VOLVO Complaints

Rear driver's side door has the door lock motor fail and the door is unable to be opened from either the inside or outside. I was not in an accident, but had I been this would have been incredibly dangerous for passengers in the back seat of the car. Per discussions with my repair shop, this component should not fail and they have done numerous repairs on this problem on other cars of the same model.

When driving slowly to enter a parking garage, the steering wheel on the car started to feel stiff, and as I completed the turn, there was a loud snapping sound. The dashboard showed an urgent fault saying “SRS Airbag Urgent - Drive To Workshop”. I drove it to the Volvo dealer. The steering wheel was having problems turning left. When the dealer attempted to move the car, it was then unable to turn left at all. So, the steering wheel completely failed.

In the past two years, my car has had 3 wheel sensors fail. When a wheel sensor fails while driving, things can get dangerous. When this happens, the following systems immediately fail in a chain reaction of events: ABS system, ESC Control, tire pressure monitoring, and loss of power. It’s dangerous when it happens on the road because the brakes are not working and the accelerator won’t accelerate. I have to pull off the road immediately to get out of the way of traffic. This is the 3rd time it’s happened and I’ve only driven the car 9k miles since I bought it. That’s a very high fail rate for a seemingly important piece. The 3rd incident also triggered a “transmission service required” message. This car only has 37,600 miles on it. I rarely drive it. This should not be happening unless Volvo is using defective parts.

On [XXX], I was traveling back from North Carolina to Columbia Sc. While driving, I had my cruise control on ~78 mph and had a 4 foot Christmas tree on the top of my car. Suddenly, my car jolted and the car began to run funny. Almost run like there was sand. An alert also popped up on the dashboard that said something to the extent of “downshift or reduce speed” I was low on fuel and luckily the next exit was right there. I also scheduled an appointment with my local Volvo dealership as my car is under an extended warranty. I took my car to the dealership and at first they said it was total engine failure. But have since revised that after Volvo inspected it. Now they are reporting only the cylinder head and a valve is bent. However after researching this problem, it seems like a lot of 2016 Volvos have the same issue with oil consumption leading to massive engine problems. This worries me that the main issue is not being fixed as Volvo doesn’t want to spend money to fix the engines. However no recall for the 2016 Volvos has been posted despite this known issue that seems to only affect the 2016 Volvo. Has the NHTSA investigated this previously? INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The contact owns a 2012 Volvo S60. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, she smelled a burning odor in the interior of the vehicle, after which the vehicle inadvertently lost motive power. The contact was able to coast to the shoulder of the roadway, where the vehicle failed to restart. After a visual inspection of the engine compartment, the contact became aware that the engine was without oil; however, the low oil warning light was not illuminated. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer nor an independent mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired. After investigating the failure, the contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 13V592000 (Engine and Engine Cooling) but the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 137,000.

I am on my third Volvo in ten years, a 2022 XC40 that I purchased in new from the dealer. It's actually my second Volvo XC40. However I have had serious safety issues with the current model as it has repeatedly engaged the anti collision braking nearly causing an accident on one of the 8-9 times this has happened. It was taken in to two different dealers multiple times for repeat errors with the anti collision system. Each time the system has activated - 8-9 times - the road conditions are perfectly fine and there are no cars or obstructions in the road. On a recent incident in 2023 my kids were thrown forward and all of our luggage ended up dispersed throughout the car. It was a hard brake from about 40 mph down to nearly zero before I could get control of the vehicle. The only warning was a message and red colors on the dashboard at the same time as the braking. If a car had been following me we would certainly have been hit from behind. It has been a terrifying experience with each inaccurate activation of the anti collision feature, but Volvo services in contact with Volvo engineers can't fix it. And they won't provide me with any details or access the computer to substantiate my claims. I contacted my salesperson out of desperation and he agreed that this wasn't normal. He submitted a request for a trade assist but it was denied by Volvo. I feel compelled to let other owners know as it is a very serious safety flaw that is being ignored by Volvo.

Windshield is original from Volvo but leaks during rain and car washes. Rain floods my driver’s side floor board and heavy enough might effect my electrical system.

I got into a car accident today. The electrical wiring is constantly giving out and I had no idea my airbags wouldn't work until today when they did not deploy. My car hit the other car enough to move it several feet and no airbags.

Passenger and driver side rear door lock are inoperable from outside and inside. The issue has been widely reported by other vehicle owners. The root cause has been reported as water damaging the locking mechanisms. Volvo redesigned the mechanisms but has not issued a recall.

My rear door, driver-side, will not unlock. I cannot open it from inside nor outside. I have cycled door and child-lock actuators and no change to the condition. This is definitely a safety concern as whatever happened to the driver-side mechanism can happen to the passenger side also then how would passengers exit quickly?