Want One... Tell me the common faults!

[apggs]

Morning,

I'm considering parting with my hard-earned readies for an pre-loved XC90.

Not sure on age yet, but no newer than a 2007, anyway.

Currently drive an '05 Nissan Pathfinder dCi, which has served my wife, two young children and I very well up until December last year when the engine let go in a dramatic fashion at 130,000 miles. The difficult decision was made and a 'new' engine was installed. And as I wrote this, it's off the road AGAIN with a fuel supply/control issue. Plus the rear wheel hub that I had to change a fortnight ago... There comes a time when enough is enough!

So, to replace said PF, leaves either the Volvo or a Discovery 3. I am a big Land Rover fan, but I've had enough of vehicular downtime and expensive parts, to be risking running a D3. I like the Volvo and now so does my wife (it took some pursueding to drive a Volvo!) but the list of common faults on the PF is as long as your arm.

So, firstly, thanks for reading my ramblings and secondly, what are the common faults with XC90 and what should I be looking for when eyeing a used potential suspect?

Be as colourful as you want, I've seen most things with the PF!

Thanks in advance!

Adam

[n1ckxc90]

Depends how much offroading you do. The D3 is far more capable off road, I have an XC and have some faults, none too expensive and it drives like my D3 too. All seats are roughly the safe, volvo leather feels better than Disco though. Mine is 07, I tow a caravan and would say the Disco has the edge but not by much, my wife prefers our XC to the D3 as she says it's more "carlike" and so it suits her better. Faults I'd look for are;

Swirl actuator valve - mine was gone when I bought it
Transmission - older ones seem to have some issues, my 07 is fine
AWD - again mine seems good but many have seen spline issues

Overall I am happy with mine, but I do have some niggles such as no real ipod link - AUX only, mine is an SE Lux and has the integrated phone kit which requires a SIM card, would have preferred a bluetooth but bought a £8/month SIM only contract so not the end of the earth...

I too looked at a pathfinder, they were nice but they dont feel as well built as the volvo tbh..I think if you go D3 or XC you'll not be diappointed...

[apggs]

Thanks for your reply.

Offloading is only ever gentle; nothing more than a Greenlane - after all, it's our car and you can guarantee that you'll break something no matter how gentle you are. But the AWD is also useful for the snow and the odd bit of mud it'll find itself in. I guess it's the comfort that can, should you want to.

It will find itself towing a horsebox occasionally, too.

What about things like hubs, wheel bearings and the like? Any issues there? And lastly, how many miles do you get from your front brake pads? The PF is managing 13k between changes.

Thanks again.

[ally]

PM sent, ours is a bargain and a cracking car for the right buyer

[Funky Diver]

In a similar boat to yourself up until recently....

We bought an Exec that was tatty round the edges, simple stuff like broken trim and the like. But, £100 later on missing / broken parts and a good clean its getting there

The early transmission issues were on the GM box if memory serves, which were quickly replaced.

[GJB]

Go for a 185 and 6 speed auto box if you can as they seem to suffer less problems and personally having gone from my 04 to a later model many small improvements and splines and gearbox no longer any worry.

[Neil Yates]

I run a 54 D5 163bhp 84k miles which has suffered the following;

spline and angle transfer box failure (early spline tube mat'l spec poor)
rear hub bearing (early seals poor)
steering rack end joint (also on wife's V70)
front wishbone rubbers <80k
both track rod ends <80k
anti-rollbar drop links for breakfast lunch and tea (v70 too)
radio failure, takes out rear parking sensors too (£1000 dealer only repair/re-program, and as it uses MOST fibre optic networking no easy aftermarket replacement option, if you disconnect the circuit you can set a fault condition on the airbags). This is now showing repeat failure symptoms less than 12 months after dealer repair.
ruptured intercooler

We have friends with a similar age xc90 that has recently suffered a hub bearing failure compounded by the drive shaft seizing in the hub (not uncommon). This has resulted on £££££s of suspension parts being replaced as they couldn't be extricated from the seized bits (this was a fail by independent volvo specialist and main dealer)

There is also an annoying lag in the throttle response when pulling away from standstill, learn to drive around it and look a long way down the road before pulling out.

