A Very Costly AWD Repair and Disappointing Car

**Jorge-789995** · 08-13-2007, 06:52 PM

Sorry to hear about your repair. I can feel your pain to a certain extent. I just replaced all brake components, but at least that was a wear item.

All the VC AWD bigots just took one on the chin; unfortunately, you took one in the wallet at the same time. I thought the haldex was infallible.

**Forkster** · 08-13-2007, 11:42 PM

You could of course, take other actions including legal but it's your money and time. Cars do break down time to time though.

**tapaugh** · 08-14-2007, 11:16 AM

Forkster thank you for the suggestion. Frankly, it's not one that occurred to me but in view of the situation, I think I'll give it a go. What have I got to lose? If Volvo would respond in a favorable way it would at least restore my faith in the company. However, nothing will change the way I feel about their products. Wish me luck.

**SVX JAZZ** · 08-14-2007, 01:57 PM

You all should go to www.subaru-svx.net and check out all the AWD failures. Mine went out on my Subaru at 84k.

10 years later after the re-build it's running strong though...

**JAGMAN** · 08-16-2007, 08:27 PM

I just had a similar failure on my '04V70R. The transmission and angle/bevel gear are bolted together. Both have a splined shaft output. A splined collar is what couples the shafts. When the collar strips out, no more AWD. The splines of the shaft can also be damaged during a failure like this.

As for the Tranny replacement (that your dealer mentioned), this happens when the dealer is unable to remove the damaged collar from the transmission output shaft and has to replace the tranny. The reason they have trouble removing the collar is because they use an inadequate tool (which I won't get into).

Here is a picture of the collar. You can see the splines are stripped out on one side (the bevel gear side), but the other side is fine (tranny side). I replaced the collar and now all is well. Total cost wqs $85 for the collar, and $100 for new oil seals in the tranny and bevel gear (since I was already there).

As I said, I was fortunate that the collar was the only part that was damaged, and the shafts of the tranny and bevel gear were undamaged. I was also fortunate that I can do this work myself. I can almost 100% guarantee that the dealer would've had to replace my tranny, since their tool wouldn't have been strong enough to remove the collar.

I had to drill two holes in the collar and attach a 5-ton puller, then heat the area with Mapp gas.

**staffann** · 08-17-2007, 02:28 AM

It does indeed sound like it was the splines between the tranny and the bevel gear was what was broken. Just want to point out that this has nothing to do with the Haldex unit at all.

I've had to do exactly what JAGMAN decribes on one car, and I can guarantee that getting that collar off can be hard work! There was a lot of rust that made it stick to the tranny very hard. As JAGMAN we had to drill a hole in the collar. We didn't have any 5-ton puller so we had to pull, use sledgehammer etc for quite a while before we managed to get the collar off. We almost gave up before that!

**littlewaywelt** · 08-18-2007, 10:30 AM

Cars don't last forever. Things break. Unusual or not.

Our 01 XC was a total money pit from day 1.
Our 05 has been nearly perfect from day 1.

Volvos may not be Hondas, but Hondas are not Volvos either. Honda and Subaru have their share of problems, too. My mother-in-law's suby has had more than its share of problems. My brother's has been outstanding.

**tapaugh** · 08-19-2007, 07:27 PM

It's true, nothing last forever and cars do break. I just didn't expect a premium car such as a Volvo to break at 89K miles and considering how well maintained this car was, I feel there's no reason for this other than poor design.

Anyway, I made my last payment on this car about two weeks ago and just today in the mail I received the title for it. So now I own this Swedish marvel of modern technology but thankfully, not for too much longer. I'm gonna let someone else deal with the headaches. This is the second time a European car has bitten me in the ass and wallet. I think I'll take my chances with a Japanese car.

Goodbye to all you good people and thank you for your helpful suggestions.

**Forkster** · 08-20-2007, 08:04 AM

Originally Posted by littlewaywelt

Cars don't last forever. Things break. Unusual or not.

Our 01 XC was a total money pit from day 1.
Our 05 has been nearly perfect from day 1.

Volvos may not be Hondas, but Hondas are not Volvos either. Honda and Subaru have their share of problems, too. My mother-in-law's suby has had more than its share of problems. My brother's has been outstanding.

I disagree. Considering how long Volvo has been making cars, you would expect them to make a reliable and durable vehicle. Why can I purchase a Honda Accord or a Toyota Camry, drive the snot out of it for 250'000 miles and not have to put a dime into it for unexpected maintenance?

Why can't I expect the same reliablilty from my Volvo? Because Volvo is thinking like Ford - frack the customers, lets make a car with cheaper parts that may fail prematurely so we can maximise profits. That is very short sighted thinking, and is why the big three are pretty much bankrupt - customers are getting tired of crappy cars.

Honda and Toyota have a socialist approach to car owners - build a great car, then support the community around it. Heck, when I had my Honda, performance parts were so readily available, it was cheaper to put slotted rotors and crematic pads than the originals - the dealer sold both. The dealer also had a tuning shop, had summer BBQ's to showcase new performance parts, gave away free stuff, support the local city Honda clubs, and gave away tonnes of artwork and logos for fan websites on CD's. If anyone had problems with their car, they were dealt with accordingly so that both partys had a solution the could live with. That is my experience as a Honda owner in Calgary Canada. I can't say the same about Nissan - they're worse than Dodge for reliability (at least my last 99 Maxima was an aweful car to own). I had issues, complained, they said sooo sooorrry. I said, I'll never buy another Nissan and will tell all my friends about your crappy cars. That has cost them $30'000 to date because I didn't buy a Nissan - I purchased a Volvo instead. It seems that Tapaugh has done the same as well - get rid of a bad car.

I could be wrong but people are becoming leary of buying a Volvo - and if that continues, we could loose our favorite car company.

**littlewaywelt** · 08-20-2007, 11:27 AM

Volvo's problems have nothing to do with Ford. The big three's financial problems have nothing to do with reliability or irritating their customers. As far as I understand Volvo's part sourcing didn't really change when Ford bought the company. It was the economy pure and simple that hit the big three and their inability to aggressively deal with it in a timely fashion. Volvos have never been as reliable as Hondas and they never will be. You can't assume that every company can do something as well as one company. That's why we always have leaders and followers in various categories.