XVTer's 2004 XC90 T6 AWD

XVTer · Post by **XVTer** » 21 Jun 2012, 15:15

In fall 2010, my wife fell in love with a 2004 XC90 and we had to get it. It was a huge step up from the '01 Civic she had at the time and, since I've always had good luck with Volvos, I saw no problem with it. It had a full dealer maintenance history and had around 85k miles.

Unfortunately, I didn't do very much research on it to determine that the T6 is the least favored due to transmission problems. My wife likes the car enough, though, that I think it would be worth rebuilding the transmission when it comes time for it.

Since I do most of the work on my cars myself, I figured I would start a thread for this car listing some of the things I have done and lessons learned along the way (and future lessons). I will continue to update/edit these posts as I go along (and as I find more of the old pictures)

Specs:
2004 Volvo XC90
2.9L Inline 6-Cyl Twin Turbo (B6294T)
4T65 4-speed Transmission
All-Wheel Drive
18x7 Volvo Atlantis Wheels
336mm Front Brake Rotors
Brake Bulbs: 7506
Reverse Bulbs: 7506
Rear Blinker: 7507
Rear 'Position' Light Bulbs: 2825
Taillight Bulbs: 7225

Parts List:
AMSOIL Signature Synthetic 0W-30 Engine Oil
AMSOIL Synthetic Multi-Vehicle ATF
AMSOIL Synthetic Power Steering Fluid
AMSOIL Synthetic DOT4 Brake Fluid
Powerstop Rotors (Drilled/Slotted/Zinc Plated)
Volvo Brake Pads
Volvo Parking Brake Shoes
Volvo All-Weather Floor Mats
Volvo All-Weather Cargo Mat
Volvo Cargo Cover
Volvo Roof Cross-Bars (Thule)

This is the day we picked it up:

First order of business was to change the oil/filter and drain/fill the transmission fluid. Engine oil is AMSOIL Signature Series 0W-30, Volvo oil filter, and AMSOIL Multi-Vehicle ATF. I also drained/flushed/filled the power steering fluid and brake fluid.

The AMSOIL engine oil is said to go 15k miles on turbo applications, I only let it go for 5k before changing it out. I drain/fill the transmission fluid every other oil change (~10k miles).

The tires which came on it were worn Michelin's and we needed to put some on before it would make it through winter. We decided to go with a set of all-season 235/60-18 tires and got a 4-wheel alignment at the same time.

Dealing with the cloudy headlights:
I used a 1000grit and 1500 grit sandpaper (WET) and followed up with Plasti-X polish.

Then, I tinted front windows (20%) and removed all of the emblems from the rear of car; I think it looks much sleeker:

Next order of business was all new brake pads, rotors (drilled, slotted, zinc coated), and parking brake shoes:

Then came OEM floor mats and storage area mat as well as a cargo cover:

XVTer · Post by **XVTer** » 21 Jun 2012, 15:34

As you can see above, there are signs of wet floor mats, which I found was due to the sunroof drains being clogged on both sides. After cleaning these out and cutting off some of the rubber at the bottom, I hope to not have this problem again.

Unfortunately, by the time I got around to fixing the sunroof drains, there was already some damage done as my wife said that sometimes she would hear a 'sloshing' under the car. This turned out to be water from the sunroof draining down into the floorboards. Over time, this caused enough water to cause problems with the YAW sensor, which, to my dismay, is around $500 for a new one. We got the infamous 'Anti-Skid Temporarily Disabled' warning followed by the 'Anti-Skid Service Required' warning. After getting this I set to inspect the Yaw sensor (under the passenger seat) and found there to be around 2-3 inches of water down there! Here are a couple pictures of the inspection/clean-up of the old unit:

I tried to clean it up and reinstall it to no avail

The next item which needed replacing was the upper motor mount. This is a pretty easy fix, so I will just show you the pictures:

One thing to note is to make sure all of the vacuum lines are all attached when it comes time to put it back together. I noticed on our car that the bushings on the bar that the engine mount attaches to are gone - these will be replaced soon.

My Wife and I found out the hard way that it pays to have a spare key for a newer Volvo. We bought the car with only one key/remote combo and lost the only one while at a friend's house. After it was all said and done, it cost us a tow, two vacation days, and $465 for the new key/remote/programming from the dealer. It required us to order the key w/overnight delivery to the dealer. This allowed us to get the ignition turned so that it was possible to get the car out of park so that it could be towed to the dealer. Then, they could program the key's chip, and finally program the remote (an hours labor each).

XVTer · Post by **XVTer** » 21 Jun 2012, 15:53

A couple weeks ago, we got a Check Engine light. When I used my Scangauge II to read the code, it came up as a P0465, which is for an EVAP leak. I decided to start with the most basic problem, which is a leaky fuel cap. Upon inspection, I noticed that the cap seal was severly weather cracked. I stopped by the volvo dealer on my way home from work one day, but found that they didn't sell the seal separately from the cap. I decided to stop by AutoZone and they had a cheap cap in stock. I simply took the seal off of the new cap and installed it on the Volvo gas cap. After clearing the code, we haven't had an issue since.

Our XC90, like every other volvo I have had, has been blessed with the quickly-corroding license plate brackets. Granted, they're only $15 at the dealer, but I would hope that some day they'll revisit the design. Here's the new one:

My wife did a little un-intentional offroading last winter due to a slippery off-ramp so I have since picked up a set of 17" aftermarket wheels which I will be mounting snow tires on before this winter. They're 17x8" and originally came from tirerack.com:

Post by **gshadow325** » 23 Jun 2012, 16:25

FYI, dealer can punch out a regular NON transponder key for $15 that will open the door and unlock steering wheel, but will not start the car.

key on the left is regular transponder key. key on the right is a key for 93-98 850/v70/s70 ect. in my case left is the xc90 and right is the 05 v70r. yes i took the darn "chip" out of the key and glued it to the transponder ring this bypassing the immobolizer system. useless to me since i had a new alarm/remote starter/gps tracking device added in.

