Volvo XC90 owners have reported 30 electronic stability control related problems since 1996. Table 1 shows the 1 most common electronic stability control problems. The number one most common problem is related to the vehicle's electronic stability control (30 problems). For details of each of the problem category, use the links in the table.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Electronic Stability Control problems |
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.
2008 Volvo Xc90 v8 has been towed 3x in the past month. The battery has completely and inconsistently drained. They checked relay switches, fuses, alternator, starter, battery connections, etc. 3x in the shop! so fed up. Car is now in shop and I've read that Volvo is in a class action lawsuit for battery drain from sirius radio even if you do not have the subscription. They are charging me $135 to diagnose at Volvo right now. It hasn't been diagnosed as that is the problem yet, but the service manager is inclined to think that's what it is. Clearly they are aware of the problem. Also got stuck completely in drivers side seat belt and then it wouldn't work at all. Having door opening problems on driver side door and I'm just super frustrated. This has affected my business and seeing customers, etc.
The issue first started on MA 3rd, 2019. I was driving down the highway on my way to the beach. The road was a little bumpy and then all of the sudden my car lost all power and shut itself off. It through 3 codes, 1. Immobilizer, 2. Engine control module and 3. Climate control module. I was able to have it towed home. My husband decided to research what could cause these issues. He located a youtube video that was posted 2 years ago regarding the ecm & ccm fuses. The man recording the video experienced the same problems, and found that the fuse for the two items have blown. My husband thought maybe that might be the issue. He located the fuses and found that both of them were in fact blown. He replaced them both with brand new fuzes and the car started right now. . The next day, I drove to work with no issues and to and from lunch. On my way home, about 3 miles from work, I went down a side street as there was an accident and traffic was backed up. The side street had speed bumps. The went over the first one with no issue, and the next one is about 100 - 200 feet after, as soon as my back tires were over the 2nd bump, the car shut it self off again and I was stuck (may 6th 2019). My husband shown my where the fuzes was and left extras in the storage area on the safe side. Again, both were blown. Once they were replaced for a 2nd time, car started. Now fast forward 5 months, the road from my dads house is being repaved, as you can image very bumpy. I made it over all the bumps just fine, but as soon as I crossed over a major road, the car shut itself off again. . . This time I did not have extra fuzes, called a tow (October 11 2019). We were able to replace the fuzes again. Now the next day everything was fine again, but the same thing happened two more times (October 12, 2019). And now the car sits in my driveway, as I feel very unsafe to drive it.
I was driving down the highway and my vehicle completely shut down and the steering locked. I was able to put on the emergency signals and the big rigs behind me blew their horns. They were getting closer to me because I was decelerating at a rate that would have resulted in a colission. Fortunately I was able to coast into an emergency lane while they went whipping past me. The Volvo service manager stated that he had heard of a similar situation before. In an email to me he stated that "the pressure sensor was giving a faults reading, of excessive fuel pressure. When the pem saw the faults reading, it cut the fuel to the engine as it thought it was way over pressurized. " I feel very fortunate that nobody was severally injured or killed.
While driving, random massive electrical failure which shuts off all lights, gauges and accessories. Performance returns and then goes out again. Inevitably, car loses acceleration, brakes and steering. Check engine light comes on and car goes into "limp home" mode. Volvo dealership claims they can't find anything wrong. My research indicates that problems of this nature were uncovered as far back as 2004 and have been consistently report to Volvo. However, no solution has been publicized.
All the vehicle lights will come on over the dash and the wheel locks then it shuts off while I am driving. This is so unsafe for my family. I am not sure why there is not a recall for my VIN # when google clearly states that this is a hazard and that there are recalls for this problem.
Hi, when driving my car up any slight little hill, I have no power and it doesn't seem to want to drive. It's very frustrating!! I have read there are recalls in the fuel pumps and also other recalls with the model Volvo Xc90. I hope they can repair it and pay for it!!.
