I am thinking of buying a 2004 XC90 (T6), it has about 37,000 miles. Are there any known mechanical issues to look for on this model? Does anyone have any advice about reliability, common problems, etc? Any info appreciated. Thanks.

Yea, I'm too looking at the CX90, no one can help here?

keep in mind that when you have the tires rotated, watch the guys with the airguns, the xc90's have a tendancy to break the wheel locks. the airguns screw up the housing because it is hollower than the regular bolts. if the vehicle was maintained by the dealership, then any and all recalls will have been taken care of. make sure that the previous owner kept up his scheduling of upkeep. this is common sense, especially with a new car. if it was taken care of it will show, if it was driven hard and put away wet, it will be crappy.

noisy rear wheel bearings the most common problem.

Hello my name is Alex. I am from Canada.
Last year I took over lease of XC90. Previous owner had to have this car to pass canadian safety standard. After only 50,000 km he had to change front& rear rotors and brake pads, new tires. Here I am 1 year later and 30,000 km more,
I have to change rear wheel bearings, rear rotors and brake pads, control arms bushings, and engine upper mount. I have to pay $2000 to put this nice looking piece of junk back on the road.
Just to compare, we own 2004 Toyota Camry with 84,000 km, we have not change anything yet, except regular wear and tear items (oil, oil and air filters, tires)

I will never again come close to any VOLVO.

Hello my name is Alex. I am from Canada.
Last year I took over lease of XC90. Previous owner had to have this car to pass canadian safety standard. After only 50,000 km he had to change front& rear rotors and brake pads, new tires. Here I am 1 year later and 30,000 km more,
I have to change rear wheel bearings, rear rotors and brake pads, control arms bushings, and engine upper mount. I have to pay $2000 to put this nice looking piece of junk back on the road.
Just to compare, we own 2004 Toyota Camry with 84,000 km, we have not change anything yet, except regular wear and tear items (oil, oil and air filters, tires)

I will never again come close to any VOLVO.

I just bought an XC90 T6 2.9L yesterday. I love the drive of it. However, mine leaks oil in the front right. Appears to be a lot of oil on the bottom of the vehicle after driving 250 miles.

However, it likely isn't that much. Doesn't seem to leak much after cleaning it up and driving a short trip. Therefore, it may leak under pressure (I drove 250 miles or so initially). It is hard to say exactly where the oil is coming from. I know there are a lot of possible explanations for this so I am still investigating.

[SIZE=1][FONT=Courier] Please reconsider about buying 2004 volvo. I bought my xc90 sept 06, with 42000 miles. I have already had to replace transmission, rear stay arms 400 bucks, front L axil shaft, new front wheel bearings, had internal failure to steering rack on left side-replaced power steering rackand knuckle aligned, needed radio software upgrades, faulty L headlight connection, four new tires, new rotors and pads, a recall (#168) which included a new pcv system, chain gear was leaking and "resealed"by dealer, front sway bar liks replaced, Wow more than I remembered, just went through paperwork, ps I did purchase an extended warrenty and was def worth it for this car...pss my check engine light went on again today and a quiet intermittent noise from front dash along w some other noises going. BEWARE

Highly likely to be the breather box.




They chew tyres and brakes because it's a euro, heavy, predominantly FWD car, deal with it.

I've spent some time on another Volvo forum. The main things I've heard about are unusually fast tire and brake wear, and perhaps other relatively minor suspension issues.

I operate a site that provides vehicle reliability info. One thing I just added is a Common Auto Repairs Database (CARDb). It's very new, so probably no entries for the XC90 yet. People who add a common repair can include a link to a relevant thread in this forum.

Common Auto Repairs Database (CARDb)

I'm shopping to an XC90 too and from what I've seen, stay away from the T6 mostly because of the crap GM designed 4sp trans. Brakes ? I have to do the brakes on most of our cars and the wifes V70 and the kids 850 every 2 yrs anyway with the miles we do and the amount of salt on the roads here, so that part doesn't bother me and when I do them myself I know they won't squeek. The Brembo's on the Volvo are actually made of good metal and work better than anything I've had previously. And are ok to work on compared to some. (mexican VW's or Japanese come to mind) Rear wheel bearings are an odd sounding problem. Most last the life of the vehicle. We've had a couple steering links replaced in our V70 in its 250K km lifetime, but they were relatively cheap to fix and I'm sure its the wife trying to drive the tank like she did her Prelude.

This site has very little useful information...

The 4-speed tranny they coupled to the T6 is not super reliable, I would have a transmission shop (perferably one that specializes in Swedish cars) have a look before purchase.

This is the main issue I'm aware of. Along with the bearings and suspension bits.

My impression is that Volvo didn't have much experience developing such a heavy vehicle, so the suspension isn't quite up to the task.

I'm also surveying the Mercedes GL and Acura MDX. It'll be interesting to see how they compare to the Volvo in my results.

My "new" 2004 XC90 followed about 12 Nissans including four Pathfinders. The Volvo drives better, smoother and quieter that the Pathfinders. BUT like the previous Camery, the Nissans typically go for 100k miles before having to do anything whereas the dealer (at their expense) just replaced the front rotors at 52,000 mi and pads on all four at about 26,000 mi. on the XC90.
I replaced the Michlelins with a set of Kumho tires with double the treadwear rating.
Half the price and they're good so far.