Hello,

Wondering in any owners of 2003 2.5 Volvo XC90 AWD have ever had problem with front wheel spinning and not actually experiencing any transfer of drive to rear wheels.

I understand my vehicle to be predominantly FWD and if traction is lost it very quickly transfers the drive to rear diff as required. I found this to be the case on a gravel drive shortly after i purchased. However recently the same test on the same drive saw me sitting spinning and going nowhere!

I rang a volvo service manager in Brisbane he says external speed sensor which sends message to DEM Diff electronic module may have failed, and when these fail the DEM does not necessarily detect any problem which is picked up by diagnostic tests, and therefore does not send message to DEM and DEM does not activate rear drive. The DEM could also be stuffed,

Any ideas from anyone as to what problem might be??

My wife has a 2004 XC90 2.5T AWD and we are having the same issue... Almost got stuck in our own driveway this past Saturday when vehicle wouldn't climb the hill due to snow... Front wheels spun, rear wheels did nothing.

Also notice our front tires spin frequently in the dry when pulling out from a stop sign... And this is with Nokian NRW tires which are supposedly quite good.

Will share with you any info I get as I work to solve the problem.

First call to local dealer today showed no experience with this problem - will call others in Boston area to see if I find anyone who has experience with this problem.

Good luck!

Good luck in Boston, I will also let you know as soon as i get info from the dealer in Hobart Tasmania.

Certainly all the web based data on XC90 refers to a 7th of a front wheel turn/slippage before the rear wheels are activated. I am suspicious of the external speed sensor on the diff, not sending info to the DEM.

However i hope it is not an internal diff prob, as could be expensive, though i doubt it as have never heard any whining or grinding coming from diff and drives perfectly well in 2wd except in wet or slippery conditions!

Same here... No ugly noises from drivetrain - just the occasional whine from power steering which I hope to fix that with new serpentine belt!

Where is the speed sensor located that you are referring to? On the little module forward of the rear differential? I was assuming this was some type of electric lockup clutch that would send drive to the rear diff if spinning was noted.

I certainly am not seeing rear wheel drive engaging within one seventh of rotation of a slipping front wheel....

Call to first Volvo dealer gave me no confidence - was not able to get to service tech at dealer # 2 yet...

I don't have a manual (yet) but I wonder if a less expensive approach would be to just replace the speed sensor to see if it fixes the problem.

A few months ago I replaced the output speed sensor on the transmission for my Jeep and it only cost me $30 - but my OBD-II sensor was able to diagnose the fault... I'll have to check to see if I have any codes on the XC90, but no "messages" on the dash screen.

No OBD-II Codes...

I have been working away from home and the Volvo has finally had a week off road at the repair shop in Hobart Tassie. Good news, it was not a speed sensor as first thought, it was in fact a broken spline between the 2wd drive shaft and the rear wheel drive shaft.

New spline wha la!! we now have our AWD function back the repair bill was $1500 AUS however i had gently probed the dealership to communicate with Volvo Australia.

The 3 year warranty had expired months earlier, however we had a vehicle with only 85 000km. Volvo rang me personally and offered to pay the entire bill.

We are very pleased with Volvo Australia, top effort to those guys and girls in Sydney, Thank you.

Dave Odgers
Tasmania

In the past months I have noticed this happening on my 2007 V8 AWD. I try to start off from a light, or up an incline and the front wheels spin like any regular FWD car! If it's at all damp out - i have to press/release/press/release the accelerator just to move forward. Several times now I've been in situations where I'm trying to leave a parking lot and been stuck with wheels spinning, trying to get out of the path of oncoming traffic. I guess I'll be bringing the car in for this now. I wonder if the cause of this slip has anything to do with the acceleration shimmy I've posted about in the past? Guess I'll have to see what happens.

Sounds similar to what I experienced on my 2005 V8, although I did get a message on the OBC stating "Anti-skid service required". Like you I had spinning front wheels on anything more than moderate acceleration from stand still. A test on a gravel road indicated that no torque was being transferred to the rear wheels.
When I took it in for repairs, no fault codes where stored in OBD. This was initially thought to be a software or sensor problem, but software upgrades and sensor checks yielded no results. Then the clutch in the Haldex transfer case was changed withouth success. Finally the fault was traced to the rear diff which was then replaced with a new one, and everything has been working fine since.
As you can imagine, this was a hugely expensive repair, but luckily I had just bought an extended warranty that covered it.

My problem ended up being blown bevel gear. Was able to convince dealer to pick up the cost of the parts (2400) and I paid labor (300). AWD works great now!

This weekends task is to replace the rear wheel bearings....

Spline joint between gearbox and bevel gear most likely cause of loss of four wheel drive on these cars, if there is no codes then this is most likely the problem, not that common but it happens.

I have had a similar problem....stuck in my own driveway up here in Canada. only the front tires were spinning. I took it to Volvo and they "reloaded" and "updated" the software that engages the rear wheels. it worked and I got back to lovin the TRUCK again.