On multiple occasions the abs warning light will come on and state needs service. The air conditioner works intermittantly and the tcs (traction control system) sometimes fails to come on. Like everything else, only some of the time. Purchased vehicle with 180. 000 miles.
1) adaptive cruise control suddenly shuts off while driving on the highway, error message appears on the screen: "windscreen sensor, sensor blocked, see owner's manual", the appearance of the sensor on the outside of the car appears clean and even after scrubbing the sensor area the error still occurs. The car has been repaired for this same problem over 5 times including total replacement of the the windscreen sensors, with the problem still persisting. 2) dashboard went blank and computer rebooted while driving.
While driving any distance over 60 minutes the car warning comes on saying sudden loss of brakes, stop safely. Airbag check light comes on. Within a few seconds all the electronics shuts down; all dash, stereo, lights, wipers, windows and lack of power to engine but car stays running. This was almost a deadly crash while driving in pouring rain and there were cars everywhere. No way to signal or flashers, I honestly thought me and my family were gonna get in an accident. I have read other stories online so my question is, what is the cause of this? how do I fix it before some gets hurt or even worse killed!.
The vehicle lost all power while I was driving on a freeway. The power came back on, (showing certain features but not all) briefly for a minute and then shut down again. In addition to this problem, a consistent issue that has happened no less than 6 times over the course of a year is the vehicle interprets there is something in its path and slams on the brakes when there is nothing in its path. There is no car, person, object, plant, etc. In the way of the vehicle at all.
Electrical failure, suspension failure, leakage to air bag sensor, software problems.
Anti skid warning lights are coming up.
I was driving on the freeway in rush hour traffic in eco drive mode with the auto start/stop function enabled. The auto stop kicked in and stopped my engine, but when I went to press on the gas pedal, the auto start did not restart my engine and the gas pedal was unresponsive. No alerts or warnings popped up - everything remained on (headlights, radio, etc), and nothing appeared wrong except for the fact that the car wouldn't move/accelerate. I was going around 1mph at this point, and pulled over to the shoulder, parked, and restarted the engine manually. I then drove home without further incident. I brought in the car to the dealer the next day. The response was that there was nothing to fix b/c no codes showed up during the diagnostic, and they weren't able to replicate the issue. They downloaded "software 1 and 2" and said that might fix the problem but they don't know. They said corporate doesn't tell them what the software updates do, but it seemed like the update mainly pertained to the radio which clearly has nothing to do with my issue. They tried to return the vehicle to me a week later (11/27) and I refused, and asked them to escalate the issue b/c I didn't feel the car was safe and there was no resolution. They assured me that corporate's field tech specialist was consulting with them on the phone and agreed the car was fine to be returned to me b/c there were no codes and the issue couldn't be replicated. I spoke to corporate (Volvo north America) and they said they would escalate on their side but had no specific details to reassure me the problem was taken care of. I asked for a flight computer to be installed to log the car data in case the issue happens again, and no answer on that request so far. I got the car back today (12/8) b/c they don't know how/what to fix. The dealer has mechanics and not the software engineers that need to look at the car.
While driving at any speed the vehicles electrical system completely shuts down with out warning as if the vehicle was off. The engine stays running with very minimal power. This happened to me at night while driving on the highway, it was raining and all the lights, wipers, every electrical part just shut off, I am lucky I did not crash. After researching I that a lot of owners have the same problems and that Volvo is aware of the dangerous problem but does nothing about it.
