Inside Diff pic's

[SwedeXC90]

Had to replace the diff on my 2004 XC90 T6 a few months ago as it was making a (very load) racket so pulled the old one down to see what was inside. Interesting diff and the AOC Haldex set up is very cool. Noise was due to worn tapered roller bearings - side bearings were bad but suspect the pinion bearings were the main culprit but was too hard to press out so couldn't see the bearing surfaces to confirm.

Note re oil changes for the diff. It is a long discussed point about Volvo not putting either the diff or the AOC oil in their service regime but I am fairly confident this whole thing would have been avoided if it had an oil change at say 100,00 Km's. There car had done 280,00 km's before the diff needed replacing and so a good effort but no oil is going to last that long. I did the diff oil when I got the car at 230,00km's but I am guessing the damage had been done by then. I did the chain gear and the angle gear at the same time.

So, get changing the oil's!