Is £350 really a "small fortune"? They didn't fail regularly either, but only lasted about 70,000 miles for some owners who felt was not long enough, so Volvo produced an uprated sleeve kit for early cars after it became obvious there was an issue for a significant proportion of cars. For some early cars the sleeve has never been an issue and are still using the original sleeves.

The whole chassis was redesigned in 2007 to take a completely new transmission system.

Many early XC90,s are approaching 300,000 miles using the original transmission, so as an early XC90 2003 owner I'm personally very happy with the design engineers at Volvo. In some ways I prefer the original design to my 2015 D5 XC60.

Recalls are generally for safety related issues and an EGR isn't safety related.

You also need to be aware that the frequency of failures described here cannot be extrapolated to the entire production of these engines. I don't deny that there appears to be an issue, but is it every engine in every car? Given the lack of press outside dedicated Volvo forums I ain't certain the issue is as widespread as would appear from what is posted here.

[QUOTE=RoyMacDonald;1991722]Is £350 really a "small fortune"? They didn't fail regularly either, but only lasted about 70,000 miles for some owners who felt was not long enough.

I think you'll recall Roy that £350 was only for the replacement sleeve, usually carried out as precautionary measure to avoid the shrapnel ruining the transfer box at £1800+

My XC was 120000 miles on original sleeve, but yes had mine disintegrated at 70k I would have expected better from Volvo.

[QUOTE=REDSHEEPRIDD;1991753]It's pretty rare for the angle gear to be damaged though. Main dealers had a standard procedure of replacing the whole lot but the majority of those replacements didn't need it. Then it became normal to just to replace the sleeve when owners wised up. I don't know if it was because Volvo were paying for a lot of the work under warranty for a time.

I had mine upgraded before it failed at 60,000 miles. To be fair who would have expected a component in that situation to suffer from condensation rusting?

Update.
 

The earliest that I can get my car to the dealers is the 21st October.
They want to give me a courtesy car for up to 6 days and they do not have one available for this duration, until then.
They say that they have all the latest Tech Sheets, but until they can check the fault codes, they do not know which route they will have to follow.
Off to Germany on 1st November and hopefully, they will find something more than a bit of soot on one of the sensors.

tem.

Why not get yourself an ELM 327 and install the free Torque app in your phone - I think you have an android phone - and read the code yourself? That will give you some comfort and confidence.

Cheapest in uk is only £2.87 and they work a treat

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_fr...rt=nc&LH_BIN=1

If you have an iPhone then it isn't quite as easy, you will need to buy a wifi version and buy an app for the phone.

Saved me a fortune on the mx5 as I was able to diagnose the faults and fix only the bit that were broke - the Cat :( garage wanted to change an awful lot more for an awful lot more money

I have thought for some time about getting a fault code reader, but, while the car is still under warranty, I am a bit cautious.
There is one post where the owner ran into a problem using one of these readers and the only way he could restart the car, was to disconnect the battery and then reconnect.
Just unfortunate that I am so far from the dealership.
It is even worse for Volvo owners that live on the Western Isles.
Since getting these recurring Engine Check warnings, my son has said, enough is enough and that I should change over to Ford or Nissan. We have dealers locally.
I am still loyal to Volvo, but with just over 18 months of warranty left, if Volvo cannot resolve the problem, then I may give serious thought to changing.

So far, the Engine Check warnings have not caused any real problems, other than numerous visits to the dealers, but could a standing warning, mask out something more serious?
The last time I got the warning light, was driving through Germany, on route to Italy.
The local Volvo dealer who checked out the warning, found it was a sensor that was replaced on the 14th September 2014, they did not have a replacement and advised me not to continue with my journey, because they had several D4's going into Limp Mode.
Having Volvo Assistance I decide to continue and fortunately I made it to Italy and back to Scotland.

tem.

I admire your loyalty, even if I don't fully understand it.

I have my favourite car brands but I like a change now and then, hence me ordering a Volvo.

If I had of ordered a D4 rather than a D5. I would have cancelled my order based on what I've read in this thread.

I can understand the way your son is thinking.

@Tem, reading the codes cannot do any damage to your car, it is only if you start trying to be clever and wiping codes as this could be hiding trouble - and I suggest that the story of someone killing their car because they wiped the codes is either significantly exaggerated or they have missed something vital out of the story.

I have used one on the iPhone on Many cars without any issue, and reading the codes has saved me a lot of money - and enabled me to tell a mechanic (loose term) that he was talking rubbish ;)

Scroll down to "owyn".

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/archiv.../t-171297.html

Have admit not much detail given in the post.

tem.