee]

That’s a “get rid of it ASAP” kind of situation, seriously. Can you imagine getting the turtle mode bullshit on a very long bridge or overpass without a service lane or anything? Super dangerous.

 

[DreamensioN]

So...no mucking around this time. First thing this morning (Tuesday morning), I got on the phone to Volvo customer care to arrange a loan car. They bounced me to roadside assistance who said under the current situation and circumstances I can get a hire car for 3 days.

I don't even know if the workshop would be able to look at my car in 3 days.

I emailed the same case manager I had from when I had the previous issue and he is now all over it. To his absolute credit, he has picked up my issue, expressed his empathy for me having this problem again, has arranged for my car to be towed to another dealership where it can be looked at much faster than where it currently is, has arranged a Volvo loan car for me to get after lunch tomorrow, has said he will keep an eye on my case and monitor it closely and has also escalated my issue to the highest priority to get it looked at and fixed ASAP.

Lets see where this lands.

 

[Greg S]

So...no mucking around this time. First thing this morning (Tuesday morning), I got on the phone to Volvo customer care to arrange a loan car. They bounced me to roadside assistance who said under the current situation and circumstances I can get a hire car for 3 days.

I don't even know if the workshop would be able to look at my car in 3 days.

I emailed the same case manager I had from when I had the previous issue and he is now all over it. To his absolute credit, he has picked up my issue, expressed his empathy for me having this problem again, has arranged for my car to be towed to another dealership where it can be looked at much faster than where it currently is, has arranged a Volvo loan car for me to get after lunch tomorrow, has said he will keep an eye on my case and monitor it closely and has also escalated my issue to the highest priority to get it looked at and fixed ASAP.

Lets see where this lands.

Keep us posted. Definitely not good...but yeah, the car looks great and love the matching red bike!

 

[Jeevs]

Stumbled across this post looking up the propulsion issue that popped up on my dash too. Volvo told me to get it in to my local dealer - earliest they can see it is next Monday and have said it’s fine to drive til then. Have a (fairly) long drive in to work tmrw (40miles) - I guess if it konks out I get it towed but am really anxious it’s going to be something more serious after seeing this and other posts on this error. Hope you get yours back sooner this time OP!

 

[DreamensioN]

So the workshop just called and said that all I need is a software update and apparently it's v2.4 that fixes this.

I have to say I'm not 100% convinced. If indeed this is true, a car just losing all power and shutting down at highway speeds shouldn't be a "Yeah just next time you're in the workshop we'll fix that" kind of thing, it should be a full recall. Hence why I'm not totally convinced this is just a software bug.

Anyway they reckon my car will be ready this afternoon.

 

[Greg S]

So the workshop just called and said that all I need is a software update and apparently it's v2.4 that fixes this.
View attachment 5219

I have to say I'm not 100% convinced. If indeed this is true, a car just losing all power and shutting down at highway speeds shouldn't be a "Yeah just next time you're in the workshop we'll fix that" kind of thing, it should be a full recall. Hence why I'm not totally convinced this is just a software bug.

Anyway they reckon my car will be ready this afternoon.

Hmm, well let's hope it permanently fixes it and U get the car back soon. We're at a new BP charger...free charge. The least they can do after all our petrol spend over the years!

 

[DreamensioN]

Ok so I got the car back home. I'm now on v2.5

Paper work says:

Propulsion system update needed
Warning came up on dash and car went into limp home mode
Scan car and found failed download
Clear software and reload
Carried out total upgrade 31676056
Road test, car good.


Spoke to the service manager and he said that there is a separate "Propulsion system update" that does some override. But they only do it on cars that have the problem I had. Said it happens to about 1 in 10 Volvo's including the XC40 and XC60 Hybrid.

No idea what to honestly make of all of this. It kinds of feels like a "turn it off and back on again" scenario but.... I'll see how it goes. Everything seemed normal on the way home.

I'd be lying if I said I feel totally confident they have resolved the root cause of the issue. I know what happened when I was driving it and it didn't seem like a "bug".

 

[Greg S]

Ok so I got the car back home. I'm now on v2.5

Paper work says:

Propulsion system update needed
Warning came up on dash and car went into limp home mode
Scan car and found failed download
Clear software and reload
Carried out total upgrade 31676056
Road test, car good.


Spoke to the service manager and he said that there is a separate "Propulsion system update" that does some override. But they only do it on cars that have the problem I had. Said it happens to about 1 in 10 Volvo's including the XC40 and XC60 Hybrid.

No idea what to honestly make of all of this. It kinds of feels like a "turn it off and back on again" scenario but.... I'll see how it goes. Everything seemed normal on the way home.

I'd be lying if I said I feel totally confident they have resolved the root cause of the issue. I know what happened when I wa

It sounds plausible, but yeah, only time will tell. Sure hope it's trouble-free in future. Bonus you are on 2.5 now...looking forward to getting that OTA as I'm hoping that improves the connectivity/TCAM a bit. Lately it seems if the car sits for a couple days the SOS light is flashing and it takes forever to connect. We also still lose mobile connection randomly in areas where you'd think there would be a good mobile signal. I did actually use my phone as a hotspot the other day which worked fine for maps. At least that's a back-up plan!

 

[mikek]

If it happens again, I'd ask them to build me a new one, and drive a loaner until its delivered. Or get a full refund and get something else if you can't trust another Volvo.

 

[Jeevs]

Ok so I got the car back home. I'm now on v2.5

Paper work says:

Propulsion system update needed
Warning came up on dash and car went into limp home mode
Scan car and found failed download
Clear software and reload
Carried out total upgrade 31676056
Road test, car good.


