general problems of the 2016 Volvo XC90

My car started smoking on the road, I parked it. It smoked, then it caught on fire.

The back door, or liftgate, closes automatically (without me pressing the close button). This is inconsistent, as it doesn't happen all the time. Each time the car has been off, and maybe it's on some kind of timer. It's happened 3 times, at random, where each time it caught me off guard. One time it hit me on the back of the head. The next time my kids were sitting in the back and I had to yell for them to tuck their legs inside. The third time, was just last week, and I had to run out from under it. There is no beeping or warning, and I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before it causes serious injury. I've had this vehicle for about 12 months, and it's only happened 3 times, but I can't figure out what the causes it.

The rear two car doors will not open. It started months ago with the left side and now is both doors. This is dangerous if anyone in the rear of the vehicle should need to exit in a timely manner. The dealership knows this is an issue, but says they are not obligated to fix it for free because there isn’t a recall yet.

Your site states that my vehicle does not have active recalls for my vehicle but there is a recall that the manufacturer confirmed my vehicle is actively affected by since 2019.

The rear door locking system has failed. Both doors will not open from the interior or exterior. I have read thousands of complaints about this particular problem with this make and model of Volvo. The locking system on a car should never fail. Huge safety concern.

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.

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?.

The left rear door of my vehicle flew open while we were moving with my 10-year-old daughter sitting adjacent to the door. Fortunately, she had her seat belt on otherwise the result would have been tragic. On January 14, 2024 my daughter got into the back of my vehicle, suddenly, her door flew open, I immediately stopped the vehicle. My daughter was unable to shut the door and after many attempts I got the door to shut. When we arrived at home both rear doors would not open and my now trapped daughter exited through the front door. On January 15th, I went to Volvo in rochester NY and explained the situation expecting the service person to be extremely concerned. Much to my surprise he said “that happens all the time” and that when it gets cold out sometimes the latches don’t respond. I anticipated that my car would go in immediately but was told “how is Thursday to bring your car in. ” I dropped my car off and received a call that afternoon with “great news” that the issue was a faulty door latch, the part was in stock and came with a “lifetime warranty. ” he told me the cost was $734. 00 per door meaning with sales tax the cost would be over $1,500 and I would still have two doors at risk for flying open in the future. I asked how this life safety issue which has failed on countless other vehicles is not covered by the manufacturer nor has there been a recall. He said Volvo has recognized the door latch safety issue and designed a fix. When the door latch fails, this new replacement part, that the consumer pays for, solves the problem. Volvo recognized a safety problem, designed the fix, yet has chosen not to recall the vehicles that have these problems but rather waits until the door latch fails before the consumer must pay to replace it. I arrived the next day to pick up my vehicle, sat down with the service manager who was empathetic, but reiterated this is an issue that has repeatedly occurred. This needs to be addressed and not paid by consumers.

Low engine coolent alert started and when we got home we noticed that the coolant had leaked.

It started with the right rear passenger door not opening from the inside or outside of the car. At first you could lock the doors from the inside and then open the door, but now the door will not open at all. My left rear passenger door has started to do the same thing this week. It will only open about 50% of the time. The door handles are in good order, and this is not related to an accident. This is an extremely dangerous situation for my kids! if we were in a car accident or if there was a fire in the car they would not be able to escape. I have attempted to contact customer service, but have not been able to get a hold of them.

Doors do not latch. Started in the winter. Car has to warm up some so far. It might pop open. This is reported all over the internet.

Both of the rear doors fail to unlock and open from the inside or outside. This is a safety issue, as in a fire or accident, I would not be able to remove my children from the back seat of the car.

Car had a known issue regarding inappropriate oil consumption and was awaiting repair by Volvo dealership. While merging onto highway and accelerating, car lurched, check engine light came on, and shortly after there was a warning regarding reduced performance. The car was maneuvered to the closest exit and parked. During this time, approx 90secs, all major warning lights came on and smoke started coming up from engine. We quickly pulled to the side of the road (was unable to put car in park) and exited the vehicle as smoke was entering the cabin. There was a fire under the engine compartment that quickly engulfed and consumed the front of thr car.

I owned a 2016 Volvo xc 90 in very good condition. In early September 2023, I took it for an oil service. Shortly thereafter, I noticed a warning light for low coolant and was surprised that I had to pour more than a half gallon to refill (this soon after service). A few days later, I took the car to have brakes changed and they also needed to replace an oil/air separator part. After getting the car back, it sat on driveway for week. Upon returning from our trip, my wife drove the car and it started smoking from hood while on i90/94 in chicago, no warning lights seen. She was able to take an exit ramp and find an empty curbside space to pull over. Within minutes the smoke turned to fire and vehicle burned extensively before the fire department arrived (~15 minutes later). The insurance company (state farm) declared it a total loss and settled our claim, however we do not believe they took any further action on investigating the reason for fire. We believe the fire was likely related to issue with coolant system. We noticed a puddle on driveway where the car was parked that looked like oil, but it dried quite quickly so was more likely to have been coolant. On searching the internet for fire related issue for Volvos, we found a forum that discussed a series of fires (10-12) for 2016 Volvo Xc90 related to coolant system issue. Apparently there was a recall for this, though appears to be focused on european diesel models. In discussing the issue with the repair shop that last serviced the car, they insisted it couldn't have been oil related and mentioned problem could have been from rodents eating through wires, but that seems unlikely to me.

Previous issues with brakes, suspension, leaking sunroof, electrical and gauges. Vehicle became disabled due to defect with coolant system, smoke from engine compartment, towed to monterery Volvo (dealership/service center identified issues with coolant leak present turbo & cooling plastic pipe. Cruise control-vacuum pump: found vacuum pump leaking oil. Estimated repair $5,414. 38.

