AWD Haldex and diff issues

[colinbos]

Hi all,

I have a 2008 D5 Manual. 113k on the clock.

Ive had a clicking noise from the front drivers wheel for ages. It transpires that the nearside/passenger/left driveshaft was knackered so I've just spent £500 replacing that with a volvo one. Ouch. Anyway, such is life.

What I was surprised to hear was the mechanic saying he believes the front Diff/Transfer box has excess backlash and is causing a little clunk sporadically.

Has anyone had this ?

I can hear (just about) a small clunk now and again when reversing up my drive or changing down a gear. Im a purist and would like the car right.

Any suggestions or recommendations for someone to look at the Diff/Transfer box ?

Im in Merseyside

[colinbos]

Originally Posted by colinbos

Hi all,

I have a 2008 D5 Manual. 113k on the clock.

Ive had a clicking noise from the front drivers wheel for ages. It transpires that the nearside/passenger/left driveshaft was knackered so I've just spent £500 replacing that with a volvo one. Ouch. Anyway, such is life.

What I was surprised to hear was the mechanic saying he believes the front Diff/Transfer box has excess backlash and is causing a little clunk sporadically.

Has anyone had this ?

I can hear (just about) a small clunk now and again when reversing up my drive or changing down a gear. Im a purist and would like the car right.

Any suggestions or recommendations for someone to look at the Diff/Transfer box ?

Im in Merseyside

Cancel. Its the right lower engine mount.

[Warkman]

I have a 2002 xc70, and the Haldex seals are leaking.

I'm being told that you can't get the seals individually and the only way is a refurb or new Haldex.

Is this true? has anyone been able to source the seals?

[Jay850t5]

splined sleeve and angle gear!

[architect1]

Hi,
My experience was a whine/drone from the rear of the car at about 70mph, from new.
After nearly 3 years (!) and much too-ing and fro-ing with the dealer, this was traced to the Haldex unit by a Volvo engineer who eventually graced the garage with his presence and almost immediately identified the cause of the noise.
The Haldex unit is allegedly "sealed for life" and there is no mention of opening it in the Volvo service guidance at that time.
The engineer said "open the unit and clean it out". The garage found extremely fine millings in the oil which had collected in the filter. Assume because the unit had not been adequately rinsed during manufacture.
Cleaned out, new filter, reassembled - problem solved.
Given the speed with which the Volvo engineer traced the problem we can only assume that he had encountered the fault in other cars.
Volvo do not acknowledge that this is a repeated problem.

[100K+]

Originally Posted by architect1

The Haldex unit is allegedly "sealed for life" and there is no mention of opening it in the Volvo service guidance at that time.

Strange that VW/Audi service the oil and filter every 20K and 40K in their haldex units, but then again they have better access to the components. On the Volvo VIDA requires that you remove the exhaust and prop shaft @ mega £ /hour labour to get access to a <£50 filter.
Call me a cynic, but I bet that's why its "sealed for life."
There's a similar "servicing arrangement" with their automatic transmission fluid too.

Cheers
Bob

[Quacker]

"sealed for life" seldom means precisely that. In transmission terms it usually goes with a fluid that keeps within spec for an average of 100,000 miles and gradually goes further below spec from then on, until the gearbox or transaxle probably fails at between 150k and 180k. Oil changes starting at 80k and then every 50k or so might well extend the service life by another 50k to 100k miles.

It all depends on whether the car is expected to last much more than 150,000 miles or 15 years, which is about as much as most cars tend to last before being crushed.

As to the Haldex rear transmission specifically, I have zero experience of its service life or requirements but suspect that it will benefit in the same way as automatic transmissions as explained above, possibly at shorter intervals but that's only a guess.
I do have some experience with the Honda unit, which is very like earlier Haldex units in principle. Honda specify 80,000 mile change inervals I believe but mine started groaning at just over 50,000 miles, so I dumped the fluid and flushed it by changing one more time after maybe five miles, and the noise has gone. No filter on the Honda unit that I'm aware of.

