General: Towing eye

[magendo]

I have a 57-plate XC90 D5 7-seater which I bought as a demonstrator several years ago. Earlier this week I needed to have it towed out of a ditch after slipping on a snowy surface. Fortunately no damage to the car.

The problem is I could not find the towing eye. The manual (page 133) says that it is in the tool kit in the cargo area. As mentioned before, it is a 7-seater and does not have a spare tyre. I'm not aware of there being a jack or wheel brace, and I see in the manual (page 164) that the jack is an option when the car is equipped with an emergency puncture repair kit, as mine is. I'm not aware of a tool kit with any other tools being in the car when I got it from a Volvo dealer and couldn't find one when I searched.

Can anyone tell me where this tool kit and specifically the towing eye should be found?

Thanks in anticipation,
Magendo

[soapytwist]

With no spare tyre, you won't have a jack, but black/orange coloured air-compressor with built-in goo canister for re-inflating your tyre.

If you open the tailgate and remove the luggage flap in the rear floor, you should find the compressor to the left of the battery (in the middle). The tools are in a soft black vinyl tool roll which should be located in the polystyrene mould that the compressor is fitted into, but more likely they've been shoved in to the space to the right of the battery. With no spare tyre, the roll only contains a double-ended screwdriver, a spanner and the screw-in towing eye.

Let me know if you need a photo!

[Oldbrook]

Is your spare wheel not under the car like mine is, also a seven seat. Dave

[magendo]

Soapytwist: Thanks for your help. I did find the tool kit including towing eye with your guidance. It was actually trapped under the battery housing and did only contain the three items you mentioned.

Oldbrook: My XC90 doesn't have a spare wheel at all. I believe I could have bought one as an optional extra when I purchased the car but at Volvo prices it was quite a lot extra. In the nine years that I've had the car I've only had one puncture in which I've had to use the emergency puncture repair kit and I've done over 130,000 miles in it.

[soapytwist]

Yep - seven seats doesn't preclude anyone from having the spare wheel as the space for everything you need is there. If you ever wanted to convert (as I did), you'll need:

1. Space-saver spare wheel (normal-sized wheels don't fit)
2. Jack (plus plastic tray that fits it in the area between the two rear seats)
3. The winch mechanism that lowers the spare wheel down from inside the car
4. The two-piece winding handle for the winch

I managed to get all the bits I needed for around £100, as I wanted to travel to France this summer and didn't want to rely on the compressor.

[SwissXC90]

But please note that you cannot fit a spare wheel to a R-Design model, as the R-Design exhaust pipes prevent the spare wheel from fitting in the space.

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by magendo

In the nine years that I've had the car I've only had one puncture in which I've had to use the emergency puncture repair kit and I've done over 130,000 miles in it.

I've had 4 x cars over the last 10 years, none of then had spare wheels, they all had emergency repair kits, and I never had to use the kit.

Modern tyres are so good that the chances of punctures are very very small these days.

[gmonag]

Maybe in Switzerland, where the roads are probably better swept than in UK!

[Harley Dave]

Originally Posted by SwissXC90

I've had 4 x cars over the last 10 years, none of then had spare wheels, they all had emergency repair kits, and I never had to use the kit.

Modern tyres are so good that the chances of punctures are very very small these days.

Hmmmm - a nail is still a nail

I would say you have been fortunate Swiss

Cheers

Dave

[TruckbusUK]

Originally Posted by Harley Dave

Hmmmm - a nail is still a nail

I would say you have been fortunate Swiss

Cheers

Dave

Yup, or in my case a spark-plug .... could not believe it when I changed the wheel ......