Introduction
 

Hi all,

Just wanted to introduce myself as a new member and first time Volvo owner. On Sunday I purchased a lovely 1 owner 04 plate XC90 T6.

Mechanically the car currently seems perfect. It had the dreaded gearbox failure approximately 7 years ago and was replaced by Volvo.

My wife with be the main user of the car to ferry about our new baby. I'm reassured by the XC90's safety record but would like to know if there's anything in particular I should look for / do for both safety and preventative maintenance.

The car was serviced by a Volvo main dealer for the first 10 years of it's life and a specialist thereafter.

It has now cover 104k miles.

Many thanks in advance. Edward

[IMG]http://i68.tinypic.com/willdz.jpg[/IMG]

At the risk of being presumptuous, I think you will be getting several messages telling you to start saving for a new gearbox - the reputation of the T6 is not great in that respect.

However - if it was Volvo that did the gearbox then in all likelihood they will have replaced it with a new one, rather than reconditioned or repaired the existing.

There are well maintained, probably carefully driven T6's out there that have done well over 100k on their factory gearbox so if you keep up the maintenance and your Mrs isn't a traffic light tearaway you might just get years of good use out of it.

Given is a 04 plate car and a T6 I'm also assuming your mileage will be quite low - another good thing.

So back to the original question - the T6 does not have the AWD system vulnerability of the early D5 and 2.5T. From the start the XC90 was a well sorted car with few major weaknesses so it's about maintenance really. Other than that being 2.2T it's heavy on front brakes and suspension bushes.

Thank you very much for the prompt and detailed response

They are pretty good
 

They are pretty good to be honest, thats why I have kept mine.

Given the age I would just check that both the drains are clear in the scuttle and its not full of compost. You can do this from above with a torch and hose through the plastic grills below the windscreen, or you can take the plastic trim off to give it a good clean. (can advise if you need to know how).

The drains you see are about 4cm x 2cm ovals and sit up above the metal panel, these are for when it pours down heavily and the water is deep. What you may not see is the small 5mm hole close to the metal work where the rest of it should drain through but is easily blocked.

If you pour plenty of water down and it all drains away without leaving a pool in the scuttle area you should be ok.

Also just check under the drivers side carpet for water. (pull off the carpet trim on the centre. console and wiggle your hand under the carpet near the parking brake). The foam is 10cm deep under the carpet so make sure you get to the metal floor to feel.

And enjoy your new friend.

Sorry to be a numpty, but which part would you call the 'scuttle'?

Hi Edward and welcome mate, car look's great.

The scuttle is the area at the bottom of the windscreen, under the plastic grille. It contains the wiper mechanism and the air intake for the cabin. It collects all the water from the windscreen and so needs to be drained. If the drains are blocked, water can flood into the cabin and wet the carpets and cause corrosion in the CEM particularly.

Totally endorse checking for damp in front foot wells and checking condition of sunroof drains. My T6 had about 3 inches of water sitting under the driver's floor, where the radio amp sits plus loads of wiring and I think some of my electrical gremlins stem from.
Also it might be worth you getting the transmission fluid changed in the gearbox - even though mine had only done 80K it was very black/dirty, and the change made a big difference in the slickness of change thereafter, no more heavy clunks!

If it not too rude a question - how much did you pay for your T6?
Mine was about £2.5k less than any of the diesel versions I looked at, which also had considerably higher mileage and some dubious history. It also came with all the toys (exec model) working too.
It is a fabulous motor albeit a little thirsty in town (16mpg) and even though the predicted yearly mileage is higher than I anticipated (wife loves it and uses it most days) I believe that my overall costs will still be significantly less than running a diesel when taking purchase price into account.

I paid £3,500. The condition really is credit to the original owner and my wife in the few days we've owned it has absolutely loved driving it.

Must admit I wasn't aware of the gearbox issue before buying the car and the research I've done since makes for some scary reading!

I just hope that we don't have any issues for a few years...

Welcome, indeed it looks great.

As for the box, it's all a matter of luck. The replacement units are good anywhere from 30000 miles to 60000 miles, depends how was the car driven.

In theory, since the box was replaced when 7 years old - and since another 7 years have passed with the replacement box, you may easily understand why the car went on sale - the owner was fearing the same issue to happen again. I would surely do a longer trip to allow the box to warm up and carefully feel for any hesitation or slipping.