V6 D4 steering failure
 

Hi

My wife was driving our 64-reg V6 D4 on Tuesday when the steering wheel started shaking violently from side to side, requiring her to use considerable force to retain control as she brought the car to a safe halt. The RAC towed the car to our local garage, who found that power assistance has been lost and that the steering can be made to oscillate continuously when the wheel is placed in certain positions with the engine running, even when the vehicle is stationary.

You can view a video of this happening here: https://youtu.be/McQrpsGKP0w

Putting aside that fact that it is going to cost us £1,200 to have the steering rack replaced, I am worried about the safety implications of this failure and am extremely glad that my wife wasn't travelling at speed when it happened. I felt it was important that Volvo was made aware of the incident, but when I phoned UK Customer Relations today, they couldn't have cared less. They said they would only be prepared to look at the issue if I had the car towed at my expense to my local Volvo service agent (30 miles away). If I was in their shoes, I would be a little more concerned about what had gone wrong with one of their cars.

I would be really interested to know if anyone else has come across a similar problem, or could advise me how pushy I should be with Volvo to take an interest in the safety implications of the fault.

That's the sort of damaging 'viral footage' which will make Volvo respond pretty quickly! Send them a copy with the description you have posted above and let the forum know how they respond. Volvo forum awaits!

Scary stuff.
Bit of a gamble but if you take it to the Volvo dealership for inspection you might get a sizeable contribution towards the cost of the replacement steering rack.

It would be a bit of a gamble. About £150-200 to have the car towed there, plus £130 per hour labour rate from the Volvo dealer, as opposed to £45 at our local garage (who I happen to trust more than the dealer). I sent Volvo the video yesterday and am waiting for a response. I'll post again when/if I hear back from them. I was thinking about writing to the Honest John page of the Daily Telegraph too.

Hi
Depending on the response from Volvo,
You can report here:-

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-recalls-a...-safety-defect

Iain

Your first port of call MUST be the volvo dealer , they are the official agent for Volvo UK , , it is then their responsibility to investigate this and report this to volvo and get a fix for you …

The nearest Volvo dealer and Volvo themselves are the first people I contacted once my local garage had inspected the vehicle. However, neither have expressed any great concern about the issue, other than to suggest that I get the car transported to the dealer at my cost. I appreciate that they need to see the car before making any comment, but I would have expected them to be more proactive in working with me to make the necessary arrangements. They didn't seem to be particularly bothered whether they saw the car or not.

My dilemma is: should I just get the local garage to replace the steering rack, pay their £1,200 bill and forget the whole thing, or should I pay £150-200 to have the car towed to Volvo and pay for them to fix the car at almost three time the labour rate with no guarantee that I'll get any of the cost back by way of a "gesture of goodwill"? This will be the second big bill I've had for fixing problems with this car in the last few months - the last one was to resolve issues that shouldn't have occurred if the Volvo dealership had serviced the car properly when it was in their care.

My overriding concern is one of the safety implications of this mode of failure. My wife was fortunate not to have been travelling at speed, but others might not be so lucky if it turns out that this same fault could occur on other vehicles.

If your car has been serviced in the last 12 months/18,000 miles by Volvo don't you automatically get their recovery service ? Ring them and tell them it's broken down.

It's been over a year since the dealer serviced the car. Once it was out of warranty, it didn't make sense to make a 60 mile round trip to have it serviced by the Volvo dealer at much higher cost than a local garage. I tried asking both the dealer and Volvo Assist to transport the vehicle, but they said they wouldn't be able to do so.

If I were in your shoes I would rather invest in a Volvo main dealer as Clan has suggested for diagnosis and fix.
Have you visited the dealership with the footage? The master tech should be able to give you a good guide what the cause is and advise whether they would submit the repair to Volvo.
If no joy then you will have more ammunition to go 'Viral'.