2004 Volvo XC70 suddenly will not crank. After two days of battery charging, switching batteries, having the Volvo battery charged to 13.6 volts, then load tested: 375 cranking AMPS vs. the rated 600 cold cranking amps. Tried one of my used spare batteries charged to 13.4, and it acts the same with it.

History: Bought from a car lot 6 months ago, 150K. Flushed tranny (thanks to Brickboard help), had garage change out serpentine and timing belts and water pump. No issues until now. Battery (Volvo) and terminals and under-deck storage are like showroom new, engine and undercarriage very clean.

Hard to see how this would relate, but here goes: Driving home from Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho last Friday at dusk, I asked my wife if she had her brights on. We stopped and found we had no headlights, only the right front fog light when switched to low-beam position. We limped home and after arriving and pulling the four engine compartment high and low-beam, left and right fuses which were good, I discovered high and low beam fuses in the passenger compartment fuse bank. The 15 AMP low beam fuse was blown, and replacing it brought back both high beam and low beam, which I tested with the key in position two (did not start the car). Two days later the car would not turn over, the starter would not engage, the starter solenoid would not clunk. My low battery assumption turned out to be wrong--thought I might have left the parking lights on. Can hear a couple of out-of-sight relays clunking when key is turned but they are out of sight at the front of the engine. Have run out of ideas and can’t find the issue on the Brickboard, and it’s a 60 mile hired haul to the nearest Volvo garage in Spokane, WA.

Assuming the ignition switch is OK, and the fuses all work properly, you will now have to inspect the wires at the starter. A loose or corroded wire will do what it does now.

Yes, it is hard to see. A mirror would be handy. Oh, don't forget to disconnect the battery ground when poking around the starter...
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Keeping it running is better than buying new

Klaus: Thanks again for a good suggestion. Got with it with a good light, an extension mirror and my recently acquired used 11” needle-nose pliers, but could not detect anything wrong or loose. No sign of heating. The one spade-lug which I wiggled a tad is snug. If I could get a test wire with alligator clip on the small spade-terminal solenoid lead, I could check for power with a volt meter while my wife turned the key, couldn’t I? Or is this a microchip no-no also?

Latest hope is that it is the starter relay in the engine compartment. Will try some auto parts stores in Coeur d’Alene while my wife is up there shopping today, but I will probably have to drive to Spokane tomorrow, the only Volvo dealer for hundreds of miles (it’s just 55 miles away).

With an old analog car I would have shorted across the hot lead to the solenoid, but I did not want to evoke the dreaded FM disease (Fried Motherboard). So thanks for the warning.

I had a solenoid go out in my college days, kept a long screwdriver in the car as my starter tool. It only got bad when the clutch went out at the same time! Or did the solenoid go out because I used the starter to get moving at traffic lights?

Anyway, I doubt that shorting the starter solenoid with the key in posII would harm the FM. It is still 13V being grounded to the chassis. What I didn't want you to do is have a head injury when your fingers were touching the hot wire!!

If only you had a clutch...
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Keeping it running is better than buying new

Klaus: Googled up No Crank XC70 and came up with many with similar problems, but theirs were intermittent and hopefully I'm on failure #1 and the last failure.

Seems as though your advice on the solenoid wires is on target, as the spade terminal connection seems to corrode badly. www.a1auto.com has a video (also on U-tube) on the Volvo Forum showing the corroded terminal and a scrape and anti-corrosion fix. (I'll try old faithful axle grease.)

But the trick of getting it off as shown in the video is a piece of cake (which the narrator of the video says is "difficult," compared to wrestling with the turbo air inlet 3" pipes that obstruct getting to it. Have started attempting their removal.

Yes, the screwdriver across the terminals is familiar to me as that is how I have started my Mitsubishi diesel tractor since the ignition switch failed about four years ago.

I wonder if you dislodged the 25A fuse for the starter in the engine compartment. It is right next to the high beam fuses.
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Keeping it running is better than buying new

Yes, Klaus, sorry I forgot to mention that I had discovered the starter fuse in the fuse-bank portrait and pulled that and it was okay. Any other suspects? I decided that perhaps I should pull every fuse and look at it. Only about 70 or so ;-) .

Thanks,

Odin2