About low battery warning - Our 2012 XC70 that we purchased new and has always been serviced by our dealer has thrown low battery warnings on a regular basis.

We have driven 75 miles to our daughters house and got a low battery warning.

We have mentioned this issue at least 6 or 7 times under warranty and always were told that everything is OK.

I fancy that the computers in todays cars have a bit of mysterious magic in them.

1. What brand of battery did you buy? Many inexpensive batteries are rebuilt, not new. You could have been sold a battery is funky

2. What warranty does the battery have? Many aftermarket batteries have a use type warranty. If the battery is warranted for four years, and it fails after two years, you get another battery for 1/2 price.

3 Batteries should have a tag that has punch outs for the month and year it was purchased - many sellers do not punch this out. What I do is write the date on the top of the battery with a magic marker and leave the receipt with my glove box papers - the slip should have guarantee info on it.

4. Did the tech check for current being drawn out of the battery when everything is supposed to be off. There is a minor amount of draw to run the clock, etc. Some culprits are the glove box light, the trunk light, etc. If you check these bulbs and they are warm (or HOT) the light may be on all the time. ctually I had a Volvo 850 that removing the glove box bulb did not cure the glovebox problem, I had to disconnect the wiring to the switch to fix the problem.Also check your car at night to see if anything is lit.

5 How often do you drive your car? How many miles per month?

6. If this problem is really a problem to you, take it to a dealer, then if it happens again, they are a on the hook and will probably try to fix it again for no charge.

Yes, a battery should last longer than two years. But sometimes you get a bad one. And yes, your car has an alternator and a pretty expensive one at that.

One easy thing you might try before looking into the battery/alternator is to reset the low battery warning.

After a low battery condition is remedied the warning does not automatically reset. It has to be reset manually.

But these cars can be a little quirky. Sometimes the warning gets triggered when there really is no problem.

If you would like to try the reset here's what to do. It's a weird procedure but I am not making this up. I have done this in my own XC70 which is the same model year as yours.

First, turn the ignition ON without starting the engine. In other words, do not put your foot on the brake pedal, just press the Start/Stop button until all the warning lights in the instrument cluster come on.

Next, turn the headlights ON. That's ON, not AUTO. ON is one click to the right of AUTO. Make sure they are on low beam.

Now press the rear fog light switch six times. On, off, on, off, on, off. This switch is at the lower left of the headlight switch. See page 103 of the owner's manual if you are not sure.

Next, press the emergency flasher switch three times. On, off, on. The flashers are now on. Leave them so until the battery symbol on the upper right side of the instrument cluster (directly above the 'P' in the gear indicator) flashes three times.

Turn off the emergency flasher and put the head light switch to Auto or off, wherever you normally like it.

That's it. Barring any real problem the warning should not come on again.


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'79 242, '84 DL 2 door, '80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon, '15 XC70 T6 AWD

My 2016 xc60 shows the same message unless I lock the car whenever I leave it. Maybe something about the satellite radio.