no rear wheel drive!

samxc90 · Post by **samxc90** » 08 Jan 2010, 12:06

I have an 04 XC90 T5 w/ 110K miles which I purchased last summer w/~95K miles. I have a 1/3 mile long gravel driveway, (uphill from the road) and I can't make it up the driveway in the snow. I've tried turning on and off the DTSC switch, with and without the Winter button but no matter what it seems I'm only running in Front WD. I have no warning lights and have searched the XC90 list for something similar only to find a note about an "angle gear" and a "differential control module". What so these do and how do I test them? Are there any other troubleshooting ideas?
I ran the battery down twice, charging my cell phone in the car. I'll post that question in another thread. The first time the battery ran down, the roof mounted entertainment system stopped working. I took it to the dealer who wanted to replace the DVD player. I passed and when I accidentally ran the battery down again, after I got it charged, the entertainment system started working. So I don't trust the dealership's troubleshooting skills. Help?

Post by **OEMVolvoParts** » 09 Jan 2010, 10:15

Your gonna have to take it to someone who can put it in the air and figure out why your not getting power to the rear wheels. Hopefully nothing is damaged because that part of the car can get expensive quick.

The other electrical issue is a bit more tricky. These cars are extremely sensitive to battery strength. If your battery has been ran down or is low on juice, it will start to have unexplainable electrical gremlins. Get a brand new battery if you want to be sure everything is working correctly.

larry818 · Post by **larry818** » 18 Jan 2010, 08:04

Hi, just to ask a silly question, are you sure you have four wheel drive? My T5 does not.

Post by **matthew1** » 19 Jan 2010, 13:09

larry818 wrote:Hi, just to ask a silly question, are you sure you have four wheel drive? My T5 does not.

That was my first thought.

dickdock · Post by **dickdock** » 26 Jan 2010, 20:02

Hi, I am probably not the bearer of good news, i have a 2007 xc90 D5.
at 45k miles the turbo blew, at 90k miles, the Turbo blew,
in august last year i noticed i had a rumble from the rear, the dealer investigated assuming it was a wheel bearing, only to find the car was only operating on front wheel drive.
The up shot of this was a new rear end, diff etc, also the front angle gears were shot, this involved detaching a spline from the gearbox, the spline had worn the gearbox badly and the gearbox had to be changed this was at about 115k miles.
the upshot of that was a bill of about £15k (sweet English pounds).
well you would have thought that would be enough trouble for one car with low mileage for a volvo, but no i have a warning light coming up on the dash telling me that Anti skid service is required, this results in the car going to 2 wheel drive, this apparently is the DEM unit that needs replacing.
My advice is do what i am going to do and bin it and get a BMW X5
Sorry it might not be what you wanted to hear but it is the truth, this is my 3rd Volvo, the other 2 were the best cars anyone would want to own but after this i cant have another

04XC90T6AWD · Post by **04XC90T6AWD** » 19 Mar 2010, 06:51

Mine had the same problem it was the DEM (diferentral Electronic control module) i got it replaced for 300 or something like that idk but it worked fine after that in the snow id recommend turning of the DSTC and using the Man slection oh just a quick comment about the MAN option dont use that for regular driving even though you could it ducks up the tranny really good. oh and for those of you 2004-2006 XC90 owners beware of your tranny's they are GMS and will probably break somehow collant leaks into them causing them to die. I never thought it was going to the tranny but i did keep on askin my self where the hell does the collant keep going when i have no leaks and had to refill it every other day

mcdermd · Post by **mcdermd** » 19 Mar 2010, 14:17

04XC90T6AWD wrote:oh and for those of you 2004-2006 XC90 owners beware of your tranny's they are GMS and will probably break

Don't you mean "2004-2006 XC90 T6 owners"?

Post by **JDS60R** » 19 Mar 2010, 14:36

The 04's had issues in 3 places i can think of

1. The coupling between the trans and the bevel gear fails
2. The AWD temp sensors fail. Unfortuately in most of the 04's it is built into the computer on the AWD and not seperate like 05 and up.
3.The plug to the computer on the AWD comes loose.

How can you check these
1. Raise up the driver side of your car with a jack and turn the front wheel. If you see the driveshaft down the middle turning your coupling shoud be ok (Rare cases the coupling will not hold under load but just holds on while doing this test)
2. Dealer or indy diagnosis
3. Go under the car and see if the AWD is plugged in. The AWD is bolted to the rear diff. You will see a wire with a plug. They sometimes come loose. The bulletin to fix includes a zip tie but I can't find it right now.

04XC90T6AWD · Post by **04XC90T6AWD** » 29 Mar 2010, 06:53

mcdermd wrote:
04XC90T6AWD wrote:oh and for those of you 2004-2006 XC90 owners beware of your tranny's they are GMS and will probably break
Don't you mean "2004-2006 XC90 T6 owners"?

Yes i did my apolgies. Also while We are talking about XC90 problems did anyone else experiance an engine problem where a cylinder cap or screw got rusted and a gasket broke so the entire engine pretty much had to get overhauled?

Post by **shiloh51933** » 14 Feb 2022, 07:28

I'm going to post here instead of starting a new thread. I've verified my rear wheels aren't applying any torque to the ground in the snow. I have an unresolved vibration/wobble right around 1500rpm to 2000rmp, I was thinking it might be a hanger bearing or u-joints. Now I'm thinking it might be the coupling for the bevel gear...I'm thinking it's got to be mechanical because I can't find any trouble codes on my enhanced Volvo/Generic OBD 2 scanner. This is a 2008 Volvo XC90 V8 model w/180k... brand new matching Continental tires, new brakes, she shifts up and down perfectly, runs great. Due to weather I haven't gotten underneath yet and I might have it put up on a lift to verify driveshaft movement or lack of. I'd appreciate any suggestions other than what has previously been mentioned.