Why does my Volvo S80's battery keep going flat?

This is a desperate call for help. My car is a Volvo S80 auto, bought secondhand with 60,000 miles registered, five years ago. It now registers 67,000 miles. I do infrequent low mileage. It has had two new batteries in the last three years. During the last four weeks the battery has been twice charged overnight by the garage, but after 10-12 ignition starts over three or four days and driving about 30 miles, then parked in the drive for a couple of days, the battery is completely flat. Over the last two years exhaustive checks have been made of charging to and leeching from the battery and nothing was found. No-one has any idea what is wrong.

Asked on 26 October 2013 by KD, Rugby

Answered by Honest John
You’re simply not driving the car far enough often enough to recharge the battery. You need to put it on battery-conditioning trickle charge whenever you garage it. Usually any additional drain is caused by the self-dimming switch for the interior light remaining open circuit despite the light going out. Try switching the interior light off completely.
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