The foot operated parking brake is utterly ridiculous with a crappy cable adjuster in the centre console. Can be very hard to get the thing through the mot as the mechanical efficiency of the whole shebang is atrocious. New front cable and shoes can be de rigeur replacements pre-mot.

Later eco4 engines have exhaust particulate filter problems (require 30min high temp motorway running per month to regenerate the filter or limp home mode results)

Have a look around the forum, you will find that none of these issues is particularly rare. We have had 2 v70s and this xc90. The xc90 is considerably heavier than the v70 and has to deal with much heavier wheels yet seems to have used many of the same components without upgrading sufficiently. It seems to have a wildly over-complex set of networking protocols, everything down to the window buttons is networked and chipped.
I am fortunate to own a BSR code reader and can read/clear fault codes. The xc90 routinely throws codes for ECM communications, door control units, central communications module amongst others, too many to remember (but not always with symptoms). No where near as many codes from either of the v70s.

I am an engineer and can carry out most of the work on the car myself with the help of a copy of VADIS, otherwise it would have gone long ago.
The car is over-complicated, over-stressed, over-priced and built down to a cost (many of the common faults are down to under specified Ford value engineering.
It is also fabulously practical, the most comfortable long distance runner I've ever driven/owned and from the evidence I've seen probably the safest car I'm likely to put my family in. The assisted emergency braking stops a big car brilliantly, and on the rare occasion the stability control has made it's presence known (mostly provoked in snow) it shows an uncanny ability to instantly straighten up the car.
We do live rurally and every local road has over the past few years turned into a pot holed nightmare, which has no doubt contributed to the wear seen in the suspension, but this has not been anything like as bad in the lighter v70s.
This is all sounding very negative and to be fair I'm on a bit of a downer with the costs at the moment, but there are still very few options I'd be as happy taxiing my children about in.
Hope you find a good 'un.

[ianu]

Hello Apggs,
I run the same car as Neil above except mine has another 100K on the clock. It's a manual 6 speed and I can honestly say that I've not had any of the electronic issues that seem to have plagued others on here (there I've said it now !!). Yes everything is networked so I can see from others experience that this can be a real pita when it starts to throw up problems.
Mechanically - for me usual suspects:
AWD splines, rear wheel bearing (only one to date), clutch slave cylinder (did the clutch while we were there), one set of wishbones, and a couple of pairs of drop links, track rod ends, discs and other consumables. Alternator was a bit eye watering - but considering it had been swimming the year before I suppose only to be expected.
Just about to replace the intercooler radiator which has finally succumbed to corrosion.
Versus the D3 - I love them too and you'll never compete with the off road ability I'm certain - but if you look at some of mine and a few others exploits on this forum (owenfackerell, RonXc90 +) - the Xc is capable of a lot more than the average motorist would even put their D3 through tbh.
I've said it before on here - I've had mine from new so I know where it's been (intimately) - it's been the best car I've ever had (yes I'd love a £90k Range Rover (or even a £5k supercharged)- or a even a spanking D3/4), but this was the best I could stretch and I've absolutley no regrets. It's been awesome fully loaded with passengers and lugggage down to the South of France and Austria. The winter of 2010/11, settee's, beds, 3 metre planks from Homebase etc. etc.
Depending on your budget - and history of the vehicle you choose - allow for some 'suprises' - mileage isn't always an indicator of probelms unfortunately, you might be suprised though and not need to worry about it.

Tough choice - good luck.

Cheers
Ian.

[ally]

You won't get the problems of lag / hesitancy pulling away with a manual

[GJB]

Originally Posted by ally

You won't get the problems of lag / hesitancy pulling away with a manual

Nor with the later geartronic 6 gear box