If you are lucky enough to own a Volvo V70, especially the later P3 version, you may go to start it one day and get a warning message saying ‘Parking brake Service required’. I recently read a post on a Facebook group in which another owner was asking what caused this. The various potential faults and recommended remedies which people listed were mind boggling.
Early indication of a failing battery?
If you have the warning show up, but your car seems to be okay and the brake actually works, it may simply be that your car battery is nearing the end of its life. This has happened twice to me since I bought my V70 2.4D new in 2009. The first time was after around nine years, the second after twelve…both batteries were Volvo originals so I guess the second one was made in the far east.
I had noticed that the battery sounded a bit more sluggish than usual; on both occasions the problem occurred as soon as the weather turned cold, and I’d been doing shorter journeys. Giving my battery a full charge fixed the problem for a few days, but replacing it cured the issue.
My dealer didn’t know about this problem, but does now.
This problem may be common to other vehicles in the Volvo range that share the same systems, e.g. some V90s, V60s, S60s and V50s.