Aside from normal care, I have only replaced my tires and a gas cap. I started to experience some water seepage onto the driver-side. I covered the vehicle when it rained and figured I would have a look at it when I had time. July 2015, I took my Volvo to savannah Volvo, fixed my breaks along with other safety fixes, after 14 hrs of having my vehicle and 2800 later, pete stated everything was taken care of and the water seepage was due to the drains being clogged, but, they are all clear now, we did a water test and everything is ok. You will experience some more water seepage but it should dry up in a few days. He also mentioned some other work that needed to be done though not until November, December. I said great and got on my way. Three days later it did rain, confident I did not need to cover my vehicle and was still experiencing water seepage from my visit, I did not think any thing of it. The next day, my control panel started to light up. I called savannah, and he mentioned it must just be because you put a full tank of gas. . . . What??? ok. As the week went on the control panel continued to light up one by one. The day before going back, my driver side turn signal was on. Hoping I did not have a dead battery the next day, I headed to Volvo. After 4 hrs they tell me the roof drains were cloggd and seeped onto the cem, and it is damaged. I said to pete, I thought the drains were clear when I left a week ago??? yeah, well, we can't create a problem with your drains. Though, after 10 yrs I leave there and 3 days later experience a problem, after you told me my drains were all cleared? several phone calls to the dealership and Volvo headquarters, not one person is taking responsibility for this bad design, which could have caused my transmission to limp and a possible accident! it now sits in my driveway, after spending 2800. 00 I will never purchase another Volvo!.
Our 2004 Volvo xc-90 developed a warning light that the stability control was inactive. In addition, we experienced a "sloshing" sound in the passenger compartment akin to a bottle of water rolling around the back. Upon inspection it was determined that the yaw sensor was damaged due to corrosion from defective sun-roof drains which allowed water intrusion into the vehicle body. No external leaks or issues were evident and the issue was well described upon an internet search.
Volvo is aware of the balancer shaft defect that causing a very pricey and serious problem. The fix was to drill a hole but not to repair any damage caused by the design flaw. I was informed by the Volvo dealership that this is a design flaw in the 2005 cx90 and the cost would be around $4000 to fix the damage done to the balance shaft because of the design flaw.
I was not aware of the design defect in sun roof & the water damages that result in electrical issues. I had always parked my vehicle in covered parking until moving this year in January. I had taken my car in to have a tune up in Nov 2012 at which time I was given an estimate of repairs needed in my car. My car remained parked for most of 2013 due to having moved I wasn't able to afford repairs. The repairs where inner&outer tie rods,ball joints, mounts, arm bushings, rotors & break pads. The above aforementioned where made. Following repairs I washed my car and drove out of town 4th July weekend from los angeles to jamestown California. Once I arrived my car remained parked until returning home July 7th. Shortly after starting my car the dash gauges started to flash on/off and eventually went out. At the time I had my portable gps, a/c was working & I had use of windows (rolling up & down). I knew I had a full tank of gas cause I had fueled up prior to arriving at destination. Being I was in the middle of know where without cell phone service I drove as far as I could before I thought I may need gas. When I stopped to get fuel I was not able to open the door to refuel with gas. I broke the clips on the door allowing me to access and fuel tank and refill with gas. It was Sunday after a major holiday and there was a lot of traffic, the only Volvo dealership I passed was closed and I just wanted to get home. So I continued to drive and was just getting onto the grapevine and traffic really backed up. There was a fire that had been burning on the mountain to the right and helicopters where dumping water on this ongoing fire. Around this time I noticed the a/c had quit working and was blowing hot air. I tried to roll my windows down and they where inoperable. Traffic was at a crawl and there was no place to pull over. Worst nightmare ever.
