[Steven W]

Due to popular request, I am reposting my consolidated 12V/TCAM Battery Disconnect Process so it can be pinned. In addition to my own photos, I am reposting photos previously shared by by @Artem92115. Photos by @Poleatl are available here. Please follow these steps at your own risk. I am in no way an expert nor do I guarantee any results. Be careful.

12V/TCAM BATTERY DISCONNECT PROCESS

Tools:

1. 7mm and 11mm socket wrenches
2. Long flat implement (scissors or screwdriver) to release TCAM battery
3. Flashlight (preferably head-mounted although I had to use my phone)
4. Small piece of cardboard
5. Very small flat head screwdriver

Pre-Disconnect Steps:

1. Ensure car is not plugged into a power source and car is in a well-lit area
2. Unlock doors, open rear hatch, and frunk
3. Fold down rear seats and remove trunk/boot cover to leave an open working space.
4. Move all keys away from vehicle.

12V Battery Disconnect Steps:

1. In frunk, find the large plastic panel that spans the width of the vehicle and is closest to the windshield (windscreen). The panel has two black plastic fasteners on each side keeping it in place.
2. Insert an implement in the middle of each fastener to release it and then pull out fastener.
3. Store plastic fasteners
4. Standing on the driver side (may be different for right-hand drive vehicles) pry off the large plastic panel. Note, it is not necessary to remove the entire panel; only the side where the 12V battery is
5. Keep the panel out of the way while you work. I just stuck my head under the panel.
6. Locate the 12V battery's negative terminal. It has two nuts/bolts to keep it attached. See attached image for reference.
7. The nut/bolt facing the front of the vehicle and at an angle is the one you want to loosen. Using an 11mm socket wrench, loosen the negative terminal.
8. Once the terminal is loosened, lift the entire piece and it should easily slide off.
9. Take the small piece of cardboard (I used a glove) and place it between the piece you removed and the negative terminal so it remains disconnected while you work. Again, see attached image.
10. Confirm a successful disconnect by ensuring no lights are on in the vehicle, including the charging light in the exterior charging port.

TCAM Battery Disconnect Steps**:

1. In the rear side pillar behind rear driver door (again, may be different for right-hand drive vehicles), locate the Volvo airbag plastic symbol (it's a rounded rectangle) and pry off.
2. Using a 7mm socket wrench, unscrew the bolt that is revealed underneath the plastic piece you removed.
3. Pry off entire panel that should now be loose.
4. Once panel is removed, locate horizontal oval hole in the sheet metal (see attached picture)
5. Use your flashlight to shine inside the hold and locate the plastic clip you will need to release.
6. Take a long flat implement (I used a scissors) and push the plastic clip toward the front of the vehicle to release the TCAM battery.
7. Now that the TCAM batter has been released, it should hang freely. Take a look at the TCAM battery to understand what you are working with. Again, the flashlight will be necessary to see what's going on. You will likely need to pull the fabric/felt side panel away and down a bit to get good access.
8. This part is tricky so take it slowly - on the end of the TCAM battery where the wire connection is, there is a small release. It is a flat tab within a small plastic square next to the wires.
9. Using a very small flat head screwdriver, insert it into the small square and push the tab TOWARD the wires to release.
10. Remove the flat head screwdriver and you should now be able to release the TCAM batter connection.

** If you are looking for a more expedient way of disconnecting the TCAM battery without removing the rear side pillar trim, check out the 12V/TCAM BATTERY DISCONNECT PROCESS - RON SWANSON METHOD by @kkonstan !

Final Steps:

1. Wait a few minutes to allow everything to reset. Some suggest 10 or more minutes, but I only let it go a couple minutes.
2. Reconnect all connections, panels, fasteners, etc. I recommend reversing the above steps sequentially (i.e., reconnect TCAM battery, replace panels in trunk/boot, reconnect 12V battery, replace frunk panel, etc.)
3. Get your key and turn on vehicle. It will go through standard system checks.
4. If your LTE is still off at this point, consider a screen reset for safe measure, and make sure your data is turned on.

