L-ion battery issue

[IJWS15]

Possibly should be in auto but….

Father (97) has a Volvo S90 and it has an assistance module fault so needs a battery. He ordered one on Amazon that claims to match - when I checked it was a Chinese seller. Battery arrived last week and I was asked to install it.

Original removed and looked the same as the replacement except original is labelled 8.0V 450mA 3.24Wh, replacement is labeled 3.8V charge limit 4.4V, nothing about capacity or rating.

He was all for fitting it but I dug my heels in and refused - visions of an S90 going up in flames when the new battery was connected to an 8v charging supply.

Have asked to return and ordered the proper voltage battery from a UK seller for half the price.

What would you have done?

 

[Wayners]

I would not fit it

 

[morqthana]

Unless he has a history of abusing the returns process, Amazon will probably refund with no problems/questions.

Enormous problem of course is that the genuine ones appear to be made in Israel. WTH I'd do if I needed one IHNI - hopefully find an OEM one which was actually the right spec.

 

[big-all]

you might think initially that its underpowered and iff it works ok it must be safe .... that is only part off the story and the highly dangerous bit is the charging circuit may turn it into a bomb as the charging rate will be around two to 3 times the level it can safely handle and the overcharging is where most fires start

 

[IJWS15]

Dug my multimeter out and the old one is showing 7.9v and the new one 8.2v. Buyer says that it was shipped with the wrong label further reinforcing the need to return, QC processes are really bad there even for China and I wouldn’t trust it.

The original is made in China, branded as Volvo and with a manufacturer name and address

Peeled the label off the pack and it was shipped as a camera cable valued at £5 so the package had none of the warning labels it needed being a battery and they are deliberately avoiding import taxes.

 

[morqthana]

Was there any element involved of choosing this one instead of a genuine Volvo part because it was cheaper?

 

[IJWS15]

He didn’t say other than that from Volvo it is something like £130!

He did find videos online showing how to change it and they don’t use the “Volvo” part.