After several hours of driving in the georgia / north carolina mountains with the wife and 2 kids in the back, the air-conditioner and radio on with the 2004 Xc90, the car started experiencing weird behavior. Shortly after crossing the georgia border into the mountains of north carolina there was a loud noise under the hood of the car and the vehicle jerked violently. The car immediately lost all electrical power (no dashboard, hazard lights, blinkers, windows and door locks, sunroof, etc. ). The drive train also seemed stuck in a high gear and would not downshift which made normal driving close to impossible especially on mountain roads. About 15 minutes later, the car made the violent noise again under the hood again and jerked violently again. Luckily there was an autozone immediately after the second incident and I had them read the engine codes which was only showing a ¿dstc failure� (dashboard was non-functional). I decided to replace the battery with a new one in hopes that the failure was because of a weak battery tricking the computer to go into survival mode. Upon restarting the car, power was restored to the cabin (ac, radio, and dash were all working again) and there was now a ¿srs airbag service urgent� message which I couldn't clear from the dash, nor could the tool from autozone detect or clear via the plug to the computer port. There were no engine codes in the autozone computer after the battery change but we still had the srs warning light / message on the dash. The next day, we had the same issue above driving home from our destination. We were hoping that new battery would solve the issue, but I now believe it's the cem. Car is going to the dealer tomorrow to investigate since of course it happened on memorial day weekend and nothing was open other than some stores.
I was driving my Xc90 2004 and suddenly the unit just turned off completely. I had to continue driving with the vehicle without any kind of power. I parked the car beside the highway and tried to turned on the car again, the car started to function normally. I checked the pole of the battery but they were ok and the battery itself it's new. This is not the first time that happens, it is very unpredictable and sporadic. When I went to the Volvo dealer some months ago to fix a campaign that have the Xc90, I told the mechanics what happened and told them to check that issue. The told me it was very strange and when they fixed the campaign they told me they didn't found anything.
Today, we learned our Volvo Xc90's yaw rate sensor has failed. The root cause was water leaking into the passenger side of the car due to blocked moonroof (I. E. Sunroof) drains, which shorted the yaw rate sensor. This impaired the electronic stability control and brakes of our Volvo, putting us at risk of accident. Research shows this is a frequent and recurring problem known since at least 2004. It has caused thousands of dollars in damage to numerous Xc90s. Volvo is aware of this issue up to and including the president of Volvo USA. Even though easy and inexpensive regular maintenance would prevent expensive damage, neither the Volvo user manual nor maintenance service operations guides mention the need. The damage we and others have suffered was completely preventable. The root cause is a design defect, which Volvo service providers regularly correct by cutting the bottom end of the hoses. A service provider is reported as saying, "this is a bad design. We don't know why Volvo designed it this way, so we just cut off the bottom two inches of the hoses. " given the risk this defect puts owners at and Volvo's ongoing failure to correct this design defect and/or notify owners of this issue and the required maintenance to address it, I believe a recall of all affected Volvo Xc90s is warranted and should be instituted immediately. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).
While driving between 65 and 70 miles on a major interstate my 2004 Volvo xc 90 has a severe "thump" in the front end, which is then followed by a very brief (split second) internal (meaning all dashboard lights, hi-fi, dome lights, radio air condition, oil gage, fuel gage clock ) power failure. While trying to push the gas the car would not accelerate. At first I hit something on the highway. A minute or two later the "thump" was harder and the lights internally completely went out, hazard lights could not be turned on, blinkers could not be switched on, hi-fi went out, the door locks would not work, the windshield wipers would not cut on or the electric windows. I pulled over immediately and turned the car off, waited 10 minutes and restarted it. There were 3 messages on the dash, the yellow exclamation point dashboard icon/alert lit up, a service message flashed referring to the anti-lock brake failure, the srs needed to be checked, and check engine. The next day I took it to a Volvo dealership, they couldn't diagnose the problem. They assured me that the car was ok to drive. Four days later the problem starts again. So after doing a little research I find out that this is a common occurrence on the Volvo xc 90 and there was an investigation on this same issue in November 2010 in which Volvo is fully aware of and "acknowledges a problem affecting some subject vehicles involving water seepage into the plenum box area in the engine compartment. When this occurs water may enter into the interior passenger compartment and track along the wiring harness for the central electronic module, the device that controls many of the vehicles electrical functions including wiper operation, lighting, and transmission operation. If the water reaches the central electronic module connector electrical faults may result. " this is a $1200. 00 repair which Volvo should pay.