Our car has shut down in the middle of traffic due to the oil going from full to empty in a few hundred miles. Oil change was recently done with synthetic oil and only had driven a few hundred miles when it went to empty. I had to buy a quart of oil at the gas station. I need to put an extra quart of oil every few hundred miles due to excessive oil consumption.

My vehicle’s sos, on call safety functions no longer work. In addition my navigation system no longer works properly. In the event of an accident these key safety features would not be able to alert emergency services or locate my position. This is a direct result in a flawed vehicle modem that uses the 3g network not supported by cellular carriers. Volvo has a solution that would cost me $850 to remedy this safety design flaw. Volvo should fix this key safety issue as it puts my family at risk if we are involved in an accident.

There is an open recall for certain 2016 xc 90s related to cracks in the coolant pipes. My VIN doesn’t have a recall attached but in the last 2. 5 years I have owned the vehicle I have had to change this part 2 times. I feel my VIN/vehicle should be part of the recall. My local dealer is not willing to assist nor Volvo customer service.

First, the rear passenger side door latch failed at 57k miles, allegedly due to water intrusion. They replaced with a revised part - p/n 32310869. Now at 63k miles, the driver side rear door latch failed in the same way. This compromises safety because it renders the rear seats completely inaccessible. I could not get my children out of the back seat through traditional means. The problem has been confirmed by a dealership and is well documented online. There was no warning or indication when the part had failed. The passenger door stopped working "regularly" (intermittently would not open) a few days before it failed entirely. The driver rear door gave no advanced notice.

Rear doors stop opening from outside and interior.

The door lock actuators were poorly designed, allowing water intrusion. This causes the actuator to rust and freeze up making it impossible to unlock the door and open it from the inside or outside. There was no warning about this, it just stopped working one day. If someone had been in the backseat when it stopped working they would have had to crawl across to the other side to get out. What if there had been an accident and you could not get your child or baby out the nearest door quickly. We have been waiting nearly three weeks now for the replacement part, a part we were told by Volvo has been redesigned so this should not happen again. A part we (our insurance) has to cover. What about the other locks on the car, are they going to fail and lock us in the car? why is Volvo not replacing these actuators.

The inside door handles (levers to open the doors)- have a thick metallic paint that chips off and causes fingers to be cut.

Inside and outside handle cease to work effectively resulting in door not opening. Has happened a handful of times with repair required. Occupants are not able to exit the vehicle.

Coolant leak. And hose got burned by engine.

Vehicle software update removed safety items. I. E. , when vehicle is in motion and is in pilot assist mode lane avoidance audio warning sound and steering wheel pull back, crash avoidance audio warning sound (when not in cruise control). Pilot assist no longer works at all. Volvo states software updates removed these items. Issue is= I was not informed of the removal of these items. I bought the car because it was equipped with those items. Volvo removed them without my permission or even notifying me the update would degrade my vehicle. Volvo states they are unwilling to remove the software or even modify it for individual customers. These are safety issues. Volvo complaint reference number is available if needed. Vehicle mileage 38026. Bought new in 2016 September.

The rear passenger door became unlatched and opened while driving on the highway. The door would not re-. Eventually, we were able to lock it in place.

Have had two door latch mechanisms fail at 60k miles which make the door inoperable and could potentially trap occupants in the vehicle. This has happened with the doors closed in both cases.

Like you know now most 2016 Volvo Xc90 are burning oil 2-3 quarts every 1500 miles car is smoking blue smoke most of the Xc90 2016 with 2. 0 liter engine Volvo has like extended warranty up to 100k on some cars but cars where burning oil from 2016 year most cars are over 100k Volvo will not help fix issue . No check engine light on cars ! you stay behind the muffler can’t breath how bad it stinks no check engine passing emission like that !!! I don’t have money to pay $11000 to replace pistons rings Volvo will not help so guess this car will smoke and can pass emission.

All wheel drive not working. . . All wheel drive in the off road mode is not working.

At least 3 times, my car has braked itself (at around 50 miles per hour) when there was nothing in front of me. This was very unsafe- if someone had been behind me, I would have been hit. This seems to be the collision mitigation system engaging for no reason. The dealer has said they "fixed it" (don beyer Volvo) but I believe they have just turned the system pretty much off so that it now would not stop if there was a real object in front of me. I had a loaner in which the system was still on and mine no longer works like that. I think they don't really have a fix for this so they just turn it off in the cars that have this defect. This is a major safety issue. Also, have had the navigation system go blank while driving then it shows that you are somewhere else and get stuck there for days. (many other problems also, a noise in the seat (second row) that they maybe fixed after three times but now the second row seat does not work properly (got stuck out of the socket but we got it back in and I think this is a safety issue. ).

When we were driving on street, the dash board black out and the car completely stop. Can't tell what speed,and all other warning signal. Re-started the car but only can go miles/hr the dashboard still black out. Get towed to the Volvo dealer . They still can't find out what is problem. Search internet and more than 10 people has similar issue.

Car was having issues with speedometer screen and center console screens. Screen would blank out when navigation system was in use and vehicle was moving. This would happen twice and system would normalize. Several weeks ago this happened and my husband and I smelled a weird odor and then smoke began bellowing out center console. Unit was turned off and dealer contacted. Vehicle was brought in but after three weeks still has issues. Went to pick up car on 12/5 only to find vehicle was having issue with retaining a fully charged battery. We were told al of these issues are due to software updates but to have speedometer go out while in use and to smoke is not safe.