Spoke to the service manager and he said that there is a separate "Propulsion system update" that does some override. But they only do it on cars that have the problem I had. Said it happens to about 1 in 10 Volvo's including the XC40 and XC60 Hybrid.

No idea what to honestly make of all of this. It kinds of feels like a "turn it off and back on again" scenario but.... I'll see how it goes. Everything seemed normal on the way home.

I'd be lying if I said I feel totally confident they have resolved the root cause of the issue. I know what happened when I was driving it and it didn't seem like a "bug".

Fingers crossed for you. Having read a few posts it appears around April 2022 ish that they were saying 2.2 simultaneously caused and resolved the issue… I’m not surprised you feel how you do given your last experience but really hope this time it’s ok! I’ll let you know if they do this with mine too - I’ve not gone in to limp mode yet, still (nervously) driving around in it!

 

[FumbleBee]

It’s cool that the situation is resolved for now. But causing this level of malfunction with failed OTA updates feels a little reckless, especially coming from a company that has built its reputation on safety. Critical “fixes” like that should be deployed at the dealership with a long checklist of validations to be done by a technician after the fact.

Still, happy for you that they could fix it quickly!

 

[SeattleCat]

It’s cool that the situation is resolved for now. But causing this level of malfunction with failed OTA updates feels a little reckless, especially coming from a company that has built its reputation on safety. Critical “fixes” like that should be deployed at the dealership with a long checklist of validations to be done by a technician after the fact.

Still, happy for you that they could fix it quickly!

At least they pulled the ota when they discovered the problem. Which is why I don’t upgrade anything early.

That said companies need to learn to not only stop updates when they break stuff but to offer folks the option to downgrade via ota (or service center) back to the stable version.

This is not just a volvo problem.

 

[bogiesan]

…companies need to learn to not only stop updates when they break stuff but to offer folks the option to downgrade via ota (or service center) back to the stable version.This is not just a volvo problem.

Amen. Even after thrity years of loving my Macintosh, I wait about a month, sometimes two, before running OS updates. And I awlays clone the machine against disaster before doing so. Just smart computing. there really should be a way to revert the Volvo OS or to make a backup before updating. Backing up should be automatic and seamless, too. Watching the Volvo facebook sites, I get the disquieting impression very few Recharge owners have the slightest clue how the car works.

Apple exploits their extreme fans and developers community to extensively test updates and upgrades before general release, though they never get it correct the first time. Volvo has a user base several orders of magnitude smaller than Apple's.

 

[DreamensioN]

Ha! I knew it wasn't a software issue. The car has just done it again. Luckily this time it happened as I was leaving the house. I got about 100m down the road and I was able to turn around and come straight back home. Just called my dealership now to ask WTF.

 

[DreamensioN]

Well - the car is dead now. Being late Friday afternoon, I won't get it towed to the dealership in time before they close. They aren't open on weekends, so now my only chance is to get it towed there on Monday. I locked the car for a bit and all the errors have cleared themselves except the red 12v battery error. And because of that the car won't go into reverse/drive.

I also had a busy weekend planned which has now gone out the window and I need to work out how I can take the kids to their parties and stuff.

#regrets

 

[SeattleCat]

Well - the car is dead now. Being late Friday afternoon, I won't get it towed to the dealership in time before they close. They aren't open on weekends, so now my only chance is to get it towed there on Monday. I locked the car for a bit and all the errors have cleared themselves except the red 12v battery error. And because of that the car won't go into reverse/drive.

I also had a busy weekend planned which has now gone out the window and I need to work out how I can take the kids to their parties and stuff.

#regrets

Sorry for another poop sarny

Have you considered replacing the battery yourself? I know it is not as athletically pleasing as getting volvo to do it but … could get you up and running tomorrow and potentially fix the problem for good (this of course assumes it is a battery failure which does seem to be likely).

Just a thought. I would probably wait for volvo but I am not good at mechanics stuff.

Cheers and good luck

 

[DreamensioN]

Have you considered replacing the battery yourself?

I don't think the problem is the 12v battery. Like right now the car won't do anything because the 12v battery isn't being charged, but it still currently has plenty of charge. Everything still works - I just can't drive the car because the 12v battery isn't charging.

My HV battery is still showing 34%, where it should be showing at least 50-51%.

Again (just a gut feeling), I think the problem is one of the battery modules inside the main battery, and I think this is all related to the original issue I had at the start of this thread. Before I went on that long drive (in the very first post above), I charged to 100%. I had never done that before and it was the first time since picking up the car when I took delivery that the battery had seen 100%. I see many people who get the "Propulsion System" error that not long before they have it - they charged to 100%.

Some people have hypothesized that at 90-100% charge the battery does some sort of rebalancing of all the cell modules and this can expose issues with modules that won't balance correctly - thus causing the issue.

I just had this gut feeling when I had the most recent breakdown and they said "Oh yeah a software update will fix that", I just knew that was a long stretch of the imagination. When I broke down on the side of the highway before, it "felt" like a hardware issue. Everything just suddenly giving up the ghost.

 

[SeattleCat]

Sounds like a good theory.

I assume you have tried disconnecting the batteries so it can re boot properly.but if it is a damaged module somewhere in the chain only replacing it will fix it

Sorry this has happened. Thankfully I have never charged to 100% though it sounds like with your theory 100% uncovers/makes the problem express vs causing the problem.

That sounds like it is going to be hard for them to discover and fix

Software and hardware plus users and environment is a nasty combination no matter who is doing it. If I remember right the f35 had and has similar types of problems and it’s budget is slightly larger than volvos

Hope they get it fixed. 🤞🏼