'05 XC 90, a few warts, a few questions.

Picked up our new XC90 AWD V8 the other day. Great car so far.

Noticed a few things (nothing major), but had a few question:

1. Are there any existing TSBs (Technical Service Bulletins) on this model
yet? I forgot to ask the dealer, in the excitement of getting the thing.

2. Have the Bi-Xenon headlights. Notice the left headlamp projects lower
than the right, as if the level angle in one or the other is not correct.
Both headlights should project on a wall or garage door, with a single "line
of light" created by both headlamps, correct? Currently, the driver's side
is noticeably lower. These are supposed to be self-leveling lamps. Wonder
if that system is whacked? Anyone else seen this?

3. There are two aluminum trim strips on the left rear passenger door - one
at the top edge of the window and one at the bottom edge of the window. I
noticed today that the rearmost end of the bottom edge aluminum had strip
popped off, about 1/4" from the body. Worked with it for 15 minutes or so
and managed to get it popped in, but I'm not sure if it will stay.
Wondering if the strip was bent or misaligned during initial, installation
causing it to pop off on that end (I notice crazing in the clear coating of
the aluminum strip at certain angles).

4. Two missing bolts? Remove entire grocery bag cover, revealing battery
storage area in rear. Look in front left and right corners of that storage
area - there are two threaded holes in each corner, with no bolts in them in
our car. The 3rd. row seat cushion rails at those corners (near the gray
styrofoam) appear to require one bolt in each, to hold down the rear end of
the rails. There's a hole at the end of each of those two cushion slide
rails, resting on top of each threaded hole, however nothing holding them
down. It is possible to lift the black metal rail away from the threaded
hole, indicating that those bolts may not have been installed at the
factory. Anyone else notice these missing in their XC90?

5. Same storage area, except at the forward center area of storage area,
where the center of the grocery storage cover rests, at the front lip (well,
the lip towards the FRONT of the vehicle). There is a metal bracket in the
center of forward lip, with two holes a few inches apart. The right hole
has a plastic snap fastener, the left one does not. I suspect the cover
rests on that metal bracket's snap fastener(s), thus the left hole should
also have a plastic snap fastener for the cover to rest on. Does anyone
have two of those round black snap fasteners installed on theirs?

6. Have to hold steering wheel slight left of center to go straight. Hold
wheel straight up, and car drifts right. This could be either slight
front-end misalignment, or more likely, tire pull (RSAT, aka: residual
self-aligning torque), in the tires themselves.

Car is of course under warranty for all this stuff - just thought I'd check
with the group so see if anyone else has experienced these.

These are all relatively minor - realizing all new cars have warts. In all
other respects, this is an excellent, solid, fun-to-drive vehicle.

I did install the Hidden Hitch class IV hitch - it went on fairly easily,
after pulling off the 4 existing bolts (exhaust and tow loop bracket). Had
to drop the exhaust a few inches, and pull off the first 3 rubber hangers to
make room for that side of the hitch. Also, made sure I fastened the hitch
bolts with the hitch pulled as far to the rear as possible, since the spare
tire JUST fits back into it's cavity underneath (you have to remove the
spare to get the hitch installed). I had to finesse the spare back into
it's cavity (i.e, kick it slightly here and there), but the hanger cable
really helped get it centered in it's spot. I chose not to re-install the
rear tow loop bracket, as it would have taken too much modification to
re-install properly. After all, the hitch itself will function nicely as an
attachment point should I need to get towed out of a ditch. In all, the
hitch job took me an hour. You'll need a 15mm and 18mm socket wrench, and a
torque wrench for same (set for 64 ft lbs per the hitch instructions).

Thanks for any info,

Mike

 

www.sweedspeed.com

http://www.v70xc.com/forums/

 

Hi Mike,

I answered some of your questions below, as far as I could. My XC90
was built in March 2005, and has the D5 engine (I'm living in Belgium).

You will find more information about the XC90 on Volvo forums, as
pointed out already. I often look at the following ones, but I would
also like some more discussion about the XC90 in this group...

http://www.volvospy.com/frameset.php?bn=volvospy_xc90
http://forums.swedespeed.com/zeroforum?id=27
http://www.volvo-forums.com/f10-volvo-xc90-forum.htm

I don't have them, as Belgium is famous for its highways lit at night
like a baseball stadion...

You mean the chrome strips at the outside of the window? It is a known
problem that they come off, although I don't have it myself.

Yep, they are also missing in my car. It seems like they are not
really needed however, as the rails are not moving without them.

No, only one. I looked carefully and it serves to fasten the cover
piece (i.e. the bottom of the storage area) in between the grocery
storage cover and the back of the third row seats. There's a black
metal bracket from that cover piece to the fastener, but not for the
left hole.

Seems like some bean-counters did work on the XC90 for MY 2005 ;-)

I don't have this, at least I did not notice it yet. Of course, my
engine is less powerful.

Best regards,

J.

 

J,

Thank you for getting back to me. I'll check out those forums as well.

Good info.

Regards,

Mike

 

Mike
I too own a 05 Volvo xc 90 picked up in March and the trim on the
window of the back door was loose so they ordered new and replaced ,
within a week it was the same. so they ordered two more , because the
other side was doing the same. they replaced them both and i just
called the dealership today , they are coming off again. I am glad
someone else is having this problem cause they seem to think it is
only my Volvo with this problem. Let me know what your dealer has to
say. they keep asking me if i am going thru the car wash and i have
not , but when you pay that much for a vehicle it should not have no
drive thru car wash warning!!

 

Nanna,

Glad to hear I'm not the only one that trim strip problem as well.

The dealer replaced it with a new one. They had it in stock, however when I
set the appointment up a week earlier, I told him "you'd probably want to
order one ahead of time" and he said that they'd look at it first, and use
adhesive to stick the original one back on. And only if that didn't work
they'd order a new strip and have us come in again and put it on. So,
either they already had one in stock, or, actually did order one at my
request. Or, as you said, it's a common problem and all dealers have them
in stock as well. Actually it seems to me that using an adhesive would be
better, more permanent. However if they ever had to do work on the window,
it would be more difficult to for them to pull the strip off for repair
purposes.

Mike