[Korchoi]

Originally Posted by 100K+

What you need to do in order is get the car read with a DICE/VIDA. This will give you a great insight into what you need to do next. If you don't/cant you are feeling you way in the dark.
The DEM unit has a pressure gauge (small) and a control module (large) inside. The pressure gauge sometimes go faulty. If so VIDA/DICE will tell you.
VIDA DICE will also give you live pressure value data - might prove* the sensor works/don't work. see caviat.
Disconnect the pump lead and check the pump works with a 12volt battery- you will hear it running - If you need to change the pump you need to remove the prop shaft ( and 90% the exhaust too). The DEM controller suffers from water ingress damage, and sometimes gives " false" reading to the DEM
* due to DEM damage no pressure is shown on VIDA DICE which claims a pressure valve issue, when the PV is actually ok.- that caught me.
You can get your DEM unit checked out. I tried on company in Kent, who said the unit was fine, and then spent months trying to fix the AWD, when the DEM was infact faulty. Lukas, sorted me a referbed unit which is working great - no DTC'S and lots of AWD.

If you want to ask any questions just ask
Cheers

Bob.

I have my XC70 with similar codes showing booked into auto fix in North Shields, only recently bought the car so am looking forward to having it all fettled. Does limp mode when it fancies and the awd fault. Apart from that the car is lovely

[Howard80]

I have a 2009 xc70 with a bad differential. It vibrates between 40-50 miles/hr. Does anyone know where I can get this rebuilt in Florida?

[Piskie]

Originally Posted by AustenAWD

Hi all new to the forum. I currently fix Freelander 2 transmissions (diffs and haldex), but am starting get inquiries about the Volvo units. Id like to try and help, but need to collate as much info as possible so i can try and cure the symptom/problems described. I know the Freelander inside out but not had the pleasure of getting my hands dirty with the volvo AWD units(or ford kuga). I understand that there are various vibrations and noises that look likely to be caused by the Haldex unit itself. The majority of problems in Freelanders is actually a diff failure which i can now fix but in a way that will prevent it happening again (its a design fault). Id really like to to do the same for the affected Volvo cars. So if anyone would like to go into a detail about their own experiences id be extremely grateful, and if anyone is currently suffering issues and cannot get a resolution im happy to investigate the car free of charge (this is what i did with the freelanders to come up with a robust solution)

Im not sure if the guy i initially spoke to about his XC60 is on here, but he was stuck in a battle with Volvo to sort his car out, and was going to get back in touch with me but i havent heard from him, so if you read this give me a shout as im in a better situation to help at the moment (i have brand new Haldex 4 units in stock for a lot less than Volvo!)

Wonder if you or anybody can help. I have a 2004 D5 XC90 with AWD problems. I had the car plugged into VIDA and it came back with a code faulty communication code with the DEM. I've had the DEM repaired by lukas at volvodignostics and the rear diff has had a new pump, filter and transmission oil, but still no AWD. The DEM code was cleared.

I suspected that it might be the splined sleeve in the transfer box and I've tried turning the prop with all four wheels on the ground and the prop spins freely. Also I've had the car up on a lift with all four wheels off the ground, put the car in drive, the front wheels spin but the rear wheels do not, and the prop does not turn.

I've just come back from the garage now and they have said that after clearing the DEM code, they took the car for a drive and it threw the code again.

So I have a few questions to try and help me determine whether it is the splined sleeve or an electronic issue. (1) is the transfer from the angle gear a direct drive or it it clutched ? (2) if the DEM is working and splined sleeve is worn would this throw a DEM communication code when the AWD doesn't engage ? (3) are there any other electrical issues that would throw the DEM code ? I don't have any other fault codes other than a boost pressure issue, but that's not related.

If anybody can help I'd really appreciate it. I've already thrown around £1200 at this issue and I'm no further forward. Starting to get desperate now !!!