S40 (New) Brakes : My car sounds like a washing machine...

[4 forty]

before you make a decision on a supplier, why not coctact "rufe" at frf volvo, swansea, who will offer a realistic price for the genuine volvo part, cutting out the guesswork of inferior quality.

[mjcourtney]

I've PM'd Rufe, will see what price he comes back with. Cheers

[mjcourtney]

The car is back from the garage and the news is far from good.

Brownie points to Gapples for his 'final drive bearings' suggestion. Bang on the mark

They put the car on the rolling road this afternoon and there is no doubt that the noise is coming from the gearbox. Their diagnosis is either final drive bearings or differntial bearings are failing / have failed. Wheel bearings are apparently silent all round.

To say i'm gutted is a bit of an understatement, in Volvo's quality of engineering more than anything else. Considering this car is only just 5 years old, has only done 57k miles I feel it's time to compile a list of every component and part that has failed and been replaced....

EGR Valve
Engine
Air Conditioning Compressor
Power Steering System
Clutch & Slave Cylinder
Fuel Pump
Air Conditioning Drive Belt (snapped)
Auxilliary Belt (snapped)
Gearbox
Air Filter Housing (cracked)
Locking Wheel Nuts (coroded)

Had I paid for all of this then I think I'd be out of pocket by about £10k at the moment, luckily a lot of this was covered under warranty.

I'm not going to get into the whole Ford / Volvo argument, suffice to say that this is going to be my last Volvo. I was prepared to accept that the previous problems were a one off (and Volvo did pay for all the repairs), but to have the gearbox fail at 57k is completely unnaceptable. As it's 2 years out of warranty I can't see Volvo offering any goodwill either.

The garage are trying to find a 2nd hand 'box (for MY2005 1.8 Petrol engine), does anyone have any idea how much they cost new? (I'm thinking about £1k). They have said 4 to 5 hour fitting time and to allow £2 - £300 labour cost. So I reckon i'm looking at around £1,300 to £1,500 to get this sorted.

Thanks for all your suggesstions, just my luck that it wasn't stones or wheel bearings!

[gswede]

The good, the bad, the volvo.
Sorry to hear of your troubles.
Sounds like your car was put together by monkeys deprived of bananas, must be a one off.
I would sell it asap after repair.

[mjcourtney]

The box would appear to be around £1,600 from Volvo :|

[mjcourtney]

I have delivered the car to Kings Volvo in Southampton who had a test drive and a good look up on the ramp yesterday. They came to the same conclusion, primarily the diff bearings that are at fault. Their master tech was brilliant and seemed to be on my side of the argument that this box is sealed for life and shouldn't have failed.

The service manager has now referred the case to Volvo UK to ask for some goodwill contribution, as the total cost of the job from Volvo is £2,200.

The only problem i'm facing is that Volvo are quibbling over the fact that the last service (Nov 07) wasn't done at a Volvo main dealer and they want proof that all the parts used were genuine Volvo. I have the stamp and service book entry from the garage that did it, but I supplied the parts myself and having moved house 3 times since November last year it's no surprise that i've lost the parts receipt!

I did offer that they could stick their head under the bonnet and check all the parts, because they are all Volvo but the service manager didn't seem too interested in that idea.

Fingers crossed that they come back with some goodwill contribution otherwise i'm screwed and this will be the last Volvo I ever own.

[mjcourtney]

(correction the last service was november 08!)

[mjcourtney]

Volvo came back with an offer.... 20% of the total bill.

That's quite frankly cr*p. They kept agreeing with me that the 'box shouldn't have failed, and that they have a much longer life and they're sealed for life... etc etc. But said that their standard good-will procedure is to offer nothing if the car is over 4 years, despite the fact that I can find at least 4 examples on these forums where that isn't true.

When I tried to argue they threatened to take away the offer, and to be honest I really just need the car fixed as soon as possible so I had little choice but to accept or go down the legal route and give up any hope of getting the car fixed in the next few months.

Total cost of the repair is as follows:

New Gearbox
New Reverse Sensor Switch
New Clutchline
2 Litres of G/Box Oil
5.4 hours labour

£2,400.

Less 10% Dealer discount = £2,160
Less 20% VUK Contribution = £1,728

As I've said earlier, bitterly dissapointed in Volvo. I will be writing a letter to VUK and Volvo Sweden but I don't expect to hear anything back. This is my last Volvo, which is such a shame because the car is brilliant in every way except the reliability. Ironically my job is a Electro / Mechanical reliability engineer, so I'd love to rip one of their cars apart to sort out these issues!!

Please sort out your quality control and your customer service, Volvo

[sleekitwan]

I appreciate this is an oldish thread, but if I am looking so might others.

'Washing machine sound' is an absolutely CLASSIC symptom on of all things, a motorcycle.

It denotes - without fail in my 40 year experience - a WORN CHAIN AND SPROCKETS!

Okay, I know our Volvos (is that VolvoES? or Volvae?!) do not have chains and sprockets, but my feeling is something along the same lines eg auxiliary belts.

Now, I could not fail to notice, having read the entire thread, that this aspect was not specifically mentioned, and that other avenues were explored involving loads of money - not knocking expertise of others.

Just pointing out, the chances of ALL that WORK getting done, and NOT also replacing the auxiliary drive belt and tensioner, are pretty slim. So, I reckon my solution might have some merit - all the BEARINGS talk is odd to me - they go round and round, and do not have the characteristic of uneven wear in the same way a belt or chain does along its length?

Last aspect of this symptom - on the motorcycle, it's varying with ROAD SPEED of course being the method of final drive. On a car, if it is the auxiliary belt and idlers/pulleys/tensioner (pulley) then of course the washing machine sound ought to vary WITH ENGINE SPEED ie you can make it go up and down in Park or neutral, even when the vehicle does not move.

My tuppence worth is all - it is just as I say, absolutely standard for young bikers to look very puzzled down the local meet, and some silverback to soothe them with the virtually certain consumables solution. They cannot figure where the washing machine is - I know, I used to be that kid, and you really do look around for a flaming washing machine as you bob along at 50 on the dual carriageway!