Another XC60 clutch problem!?

[MarkHanlon]

January last year we bought a brand new XC60 (manual D5), and since just before Christmas we've noticed that the cruise control would cancel out when changing speed from 50 up to 70 via the buttons in 6th gear. More recently my wife noticed that under pedal acceleration the revs would rise and then fall back, as though the clutch was slipping. I repeated this over the weekend by accelerating from 1500 revs in a high gear.

For a car that has done 18,000 miles this doesn't sound like normal wear and tear! My wife & I have owned many cars in the past and not had unusual clutch problems, so I don't think it's a problem with our driving style. We're currently running a Seat Ibiza and a VX220 too, and neither of those have had short lived clutches.

It's going back to the dealer soon so they can investigate, so this will be interesting...

[Ninja59]

Same will apply as every other potential clutch issue you will get warned about potential covering costs if it is worn out, so be prepared.

I know some dealerships at least get you to speak to the service manager about it [well mine did to ensure I knew all the potential issues and costs etc.]

[MarkHanlon]

If we're going to go through a clutch every year under normal driving (in fact, I drive on the cruise control a lot of the time to try to keep the fuel economy up) then we'll have to consider cutting our losses right now...

[Ninja59]

Can I ask something you would not be keeping revs low would you and changing up early potentially making the engine work harder ?

[harveys]

Slave clyinder leaking,crank seal leaking,oil on clutch plate.
Have you hade to topup any fluids ,engine oil or brake fluid.

[MarkHanlon]

Originally Posted by Ninja59

Can I ask something you would not be keeping revs low would you and changing up early potentially making the engine work harder ?

Well we try to avoid labouring the engine and change up around 2k-3k revs normally (it's a diesel). I try to accelerate smoothly mainly to keep it comfortable for our 3yr old in the back who's in a rear facing car seat!

Originally Posted by harveys

Slave clyinder leaking,crank seal leaking,oil on clutch plate.
Have you hade to topup any fluids ,engine oil or brake fluid.

Hmm, not that we've noticed. Hopefully the garage will be able to spot if this is the cause...

[detailer]

Welcome to the XC60 clutch slipping club!:

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=173621

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=161033

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=155870

and notchy gearchanges/not being able to get it in gear:

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=169027

I did well as mine has lasted 24,000 miles. It seems sub 20,000 miles is the norm

It seems the problem could be related to the Dual Mass Flywheel (DMF) on the advice of Ninja.

[MarkHanlon]

So the garage now have the car and told us that we'll need to pay "approximately £1200" for them to take out the clutch and see what the problem is. This, along with the other niggles and their responses ("The cruise control is meant to cut out when you get close to another car" - that's not my understanding of adaptive cruise control!) have lowered my confidence significantly.

The cruise control now cuts out, with an audible beep, if we accelerate in 6th gear from say 50mph to 60mph, or 60 to 70, using the buttons. You can see the revs rise too much as the clutch starts to slip and I guess the software detects this and so cancels out of cruise. We noticed this happening before we noticed the clutch slipping, so it's possible that the clutch has been slipping since before 18k miles.

My theory is that when using cruise control to accelerate to software will just "put its foot down" to get to the requested speed regardless of the current gear and revs, whereas a person might more slowly bring the speed up or change down if they want to get there quickly. Could that cause slipping?

In all other respects the clutch feels fine though. Gear changes are smooth, and we've not seen it slip in gears other than 6th.

So, do we pay the £1200?

[detailer]

Well we were very sceptical (especially after finding out that some army boy had owned ours for the previous 14,000 miles of its life).

Don't panic though. If you can drive properly (ie don't ride the clutch etc which I'm sure you don't) then you will be fine. I was told £600 would have to be paid by me just to split the box from the engine if the subsequent clutch wear was found to be through abusive of driving (ie burnt out friction plates). It's the standard line from the dealers/volvo uk.

You should not have to pay anything. I'm sure yours will be a part fault like ours (weak springs and peculiar wear on the edge of the friction plate instead of even wear across the whole friction surface). Incidentally we didn't have the cruise control cancelling out issue that you did but I'll bet that is just the ecu kicking the cruise off due to it detecting the clutch slip.

You should not pay anything up front to your dealer. Have you been in touch with volvo uk? You can go to any volvo dealer to sort this issue (doesn't have to be where you purchased the car).

PM with your number if you like then we can discuss.

[Ninja59]

Pretty much sums up what needs to happen above ^ you won't be "billed" anything unless it is through abuse, although you will have to agree to take any initial costs of splitting the gearbox apart without payment. I seriously doubt you will see that cost though.