[F. Drake Johnstone]

My 2001 XC70 with 58000 miles, recently serviced by Volvo Charlottesville (VA) at both 44000 and 50000 miles DIED.

Low pressure oil light came on, seemed like car was still functioning but with some strange engine noise. Volvo Bangor (ME) advised having AAA tow the car to the dealership. Darlings Volvo indicated that the turbo seal was leaking, so they fixed that and had a mechanic test drive the car and the engine failed completely.

Now Darling is recommending that the entire engine be replaced due to sludge build up. At 44000 there was some indication of buildup and Volvo service supposedly cleaned it. No indication of any problem at 50,000 miles.

The estimate for replacing engine is $7500, about half the Kelley Blue Book trade-in value. Meanwhile I'm stuck in Maine (fortunately it's nice weather) trying to get back to Virginia.

Is this an isolated case? Or, is the Volvo reign for longevity over? Stay tuned to see whether Volvo stands behind its product.

 

[arejohn]

Toyota/Lexus V6 and VW/Audi 4 have both reported engine failure due to sludge or oil jelling attributed to oil break down caused by heat or insufficient oil changes. My understanding is that Toyota has made a change to the valve cover and extended the warranty on affected models.

I have to question the diagnostics applied by the tech.
What did the computer report as the cause of the failure. Must have been one since problme was indicated to you. If the tech failed to follow acceptable problem diagnostics and drove the car befor resolving the computer reported error why should you be responsible?

 

[Tech]

You had an oil sludging problem and probably bad oil pan o-rings.The oil pan o-rings get real soft and fall apart.That causes low oil pressure and tapping noise from low oil pressure.The engine sludging has started to become a problem with the 99 and later model turbo's.I would call Volvo and complain If there was documents that says they cleaned it at 45k and they didn't Volvo will probably charge the dealer that said they cleaned it for the repair.

 

[T Gaupp]

My 2001 Volvo V70 at 56K miles is sitting at the Dealerships Service Dept currently with the same problem. Low Oil Pressure light and a strange noise almost immediatly.

We have an extended Warranty and produced records of proper servicing (Lube, Oil, Filter) and still Volvo will not cover the costs. We're looking to see if this is a common problem in Volvos. As a first time owner, this is concerning.

How did your problem get resolved?

 

[Tech]

QUOTE(T Gaupp @ Jan 26 2005, 03:22 PM)My 2001 Volvo V70 at 56K miles is sitting at the Dealerships Service Dept currently with the same problem. Low Oil Pressure light and a strange noise almost immediatly.

We have an extended Warranty and produced records of proper servicing (Lube, Oil, Filter) and still Volvo will not cover the costs. We're looking to see if this is a common problem in Volvos. As a first time owner, this is concerning.

How did your problem get resolved?

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Yes but did your belt break or did you just have low oil pressure?The oil pan o-rings are starting to go bad on these cars now.That will cause the low oil pressure light to come on and a tapping noise to start.That is usually covered under extended warranty.

 

[raygunclan]

same story, different model! we have a 2002 s80 with 70k that we bought used last year. saturday, a message popped up that told me to pull over immediately b/c there was NO oil pressure. we had the car towed to a local shop and they told us that it was going to be about $1500 to fix. they said that it was oil sludge and they see this problem ALL the time. my step dad works at a dealership and said the same thing. i did see the action that toyota took and my friend had her engine replaced by a class action against mercedes, same problem . WHAT IS THE DEAL!!! i would have much rather fixed the damn boat than the damn car!!! i would really like to know if anyone has started a class action against volvo and if not, if there are enough incidences to start one. one thing that i saw in the mercedes class action was that it was due (in case i mangle this, I AM NOT A LAWYER and often I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I"M TALKING ABOUT!

) to mercedes recommending 7k miles between oil changes. sound familiar????

 

[v70_owner]

Looks like the same thing is happening to me. 2001 v70 with 38,000 miles, oil light came on intermittantly. Took it right to the shop. Car full of guck, changed oil pump, seals, PCV, flushed several times. Now pressure drops when car under load. Had previously reported oil light & having to add 2 l of oil at 18000 miles, they changed a turbo hose or something and told me to get more frequent oil changes. Had taken it to dealer for all scheduled maintenance.

Now, they're telling me I need an engine, and thay they have no idea what the cause was or even what's wrong. Any ideas?

===============

Update: Replaced engine, total job cost just over $10,000. That includes over $2,000 for diagnostics, even though they could never find the cause, and they confirmed that service records were OK. Volvo told me that since it's out of warranty, I'm out of luck. Nice.

 

[KWBC]

Simular situation. 2000 V70 XC. 66k miles Goes into the shop for an ABS Brake computer (Which we hear break all the time) comes out with an oil light on. After o ring seals, oil pump, we are told the engine is shot. No one really wants to talk about it. Indipentdent shop has never seen anything like it. The Volvo dealr wants to ignore us and suggests repeating the seals and oil pump, with no other solutions. Trying to figure out what to do.

I'm having a hard time listening to mechanics offer very weak diagnosis and an answer...."we will just replace the whole engine when something fails". These parts are engineered and if some part fails there should be an answer.

 

[twocreativeforge]

My V7XC has 56k on it. You guys are scaring the heck out of me.

Don

 

[regu]

same here (V70 T5) with 72,000 km on the clock and the ABS break switch needs replacement.

Q to KWBC: have they sceewed up the ABS repair?