Good morning everyone! I’m hoping that someone on here has a Volvo and goes to a good service dept. I have a 2007 XC90 and have been having issues with it… I’ve been taking it to the dealer but they can NEVER find the issues and end up making it worse.
The dealer says “they cannot recreate the problem in the shop”. I’ve driven a mechanic around and he heard it… But when they went to fix it – they “couldn’t recreate the sounds”.
I’ve literally had it in the shop numerous times for this… It’s been an ongoing problem and I’m sick to death of it. I don’t feel safe in it anymore. This is so frustrating!!!
So far here are the problems…
Very loud idle — this weekend this OLD OLD pick up truck was beside me at a light and he got out to make sure it wasn’t his truck.
Sluggish — it seems like it’s not getting enough “juice”
Clunking sound when backing up — I get this LOUD clunk when backing up… SOmetimes I’m using the brake other times I’m not.
Vibrating very badly when driving and stopped. It’s so bad you can feel it in the steering wheel and when driving it will make your hand numb.
How many RPMs is the engine turning at when you hear this “loud idle”? If it is idling at a normal speed, it could just be that you have a cracked exhaust manifold or some other fault in the exhaust system. This is certainly something that should be obvious to the dealership’s mechanics, but…
Regarding the bad vibration at idle–Is the car’s maintenance–including spark plugs, air filter, and fuel filter up to date? If any of the car’s maintenance is not up to date, then you will not be able to have this accurately diagnosed until the maintenance is up to snuff.
As to the clunking sound, if your XC90 is an AWD model, it could be a bad universal joint on the driveshaft. Yes, this would be very early for u-joint failure, but it is not unheard of for some u-joints to fail very early.
I think you have multiple problems.
On the clunk when backing up. I had this on a V70XC and it was a broken mount somewhere near the rear axle. I think the mount was to keep the axle from shifting under load.
The vibration could be joints in your drive shaft, had that too. I had to replace the drive shaft. On most cars drive shafts are pretty simple items. Not so for Volvo. The shaft has multiple joints and they do go bad.
The loud idle may not be the motor but something in the drive train or AWD transfer case. Perhaps loose heat shields is possible.
My advice is to sell the car. Volvo’s are very expensive to repair as they age. You are going to sink buckets of money in this car and I’d suggest trading it or selling it while it still have some value - before you spent more money on it.
The loudest idle is when I’m stopped at a light or just driving normally. I keep the vehicle up to date on the maintenance. I only have 19,000 miles on it.
It’s getting very frustrating… They tell me that they can’t “recreate” the sound in the shop. They have upgraded the software.
Everytime they touch it – it get’s worse. They “fix” this or that and it’s ok for a day or two at the most – then it starts back up again.
I think it’s something major that they don’t want to cover under the warranty – so they put a band-aid on it.
If it is still under warranty, you are being very foolish if you continue to simply accept the dealership’s ineptitude.
Open your glove compartment, take out the Owner’s Manual, and look for the toll-free phone number for contacting Volvo USA (or whatever they call their operation in this country). While you should have gotten them involved long ago, it would still be valid to involve them on a 2 year old car with only 19k on the odometer.
And, if you have invoices documenting the complaints, then you should also research the terms of the Lemon Law in your state. It might still be possible for you to file a complaint, based on how the statute is written in your state.
Take a look at:
www.carlemon.com
I glad to hear you still have warranty coverage. I’d still advise getting out of the Volvo and into another car. 19K miles is way too few to be having all these problems.
If your state has a strong “lemon law” you may have a case.
And yet another problem – I’m leaking washer fluid bigtime. TWo huge puddles at my office and two at home.
The Maryland Lemon Law has a cap of 15,000 miles or 15 months after delivery whichever comes first.