So grateful for this post. Thank you, @mtg35! Just did a successful TCAM battery disconnect, it wouldn’t have been possible without this detailed guidance. (And now that it’s done, it was kinda fun hacking the car!)

 

[GeurtG]

<no words, deleted>

 

[David Hazeel]

A very random thought to add to this thread. I had the TCAM issue occur for the second time earlier this year - losing the 3G in my car and being unable to use the App for remote functions. Before doing the reset detailed here I was on a trip and used Apple Car Play for the day as I need directions. On my way back I noticed that my car's 3G was back. 3 days later it's still working. Correlation obviously doesn't equal causation, but perhaps worth a try for anyone who doesn't fancy the reset? I hadn't had connectivity for over a month so it does seem a very strange coincidence that it would come back the one time I used Car Play for a few hours.

 

[FarOut]

A very random thought to add to this thread. I had the TCAM issue occur for the second time earlier this year - losing the 3G in my car and being unable to use the App for remote functions. Before doing the reset detailed here I was on a trip and used Apple Car Play for the day as I need directions. On my way back I noticed that my car's 3G was back. 3 days later it's still working. Correlation obviously doesn't equal causation, but perhaps worth a try for anyone who doesn't fancy the reset? I hadn't had connectivity for over a month so it does seem a very strange coincidence that it would come back the one time I used Car Play for a few hours.

I fear that is random. I had a 2 week outage and I was forced to use CarPlay everyday (crummy radio stations here so need to stream music) which is not something I normally do. Mine also came back spontaneously - I had given up on the software resets by then.

 

[Nicobellic]

A very random thought to add to this thread. I had the TCAM issue occur for the second time earlier this year - losing the 3G in my car and being unable to use the App for remote functions. Before doing the reset detailed here I was on a trip and used Apple Car Play for the day as I need directions. On my way back I noticed that my car's 3G was back. 3 days later it's still working. Correlation obviously doesn't equal causation, but perhaps worth a try for anyone who doesn't fancy the reset? I hadn't had connectivity for over a month so it does seem a very strange coincidence that it would come back the one time I used Car Play for a few hours.

From my understanding, TCAM reset is really needed when you lose total connectivity, not just 3G or LTE but also Bluetooth and even your keys.
When this is happening you will also get a warning message on your dashboard about it.

 

[Cascadian Penguin]

Would I be mistaken thinking v2.7 was the end of TCAM issues, or are they still happening? It sure seems that the volume of posts about this issue has diminished the past few months.

 

[Carsplain]

So I've had lack of LTE connectivity and was back on 2.5, went to my space today and they said I needed to replace the TCAM unit. Which they did under warranty. They also bumped me up to 2.9. On the way home.... still no LTE showing on the center infotainment display 🤷‍♂️ but didn't seem to be laggy like it was before with maps or Spotify.

 

[Cephas]

So I've had lack of LTE connectivity and was back on 2.5, went to my space today and they said I needed to replace the TCAM unit. Which they did under warranty. They also bumped me up to 2.9. On the way home.... still no LTE showing on the center infotainment display 🤷‍♂️ but didn't seem to be laggy like it was before with maps or Spotify.

Try an infotainment reset. For some reason i had to reset it after i had the car serviced. once reset the LTE comes back on. GPS was working, as it sounds like yours is.

 

[headtotoney]

I'm having issues with my center display software. After a lengthy week of troubleshooting with customer service, I was told I need to bring the car in for a hard reset (disconnecting the battery).. there nearest dealership is 4 hours away. Could I do this method without resetting the TCAM? I don't have any issues with the TCAM.

Thanks in advance.