Post by **gshadow325** » 23 Jun 2012, 16:28

get ready for suspension overhaul. when you do, just change everything at once since the other stuff will be bad soon. you will need the following soon: control arms, ball joints, inner and outer tie rods, and sway bar endlinks.

XVTer · Post by **XVTer** » 02 Aug 2012, 08:14

Thanks for the input!

As I said above, when I did the uppoer motor mount, I noticed that the bushings on the end of the cross-bar were gone. I decided to go ahead and upgrade while replacing and went with the IPD strut bar mount conversion kit.

I saw some posts online of people who complained about excessive vibrations with these installed, but I didn't really notice a significant increase, though I don't have any Poly bushings.

Post by **precopster** » 12 Sep 2012, 04:02

This is a very useful post and worthy of being a really useful resource for future and present XC90 owners.

Am I right in saying that the pics are hosted off site? It's just that with a lot of them they seem cut off or over enlarged.

Is it at all possible to host them back from Mathews as in the pic below?

It's just that by the time afew years go by off-site pic hosting sites get taken down or bought out by other companies and the directories change making them impossible to link to. Hope my pic below helps you to do this

Keep up the great work and keep us informed of your XC90 experience. There are far too few XC90 contributors here and your posts are a welcome change

XVTer · Post by **XVTer** » 11 Nov 2012, 12:58

I'll see what I can do about re-hosting here. They're currently on photobucket.

Just a quick update on the car:

I replaced the Yaw Rate Sensor with a new unit I bought off of eBay. All is now well with the Traction Control.

This past week the car wasn't running right for my wife and it threw the code P0304 - Cylinder 4 misfire. I swapped the coil packs from cylinder 4 and 5 and cleared the code. When I started it back up, it threw a P0305 - Cylinder 5 misfire. I replaced the coil pack (~$55) and all has been well since.

While I was working on it last weekend, I replaced the Transmission Filter and fluid at 130k miles. Still shifting nice and smooth.

I also just got another code yesterday a P0128 - Coolant Temperature Below Thermostat Regulating Temperature. My guess is that my thermostat is starting to go, but I haven't really dug into it much. The common problems that throw this code are:

Low engine coolant level
Leaking or stuck open thermostat
Faulty cooling fan (running too much)
Faulty coolant temperature (ECT) sensor
Faulty intake air temperature (IAT) sensor

I've got the week of Thanksgiving off so I think that I will try to tackle it then. I checked the coolant and there's plenty in there so at least it isn't a huge emergency.

Over the past couple months, I have been having a lot of rust issues with the exhaust. The heat shield on the resonator vibrates at around 2k RPM and i fixed it temporarily with a couple spot welds. Recently the rear muffler has started to split open at the seams so it'll need some work within the next couple weeks as it is due for an inspection by the end of the month.

I have looked at a number of different options, but I think that I am going to have a local shop bend a custom exhaust for me. My wife doesn't like the look of the dual exhaust for some reason - she said that she would skewer me if I installed something like the EST or OBX exhausts. I will update this thread when I decide on a path forward.

Masscomguru · Post by **Masscomguru** » 18 Nov 2012, 05:50

Hey XVTer, I remember you from the newx.org. I just traded the x in for a 2008 xc90 ( at 219k miles- yikes!) and am now having to relearn everything about maintenance... Looking good on yours. Where have you found a good place to source parts from in MA? Any dealers with more reasonable prices than others?

Thanks!

XVTer · Post by **XVTer** » 17 Dec 2012, 07:27

Hey, yeah, i traded in my Xterra for a Silverado a couple years ago. The XC90 is a great rig. Ours currently has 131,000 on it.

Here's an update. In order to pass the MA state inpection this past week, I finally needed to address the exhaust. i had Lou's Custom Exhaust in Portsmouth, NH fabricate a custom cat-back exhaust with a dual square tip for the euro-look. I am really happy with it and it has a bit more of a throaty sound when you get on the gas, and is quiet at idle without any drone. See attached pictures.

We also had to put on a set of tires due to a bad alignment; I hadn't had a chance to get snow tires on it yet, so I just bit the bullet and bought another set of all-seasons for our 18" 'Atlantis' wheels. I've got the 17" Sport Edition wheels which I will eventually mount some 235/65-17 tires on.

: Rear View

About the coolant temperature 'out of range' - I cleared the code with my ScanGauge II and it hasn't come back. I am taking a few days off at the end of the year so hopefully I'll have the time to work on it.

My wife hasn't been driving it much over the past few months due to maternity leave, but now that she has gone back to work, coupled with the cold weather, we now realize there is a blown left rear shock. I have ordered a pair of Bilstein rear shocks and should have them installed soon. I will followw up with pictures.

Masscomguru, About parts in MA - honestly, I order a lot from IPD (in Oregon) but the simple stuff I still get at local parts stores. These cars like the original Volvo parts like spark plugs, wires, etc, so it's a bit different than the Nissans in that respect. I typically use 128 Volvo as they're on my way home from work, but there are places online which have discounted parts for less than most dealers sell for. If you print out a 'shopping cart' from an online dealer, a lot of local dealers will match their price.