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Originally Posted by Tizwoz
It certainly is an interesting car and mine has cameras and radar which make driving very easy. For local trips it uses no diesel as the battery covers about 24 miles. The 31 mile electric range test result must require a test track.
Sanden developed a special PAG oil compatible with electric compressors. A small amount of the wrong type of PAG oil which is hygroscopic and forms acids can cause insulation faiure. It's going to be very difficult to determine whether that's the cause of the repeated air conditioning compressor failures. There is a potential solution involving the entire air conditioning system but changing the evaporator is very time consuming. A simpler remedy involves washing out the system with refrigerant but how succesful that will be is hard to determine.
Do all Volvo agents understand that a different oul and charging station should be used to avoid cross contamination with oil from standard belt driven air conditioning? There's no indication looking under the bonnet that a special PAG oil is required. Any system requiring a regass is open to being contaminated.
All electric compressors with 134a refrigerant are open to this problem.
Volvo have not done a recall for this problem.
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My AC compressor has now been changed by my local Volvo dealer. The cost of £1400 doesn't compare well with a normal belt driven one. That price was discounted by Volvo UK and the local dealer. The local dealer warranty is 12 months and the Volvo warranty on the part is for as long as I own the car. Hopefully it will be reliable. Time will tell. As the compressor on the car didn't last two years I remain concerned that battery life may be at risk.