VOLVO Complaints

My 2016 Volvo XC90's engine has suffered from high oil consumption that has required excessive servicing and additions of motor oil. These issues began several years ago when the XC90's low oil warning message appeared. The local Volvo dealership said my XC90 had an oil leak and it would cost over $10,000 to determine the source of the leak. So the Volvo dealership suggested that I regularly put 2 quarts of oil in the engine every couple hundred miles, which I have done. Despite the Volvo dealership's speculative guess, no oil leakage was ever seen and there was never any oil pooling under the vehicle. Then on Sunday, June 25, 2023, out of nowhere a "reduced engine performance" message popped up. The XC90 swerved, almost causing a wreck, while greatly decreasing speed in traffic on the interstate. I was barely able to get to the next exit where the engine died. Our car had to be towed over 30 miles to the nearest Volvo dealership. The engine was leaking oil throughout the engine compartment, including fully coating the spark plugs. Additionally, the motor mount is broken in multiple places causing the engine to shake wildly. Now I am told the engine is destroyed and will cost $20,000-$24,000 to replace. Volvo knows about the defective pistons and piston rings in the 2016 XC90 engines, as illustrated by Technical Journal 31216.6.0, but has never issued a recall. The local Volvo service dept. never checked, much less replaced the defective pistons and piston rings, even though it knew or should have known the defect could require the engine to be replaced. In speaking with Volvo customer service, I was advised that Volvo service technicians are not required to follow the service solutions found in the technical journal. Volvo's failure to recall the defective engines has now exposed my family, including my baby, to unnecessary danger, but also exposed us to grossly excessive costs/expenses due to known defects. A recall should be required for all 2016 XC90 engines.

Brake rotors warp prematurely, dealership fighting on covering for warranty. Only 10,000 miles and they're bad again. Second time in 10 months.

On 6/12/23, I was driving on a highway in New York State when I heard a bump under my car and I thought it was a rock. Nothing flashed on my dash to warn me that something serious had happened. Another driver pulled next to me and shouted out of the window, "YOUR CAR IS SPILLING GAS OUT OF THE BOTTOM OF YOUR CAR, PULL OVER OR YOUR CAR MAY CATCH FIRE." As I was near an exit, I got off the highway, and there was a service station right there. When I got out of the car, with the ignition off, I saw gas coming from the bottom of my car like a faucet (Tank was 1/2 full). The service people told me to get away from the car and they tried to catch the gas as it was going all over the road and parking lot. My car was towed by Volvo to a dealer and they found that there was a 4 inch gash in my gas tank, likely caused by a piece of metal that fell from a truck. It took a week to fix my car, replace the gas tank, fuel pump and everything associated with the fuel system. It cost me $3,800 to fix. My car had less than 9,000 miles on it. When I approached VOLVO USA headquarters and asked that they try to reimburse me they replied it was an ACT OF GOD, and they would not cover any of it. My insurance would not cover it as it was not an accident. My complaint is that this car had no warning system within the high tech dashboard to alert me that my car was in trouble. Had it not been for the stranger on the road, I would not have known, as my A/C was on and my windows were closed. I did not smell the gas until I left the car. It is a flaw of this car that there was no warning system in place to let me know that my gas tank was breached. My dash flashes signals when my windshield wiper fluid is low. I am appealing to the National Highway Safety Commission to report this to Volvo, and not only try to get me paid back some of the money I spent, but to upgrade their safety alert system so someone does not get killed in a freak incident like this

The contact owns a 2018 Volvo XC60. The contact stated while driving 75 MPH, The Forward Collision Avoidance feature inadvertently activated, and the vehicle stopped abruptly without warning. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and a software update was performed; however, the failure reoccurred. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer however, the mechanic found no cause for the failure. The contact was informed that the vehicle performed as designed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was 13,000.

My car continued to move even with the brake pedal pressed, and collision avoidance systems did not turn on. This is very unsafe - a car that doesn’t respond when the driver brakes puts everyone else on the road in danger. The first time this happened was on Sep. 6, 2022. I was driving on the highway when the car in front of me stopped abruptly. I started to brake. The distance between our cars was large enough that I should have been able to stop safely, but my car continued to move. I was unable to stop the vehicle and crashed into the car in front of me. At the time, I thought it was my fault. Although there was damage to my car, luckily no one was injured. (This was resolved, and my car was repaired, with help from Shelter Insurance.) On June 13, 2023, I was pulling up to a red light behind another vehicle. I stepped on the brakes and my car jolted to a stop (I had to push the pedal down very hard to get my car to start slowing down). Then my car began to move again, even though I had not released the brake pedal. It was moving at about 1-2 mph. My car got so close to the car in front of us that the parking sensors began to beep. We would have run into the stationary vehicle if I hadn’t put my car in Neutral. When the light switched to green I put my car in Drive again. At the next intersection the brakes were back to normal, and my car was driving as before. I had my car towed to the local Volvo dealership. After an inspection, I was told they hadn’t found anything wrong. I left my car at the dealership for further investigation, and was given a loaner. I don’t know if there is a connection, but both times this happened, I had been driving on the highway at high speeds (70 mph) for a few hours before trying to brake.

1. The vehicle caught fire while driving. The radiator cooling fan stayed on after parking, The vehicle the night before. The vehicle had to be jump started the next morning. yes the vehicle is available for inspection. 2. bodily injury and property damage could have been caused by the fire. 3. Yes. independent service center. Automotive Body and Tire Center. (Skokie IL) 4. Yes. Fire was put out by prospect heights fire department. Police report #PHP23-004049 5. No warning lamps prior to the fire. Symptom of problem was the radiator cooling fan staying on after vehicle was turned off, which caused the battery to discharge.

The contact owns a 2023 Volvo XC40. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the Forward Collision Avoidance system activated without a vehicle nearby and the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The contact stated that the failure occurred on three separate occasions. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, but the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 6,500. The contact stated that they have experienced multiple failures with their vehicle.

The automobile is still at Jim Ellis Volvo Mall of Georgia not being repaired because Volvo USA has declined to assist. The problem with the steering has been vocally delivered to me by service department as the Universal Joint in the steering column has failed. This is a large expense which I should not have to be responsible for with at car this early in it's life, 85K.

I have experienced the steering in my car to become looser over time. I have found the culprit to be a plastic tension cap on the steering rack itself. The cap appears to have stripped and backed out completely and is now resting against the subframe. There is no warning of this happening and very hard to pinpoint the cause. The effect is that there is about 10 degrees of play in the steering wheel. It appears that it only affects the left wheel as that one is loose and the right wheel is tight. I will be taking it to the dealer to see if there is a replacement or an upgraded version of this cap but feel this should be addressed further as this could happen without warning.

After ota software update, the vehicles braking systems (abs, traction control) and driver assistance systems(lane assistance, adaptive cruise control, one pedal driving mode) no longer functioned normally. The vehicle displayed warning information that read “stop safely, brake failure”; on the instrument cluster. This put my family and others at risk by changing the cars behavior by no longer operating in a one pedal mode and disabling common safety features like abs, traction control as well as the more advanced collision avoidance systems. If I had attempted to operate the pilot assistance it could have easily turned into an incident. The car is now at the dealership, and it sounds like a recent ota “failed to sequence properly” which might have damaged the hardware, or possibly just the software needs to be reflashed, but the technician made it sound commonplace from the last update. The vehicle is not available for inspection it is being remedied at the dealership.