VOLVO Complaints

I received a recall notice for the defective driver airbag. The nearest dealership is 10 hours away. I called Customer care and they said I would be responsible to transport my Volvo to the dealership in Billings Montana. The vehicle is a 2004 Volvo with 188k miles. Expense and travel is prohibitive to me. I am on a fixed income and I would worry about making a 20hr round trip in an older car. My desire is to gift this car to my granddaughter when she gets her driver's lic. I could not forgive myself if the driver's airbag deployed and the result could be serious injury or death. I contacted the Volvo Customer Care service and they said they could transport the car one way. can you help?

The air bag warning randomly popped up on my screen. They will not deploy if I get into a wreck. Non working air bag. I also have issues that come and go with the electrical component. Sometimes my door won't open, sometimes my seats won't move, and my license plate light is out due to something electrical. My gas tank spits gas back at me and makes weird noises sometimes.

The automatic breaking system was deployed while backing up in a parking lot. There were no obstacles, either stationary or moving, that should have triggered the braking. We have had several other times when the brake "felt odd" during reverse. It becomes very stiff and hard to depress but still works.

I bought the car as a CPO on 9/25/19 32,860 mi. On 8/19/20 at 50,052 the engine failed. The oscillating dampener rubber separated causing serpentine belt to break, which in turn got caught in timing belt which caused that to break which then caused bent valves and valves to break. The failure was sudden. Had I been on the interstate I’d be severely injured or dead. I was told that I needed a new engine but they could not find one. I was told they would completely re-build my engine. In the end they replaced the cylinder head and starter under warranty. I was never told they didn’t re-build the engine and also used “ good parts” from the old engine. In the following months I had the car in the Volvo shop (Hendricks Volvo Charleston, SC). At 50,277 miles the check engine light showed a problem with the Cam shaft position sensor on 9/3/20. They claim to have driven the car 100 miles and cleared the code w/no repairs. On 3/18/21 w/ 64,485 miles, I took the car into the dealer because it was running and idling rough. They found no codes and they aligned the car. “Couldn’t duplicate”. The right rear door never shut properly and I was repeatedly told it was fine. Re-call on latches. Seat belts on rt rear passenger constantly was stuck. This is where my granddaughter’s car seat was placed. I’ll have to skip some. At 110,024 miles on 11/28/22 the car continued to have bad gas mileage and heavy oil use. I was told that the EGR leak detection pump was faulty and was replaced. At 113,706 miles on 1/19/2023 the cam VVT Solenoid was changed. Cause of poor gas mileage stated. On 3/29/23 at 116,790 miles replaced brakes and had aligned. Service tech noticed oil under the car underside while up on racks. Said it would be fine until next service. On 7/3/23 the engine failed again on the road and was towed to the dealer. Apparently a fuel injector failed causing gas to spray into the engine causing it to lose compression. I’ve never been given a clear answer. Records of services done.

The low coolant warning went off and the turn off engine notification came on. I turned off my vehicle and noticed all the coolant leaking out the bottom underneath the car. I had the vehicle towed to the nearest mechanic and I was given this diagnosis: Found cooling system low, pressure tested and located a slip line that runs from the coolant crossover tube to under the intake manifold. Coolant pipe runs from the crossover pipe down to the engine oil cooler. Volvo has an updated part number due to high failure rate of the component.

The contact owns a 2012 Volvo S60. The contact stated that while driving approximately 10 MPH, the driver’s side rear door opened unintendedly without the driver touching the door handle. The contact pulled over to the side of the road and inspected the vehicle. Additionally, the contact stated that on several occasions when the seat belt tongue was inserted inside the buckle, the seat belt failed to latch properly. The contact stated that the latch plate latched securely after several attempts. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 150,000.

The clutch gets stuck on depressing intermittently. I was not able to shift the gear in the middle of the highway at around 80 miles an hour and this was a fatal encounter for me. It could have killed me as well as was a hazard for other cot ravellers around me. This problem reproduces its multiple times but at unpredictable moments. It is difficult to replicate the problem when showing it to the service centre however, Volvo issued a recall for faulty clutch master and slave cylinders in the UK but not in USA. There are absolutely no leaks or problems as the clutch is new.

This afternoon for no reason, the car flashed a non-stop message “Drive to workshop. Propulsion system Service urgent.” I drove about 3 minutes at 15 mph to get the car somewhere safe, all the while the engine not turning correctly and could not accelerate safely. This appears to be a VERY common and dangerous issue for Volvo hybrids and there was a recall last year. It clearly did not fix the issue though.

On May 18, 2023, the vehicle was not driveable and it was not able to be taken out of the park mode. The vehicle had no power so the engine would not start regardless of what the tow truck driver tried. The car had to be pulled onto the tow truck so the tires did not move. On June 10, 2023, Due to a backlog. The Volvo dealership was finally able to look at the vehicle. They stated "error codes in the computer indicate an internal defect in the high-voltage battery. Even after consultation with Volvo technical support, we cannot avoid removing and opening the battery to replace a part inside the battery." Due to a backlog and waiting for parts, they stated it would be 6 weeks before they could repair. On July 28, 2023, The Volvo dealership repair stated, "the first spare part (for the defective battery) that was delivered was unfortunately defective and had to be sent it back." They will keep us up-to-date. The dealership is aware of the R10198 Recall for the Electronic Control Module.

I own a 2016 XC90 that was regularly serviced by the Volvo dealer we bought the car from. My son and I were in my car on 08/02/2023 and we were at a stop light and something smelt a little off so my son put his window down to get fresh air. Then, we accelerated when the light turned green. Within 100 yds of accelerating my check engine light when on and simultaneously I lost acceleration. It was clear that something was wrong. I told my son we needed to unbuckle our seat belts and jump out of the car when I could get us safely stopped. We coasted into a parking lot where I found a safe spot to stop. While coasting I looked at my car screen to see if there was oil or other fluid that was low, but there was no indicator of a problem other than the check engine light that had just gone on at the same time as I lost the ability to accelerate. When the car stopped, I grabbed my purse next to me and before we were to the sidewalk the car was engulfed in smoke and then flames. Our lives were at risk within two minutes of the check engine light coming on. This car was on fire in a parking lot of a pediatricians office around other cars with young families inside. It was scary and extremely unsafe for my son and I and many other people who were around the vehicle. Our car received each recall replacement/fix that was identified. This was extremely scary and unsafe, it put our lives and others' lives at risk within 2 minutes. We along with many others called 911, the situation was immediately out of control.