All - I felt I should update this, as I lost track of things (babies can do that to you)... :) As it turned out, I NEVER had all-wheel drive in the vehicle, as the sensor that engages the AWD was non-functional from date of delivery (December 30, 2006)! Rite - no codes are generated when the sensor there goes bad. They replaced the part a few months back, and suddenly I could feel the traction - shimmy went away too (guess I was right - the V8 was breaking the front wheels free under acceleration) Fast forward to last month - hit a patch of wet leaves on my street and "Anti-skid service required" popped up on the dash, and stayed there for the trip. After parking, the message went away and AWD seemed to function. Mentioned this when the car went in for other issues and service 2 weeks ago - and they replaced the sensor a second time (in over 1 year, with about 11,000 miles on the car). At least it's fixed - but I HATE leaving my car in the hands of others. Thanks for the replies/feedback! :57:

Had the same problem with my '06. Replaced spline (something in the rear axle) for $800. Fixed the problem.

Hi Guys,

Just got a new XC90 3.2AWD few weeks back.

After reading this thread, I realised that there is no easy way to check if the AWD feature work.
Does normal servicing by Volvo able to pick up this problem?

Had a drive on a slightly muddy dirt track last week. A couple of times, the "TRACTION ..." alarm flashes few times.
Nothing else other than that. And my vehicle was swerving left and right a bit on that slightly muddy track although I was going at 60km/h. I must admit I did not deflate the tyre slightly as that muddy portion was only less than 10% of the total dirt track in the Aus dirt route (30km)

How do I know my AWD work?

Hi! I have also problem with xc90 awd, Front wheels are spinnig and rear not.. probably problem is that 'spline' - wondering what that spline actually is? Is it something electronic box or what? How much it about costs?

The spline is something mechanical. Cost about $US800. I have since spent about $us2200 to replace a steering wheel sensor and brake control module because my brake assist, abs and anti-skid were reporting errors and disabled at times. Still getting error messages of antiskid needs service or temporarily disabled. Coming up on 140,000 miles.

You are getting the anti-skid message most likely because your rear axle (Haldex) is not engaged and is needed for the DSTC/Anti-Skid to function. The common failure was the pressure/temp sensor in the DEM which can be replaced separately. There is a TNN out on this problem so it appears your dealer, if that's whose being doing the component replacement, is incompetent as the system will always post a DTC for a SAS (steering angle sensor) and BCM (brake control module) when there is a failure in the AWD system as the BCM will ignore certain inputs and functions as they will not work anyway. If the coupler splines between the transmission and the angle gear are destroyed then the rear drive shaft will not turn when the vehicle is in gear .... which can be verified on a hoist. If you have a problem with the DEM pressure/temp sensor then sometimes when the dealer clears the DTC out with Vida the system may work for a while and post the failure at a later date usually when you really need the power transfer to the rear axle as the system is normally 80% to the front and 20% to the rear with the ability to go to almost 50/50 power transfer.

One other thing that can affect the system is if your alignment is drastically out of spec as the vehicle will think it is veering to one side and if the system can not correct the situation then it will shut down the function and post the message in the DIM. Often the rear stay bars on the rear lower control arm can get bent from backing into a low object. Most often in this situation you can feel the vehicle wanting to shot off to either the left or right on hard acceleration from stand still starts as the thrust centre line is way off spec.

thanks for the information. The anti-skid malfunction/temporarily off message appears intermittently, but often. The rear axle is definitely engaging (we had plenty of snow last week and I know what it feels like when it is not engaged, as I had to deal with when the spline needed to be replaced).

Not sure if it is worth the trouble to pursue additional fixes for the anti-skid at this time. It seems to work (hard to test for but I did feel it engage after my rear came around about 30 degrees during the recent snow storm). However, what you describe seems accurate because the anti-skid message seems to appear most often after low speed, low traction maneuvers, such as in a wet parking lot.

Thanks for your help, let me know when you open shop near Annapolis, MD.

Marc1206 ... Thanks for the hint. It sounds like you have the known issue with the Yaw sensor mounting bracket causing the yaw sensor to exceed it's permitted reading (side-to-side motion) as you mention it happens with slow parking lot manoeuvres. The system requires a correct, in range reading, from this sensor to sense if the vehicle is whipping side to side as in an out of control skid to allow the anti-skid function to know which brakes to apply to correct the skid and bring the yaw straight (like the nose of an airplane). The system is quite sensitive and if you do an extreme slow speed turn it will fool the system (due to the violent and sudden turn) and trigger the fault as the vehicles yaw is too extreme to correct (yes this system is not 100% foolproof). The new bracket/damper cures this over sensitivity. Believe or not you can also trip this fault by slamming the front passenger door too hard while the vehicle is idling as the sensor is located under the front passenger seat, console side, next to the audio power amplifier. I've attached the TNN (59-14) to this post so you can shove it in your dealers face if your XC-90's last 6 digits of the serial number fall between 000690-298438. Newer vehicles have had a strategy change in the software as they now realize that people do slam their doors and do perform crazy things (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) in parking lots. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

Thank you. I have an appt next week at the dealer. We'll see if they accept your advice.