Volvo Owners Club Forum - D5 (2005 on)

Took delivery of a new XC90 D5 PowerPulse on 28 June 2019.

3 Weeks later, parked in a public car park, there was a massive explosion – reminiscent of an olden days building site bonfire to which an aerosol had been inadvertently added. It sounded like it came from my car, but the car started and drove fine, and there were no warning lights. However, over the next couple of weeks we became aware it was missing the low down grunt, and ‘kick’, we had so enjoyed when overtaking, particularly on the Essex (UK) country lanes. Took it to the local A&E where they diagnosed and replaced a burst hose connecting the PowerPulse compressed air tank to the exhaust manifold.

(For the few of you not familiar with PowerPulse Technology, it is very clever and the essence of simplicity – when it works. It overcomes low rev turbo lag by injecting a pulse of high pressure compressed ait into the exhaust manifold to spin up the low range turbo in a fraction of a second.)

Now this is the second most alarming thing (the most alarming is a bit later) – our local dealer was rather blasé about the whole thing when I quizzed them how and why; “We frequently replace these pipes. Generally the drivers don’t even notice the reduced performance, and we replace them routinely when the cars come in for servicing.”

As a bone-headed and stubborn medical device design engineer, with an overdose of OCD, perhaps I am slightly more mechanically aware than your average XC90 driver which might be an Accountant, or a Head Mistresses, or even a Local Authority Social Services Lead Practitioner?

Moving swiftly on, and now for the most alarming part, last week my dear wife was enjoying a day at home when there was a deafening detonation from the drive way outside… Yesterday our local dealer diagnosed a burst PowerPulse hose.

So I wonder how many proud D5 PowerPulse owners out there are not actually enjoying the PowerPulse performance they were promised, and paid for, but are rather being dragged along behind a popped powerpulse pipe patiently waiting for the next service…?

If you have the sort of luck I have, your last service was yesterday.