I bought my xc-90 from big dee Volvo on 12/19/2008. I had anti-skid warning come up 2 year ago and took it to big dee. They reset the message. It was fine for a year or so. The same message appeared again in 10/2011 but it it went away on it's own. I took it to palisade Volvo and they said it was fine. Now the message apperas every day and disappears. The antiskid got turned off automatically. Took it to palisade Volvo today and they said it had a faulty sensor and needs to be replace. The total cost is $750. I believe that the I had a faulty part while the car was on warranty and this falls under the scope of lemon law. I am requesting complete reimbursemnet of the amount.
I drove in severe down pour yesterday and experienced an yellow error message followed by an electrical short and anti skid message. I reduced my speed to 50 mph on the interstate and proceeded home. After stopping the lights would not turn off and I immediately took it in for service where the technician advised me that this was a problem with water getting into the engine compartment wiring harness and causing the central electronic module to short ciruit and rust. This repair alone costs over $5000 due their defective design and improper sealing of important electrical components. I avoided any possible accidents by driving slowly but do not feel safe were I to travel in inclement weather in the future. I do believe that the electrical system would short circuit leaving me without essential power and possibly hurt or stranded. I can see from your database that an investigation was completed on 11/22/2010 under id pe10025 citing no real safety issues. I disagree and would encourage you to revisit this issue immediately. Volvo has conceded to replace the cem ($753. 52) unit but not the engine compartment ($3034. 71) that houses it, therefore owners like myself will continue to experience the same problem and real danger from it.
Anti-skid error keeps coming up on my 2006 8 cyl Volvo Xc90. Dealer unsure how to diagnose. I am concerned my anti lock braking and 4 wheel drive will not work. Is this a known defect in Volvo Xc90's of that year?.
My 2004 Volvo Xc90 has experience a sudden electrical failure. While driving in city conditions all internal electronics including speed & fuel gauges, turn light indicators, audio system, air circulation and supplemental restraint system have turned off while the engine continued to operate. This made the car impossible to drive as no feedback on speed or ability to indicate a turn or a stop was possible. This occurred suddenly and without any warning. I was unable to fix this by restarting the car. According to basic research, this is a common issue with Volvo cars made circa 2003-4 and involve a defective cem (car electronics module). In other incidents engines have also shut down unexpectedly and brakes became inoperable. This is a serious safety issue that needs to be addressed.
Operating vehicle since oct '08, since that time there has been a noise emanating from front pass-side wheel area. Purchasing dealer(hall chevy, chesapeake, va) performed wheel-alignment to "fix" the noise which did not remedy. Volvo dealer in arvada, CO diagnosed it as failed, or failing wheel hub, to be replaced at cost of $500. This vehicle also had trans failure at appx 76k miles, and throttle control module failure in oct '09. I believe there are many concerns about operating and having confidence in its ability to operate "safely and reliably" the vehicle has been in the shop nearly as much as on-the-road since it's I purchased it in oct '08.
Accumulation of airborne debris such as leaves and dirt in the drain tubes for the sun roof plugs drains causing water to run into cabin and accumulate (gallons) under carpeting on both driver and passenger sides. Yaw sensor is under passenger seat and fails due to exposure to water. Skid control system fails without input from yaw sensor. Much online research was required to learn cause of failure because dealer denied there was water and that failure of sensor was probably due to tilting the car on jack or other, unseating component in sensor.
I have a 2004 Volvo Xc90 that has 52,000 miles on it. I started receiving a "brake failure" warning and took it in to my mechanic. He said it was abs/dstc control module which regulates the anti-lock brakes and dynamic stability control. This is a safety feature, and according to my mechanic, has been known to be defective on this model. It requires replacing with a factory part, and reprogramming of the computer at a cost to the consumer of about $1100. Labor for this is approximately $250. Since this is a safety feature, and due to the fact that this is such a common problem with this vehicle, I feel if is reasonable to request that Volvo recall these vehicles and repair this feature.