 

[kkonstan]

I'm having issues with my center display software. After a lengthy week of troubleshooting with customer service, I was told I need to bring the car in for a hard reset (disconnecting the battery).. there nearest dealership is 4 hours away. Could I do this method without resetting the TCAM? I don't have any issues with the TCAM.

Thanks in advance.

What issues are you having?

I’d try pulling the infotainment fuse first, if that’s not sufficient you could try to do this, worst case you bruised your hands trying to reach the backup battery and didn’t fix your issue

 

[headtotoney]

What issues are you having?

I’d try pulling the infotainment fuse first, if that’s not sufficient you could try to do this, worst case you bruised your hands trying to reach the backup battery and didn’t fix your issue

So whenever I try to log into the Polestar account on the car's display, I instantly get an error stating, "Something went wrong. Please try again later." It's almost as if the action crashes that particular function. Same happens when I try to access the Polestar privacy settings. I've done all the possible reset functions (other than a hard reset) and the issue persists. Customer Service says until I resolve the crashing issue when logging in, I won't be able to enable Digital Key or any remote functions. You think the fuse workaround would address that issue?

 

[kkonstan]

So whenever I try to log into the Polestar account on the car's display, I instantly get an error stating, "Something went wrong. Please try again later." It's almost as if the action crashes that particular function. Same happens when I try to access the Polestar privacy settings. I've done all the possible reset functions (other than a hard reset) and the issue persists. Customer Service says until I resolve the crashing issue when logging in, I won't be able to enable Digital Key or any remote functions. You think the fuse workaround would address that issue?

Well removing the fuse will cut power to the infotainment and it will cold boot when you reinsert it, exactly as if you disconnected the 12v battery, but I’m not convinced that it would do anything more than just soft rebooting it for the issue you described. Definitely worth a shot though.

The reason I asked what the symptoms are is because connectivity and GPS and some other functionality is handled by the TCAM unit which is a different fuse and has its own backup battery, so to properly power down that you would need to disconnect both 12V and its backup battery.

Personally I would pull the fuse briefly to cold boot the infotainment and if that didn’t help I’d consider the 12v + backup battery disconnect if it would save me from a long trip to the garage.

 

[ArcElectric]

Had to use this today - thanks to all that make this forum the best source of Polestar support and knowledge!

 

[JRRF]

Had to use this today - thanks to all that make this forum the best source of Polestar support and knowledge!

What were your symptoms?

 

[ArcElectric]

What were your symptoms?

In the morning, App thought the trunk was open so I checked it - all opened and closed and locked as normal, but app still showed trunk open. Figured app was not communicating like it sometimes does.

Left the car alone for 8 hours.
Went to open trunk to put stuff in it - it unlatched but did not open. Forced it open. Would not lower when pressing the hatch buttons.

Tried the hatch button by the steering wheel, that didn't work, and upon sitting in driver seat, noticed the infotainment screen, play button, hazard button, defrost buttons were all blank/dark.

Driver screen showed a myriad of errors/failures in sequence. Including not detecting the key. Air con would start briefly and then turn off (set to 72 on an 83 degree day).

Ended up with the AAA partner jumping the 12v (had to use this to get cowling off and another resource to find the positive). Car slowly got its wits back.
Was able to drive home, and plug in. Have not messed with it yet today.

Polestar roadside said I would have to pay out of pocket, and all they would do is tow, since mine is over 50k miles, so asked AAA to help.

AAA Partner had never heard of it and admitted to listening to Polestar YouTube videos on the way over, but this thread and the other resource my husband found gave the Partner the needed info.

Update: no issues today. I wonder if Polestar is closed on weekends so they can have a couple days with out getting complained at and give the gremlins time to vacate the car.

 

[MidnightReaper]

I have used the other methods with our first Polestar. However, those methods would not work for the one that I traded for. Had to use this method and all communications seems to be working again. Thanks.

 

[hvidal]

I don't know if is luck on my side, I never had tcam issues, ok it is MY24, but its the same I suppose.