Electrics: XC90 electrical problem advice needed

[Carper Bill]

Golfather,
I'm in Liverpool and there is a specialist about 30miles away but not had the best service on my V70 I had for four years, i must have spent 4K with him on services and the odd mechanical repair. I don't know of any others local to me but would be glad to hear if there are?

Regards Bill

[spokoluzik]

Originally Posted by Mattwjj

dem stands for differential electronic module and is a small box. my wife has a 2004 xc90 and it literally shuddered and came to an ubrupt stop with tons of warning lights and messages - luckily there were no cars behind her or she would be dead! volvos safe, yeah right!

she took it to a volvo dealer in watford once breakdown guy had got it started and they ran diagnostic tests - told her it was dem but couldn't say what the fault was. cost would be £1500 plus £70 labour plus vat - i.e. car would be better off scrapped - yes an 8 year old volvo at the end of its life - don't see that in the adverts...

took dem off at local garage and sent to bba in kent, they can't fix it but could tell us problem, can data not running thru properly. better diagnostics than volvo itself.

now talking to volvo uk head office to see what they can do - very disheartened about volvo. why spend the money on a quality car if this can happen at under 100k miles and 8 years

interested to hear of others experience with this problem...

If will not find solution with dealers let me know.
Will be able to supply new/refurbished unit with full warranty.

[Carper Bill]

Well my little saga is now rapidly turning into an epic nightmare!!
On Monday 8.00am I took the XC90 into the main dealers to try and get the intermittent electrical faults repaired. I had been told that it appears to be a DIM fault and to expect a bill of around £700-800 but if it’s the CEM then it would be more. So I sat and waited in the dealers while they carried out the first hours diagnostic tests (at over £130 per hour) only to be told they could not find the fault and would require consent for an additional hour to try and diagnose what the cause was, reluctantly I agreed. They gave me a courtesy car and said they would call me later when they had further information
11.00am they called to say that the DIM was not the fault but it could be the CEM an additional hour would be required to confirm! I’m now 3 hours in and none the wiser, they said they would call back after lunch.
1.30pm I called them to see what was going on, they said it was the CEM and they needed permission to order the part………but the total cost for the replacement would be £1,230.00. once I had got back up off the floor and moaned about the cost and pleaded for some form of discount I finally conceded that they could proceed. All be it that they would talk to the service manager to see if they could get the cost down. The car should be ready for Monday night. I called them again at 4.10pm to see if I could collect the car before they close at 5.00pm, but they said there now appears to be a faulty CEM that they tried to install and would get a replacement for the next day.
Tuesday, not heard from the dealers all morning so started to get worried about the accumulating cost / time so I called them again for an update. The new CEM would not “talk to the other modems within the car and they were having problems but they would call me back later and the car should be ready for collection later that day. Meanwhile I’m running around in a fiesta doing my best not to get caught out giving the car back with a tank of petrol so I’m darting in and out of the petrol station each time they tell me that I’m not getting the XC90 back. 15.50pm I have to call them again to find out if I have to make the 20 mile journey or not and I’m told they still have issues with the CEM not “talking” to the rest of the car, they will call tomorrow.
Wednesday, now into day three, they finally called me (makes a nice change!) at 9.10am to tell me that I can collect the car today BUT…. And a very big but, there is a slight problem. The radio is not working and to replace it will be an additional £900. Well to say I was p£$$£d off is putting it lightly. I have never had a problem with any of the audio in the car including the DVD’s and now they have solved one problem and gave me a new one. I told them that I do not want a new radio because there was nothing wrong with the one that I left with them. But the final offer was “your car is ready for you to collect as it is with no audio or pay the additional £900 and you can have it back with Audio!!! I requested to speak to the dealer principal or general manager and got told that they would call me straight back. 11.15am I got into the fiesta and made my way down to confront the dealer head honcho, only to be told the highest person who would talk to me was the \Service manager. He was no help to me what so ever, if anything he just got me more and more angry by repeating the same thing as if it was a rehearsed. Although the radio was sometimes intermittent with the fault it was one of the items that would work when most of the dash failed.
After trying to get my point across that I originally was expecting £700-800 and now was expected to cough up over £2,000, £900 of which was not a problem when I brought the car in. I just wanted to speak to someone with a bit of clout to sort my situation out. No one was there except the guy I was talking to and getting nowhere so I refused to take the car back in its current condition, refused to pay a penny until I have spoken to the main dealer principal and left with the promise that they would call me back tomorrow.
If any of you have had similar treatment from your main dealer please let me know what is the best action / stance to take to try and get some satisfaction and not have to shell out half the price of the car, it’s a 53 plate with 114000 on the clock but it’s in great condition (except the electrics) and it would be an absolute disgrace to scrap it just because Volvo are thieving sods..

Regards Bill

[Carper Bill]

I know my last post was a bit long winded but just wanted to paint the full picture.
I could really do with some good advice as to how I deal with the dealer tomorrow and what I should expect from them.
Any advice would be very welcome.

Bill

[paul chocks]

My car is now doing similar things. What was the solution in the end?

[Carper Bill]

Hi Paul,
Sorry to tell you but the end result was me being £1,500 lighter in the pocket, but and a big but was that I had to argue for over an hour and stood my ground with the main dealer principal. They had a bill prepared for just over £3,000 but due to the uproar I created in the dealership they offered to split the cost. They replaced the CEM, DIM and another electronic component (sorry I can’t recall what it was).
To top it off when I checked over the car when I got home the leather (cream) carpets (cream) had oil marks everywhere, some of the internal bits of trim was ill fitting and the contents of the centre consol was in the back foot well along with some fixings they had not installed. Main Dealers are great when you have a fairly new car that just requires a service but anything else they will screw you to the floor every time.
Hope you get your problem solved and don’t have to go through the costly experience they put me through.

Regards Bill

[Keyser Soze]

Bill, your experiences with your electrics & Rybrook Chester sounds all too familiar.

I've had all the electrics die twice now in two months on my '04 T6.

1st time the car was dead for two hours and then sprung into life.

2nd time (last week) it died wouldnt unlock or do anything. I unlocked the drivers door with the key & hooked up my DiCE/Vida to see if there was any codes. A big fat NOTHING. The car wouldnt talk to Vida. As I couldnt get into the boot ( deadlocked ), I pulled fuse 27 10A CEM supply & fuse 14 10A UEM supply, refitted then all sprung back into life. Vida & the car then would talk. By pulling the fuses, it effectively rebooted the CEM and the canbus.

So I'm now living on borrowed time & dreading as + when the CEM crashes again (& it no doubts will). I'll avoid taking it to Rybrook if I can for this & pull the fuses again if it happens.

In regards to Rybrook, in Nov '11 had my gearbox replaced by them at a cost of £5,300. 1 week later after the gearbox, another £400 for power steering cooler replacement, get the car back and then another £450 for turbo oil seal repair & car continually cutting out due to a cam sensor not being connected. So in the space of 4 weeks the bstards had £6.1k out of me and two of the jobs were a direct result of their shoddy (imho) workmanship when they did the gearbox.

Needless to say, I avoid Rybrook (Ryf*ck) Chester like the plague. For the cost of one diagnostic read there, you could buy your own DiCE off ebay! For any servicing or jobs that I dont have time for, I can use either Drayton Volvo at Clatterbridge or Graham Wrightsons Oxton, both on the Wirral.