New XC90 Owner - Various Questions

[soulvoid21]

Hi All, recently purchased a 2014 XC90 Platium with the 3.2. 105k miles and just a lovely well kept car, but it isn't without a few faults that I've found over 1-2 months of ownership. Already well aware of the regular maintenance, around the belt system, accessories, etc. Plan to get the trans fluid replaced soon as well, as I'm not sure if it were ever changed.

My main concerns revolve around the interior/exterior trim of the vehicle.

First being the door panels. It seems like every door panel has a horrible rattle when listening to music. No surprise with the amount of bass from the stock stereo and amount of vibration going through the doors. I've tried to take off the passengers side front and rear to inspect/fix these rattles, but I cannot get either of them off. I'm able to start the clips at the bottom with interior trim tools, but the upper clips (mainly the top clips in the door jam area) just will not come loose. To the point that I've started to crack the mount of the panel itself. I stopped the moment that happened so I avoid any further damage, but it seems like the clips have become too hard and will not release from the metal hole in the door. Any tips?

The passengers side rear seat (not the 3rd row seat) has a rattle coming from the bottom of the seat while driving. I've tried adding grease to the seat rails since that's where it seems be coming from, but wondering if there's a known annoyance there with an easy fix. Grease seemed to help a little, but it's still there/comes and goes.

I also found the car has it's original battery, dated 19/13 on the terminal.. I can definitely tell as well, because if I leave the key on for more than 5 minutes without the engine running, I get the low battery warning. I tried ordering a battery from a dealer 3 hours from my location, but they said they can't ship batteries. I really don't want to drive 6 hours for a battery, so how do you guys go about getting Volvo replacements? I don't like the idea of putting a cheap local autoparts store battery in this car, plus the Volvo battery is actually cheaper, even with shipping costs.

Lastly is the exterior trim. The chrome just looks meh in a lot of places, mainly around the windows. Foggy, spotty, etc. No pealing or flaking, just not clean. Some of the black trim (not the plastic items like wheel arches) around the windows are also getting spotty/foggy looking. Anything to I can do to clean/restore these items? Car will be garage kept while we own it (which I'm hoping will be a very long time).

Other than that, it's just a faulty door lock on the passengers side door (another reason I need to get the panel off), and a couple small missing items like the rings that go around the door locks. I can grab items like that from FCP though.

[nedc]

Love the interior color! Never seen that color combo before. Maybe it's the speakers rattling and not the door panels? When they get blown out from too much bass that can happen. Not sure what's going on with the door panel clips, maybe someone more knowledgable will have a suggestion. I would not hesitate to use a battery from any auto parts store, Walmart, etc. As long as the cold cranking amps are close to OE you should be good. After all, Volvo does not manufacture their own batteries...

[Krons]

+1 on Walmart for the battery as their warranty is decent and their stores are everywhere. On my kids 2005 I found it could take two sizes (H6 and H8 if I recall right) so went with the larger one.

For trim I’d anticipate any standard polish should work. If needing completely re-done could be painted, just did this on my other kids 2002 S60 where the plastic trim had faded. Just takes a lot of masking and prep to do it right.

Can’t help on door removal, hopefully a YouTube video out there on it. Agree it could be a speaker out. Dynamat or similar product in the doors may help dampen rattles too.

[soulvoid21]

Appreciate the comments. Speaker definitely isn't the problem. If I put pressure on the door panels near the handles, the rattling stops. It's various places in the two front doors that have the rattles that I can get to stop by putting pressure on different spots of the panel. Unfortunately, I've watched every XC90 door panel video I could find, and none of them were of any additional help Everyone just say to pull hard by hand, which is not working in my case. I wish they would have used the S60 style clips, they're so easy to work with! I may try getting a long pair of snips of some kind, cut the clip and just get replacements. I don't mind replacing the clips, but finding panels in this good of condition will be hard.

I'll go with an Auto Parts battery, I just never have luck with them. They always seems to fail right after the warranty expires. This Volvo battery (which are made by Bosch IIRC) is 10 years old and still works great, but obviously doesn't have the capacity it used to.

If anyone has any suggestions on polish to use, don't be afraid to mention a brand

[chitownV]

Beautiful interior!!!

Definitely upgrade to the H8 larger battery. The hold-down has two slots so you can use the larger one. Many of us use an AGM H8 battery with good results.

The door panels/cards can be a pain to remove. The handle cover is the hardest part to do without cracking any of the plastic. Different years have slight variations to the handle cover. Remove it on a warm day so the plastic is more flexible (as much as it could be) use plastic trim tools and search how to remove it on YouTube. There is a Torx screw under the handle that is probably holding the panel on.

With the door rattle, I had some when I upgraded a pair of speakers and my amp (used the factory upgraded Dynaudio amp). The first things to check are loose speakers and the speaker grills since they are just press-formed and inserted into the panel. If the previous owners and passengers were kicking the door open, this would dent the grills. You can then go through the back of the panel and see where to add foam on the surface, as well as in between panel sections.

While in there, add some sound deadening material to the doors to help reduce road & wind noise. I used to do monthly 1500-mile round trip drives and in the 11hr one-way routes, a small noise could get annoying. The sound deadening and foam on the door panel helped reduce the road & wind noise where I could lower the stereo volume level a couple of notches. This helped reduce ear fatigue.

Lastly, I have not had a 2nd-row seat rattle nor have I explored if there is any adjustment that could help. However, if you are getting a seat track rattle, it's possible it has a worn bushing. If you cannot find the part, you might be able to create one yourself using Delrin. Here are two videos on a GM and BMW that show how a rattle on the seat track happens, as well as how it's fixed. For now, if it's not the bushing, maybe you can slide the rear seat forward or aft a little to see if it helps reduce the rattle.

Good Luck!

[soulvoid21]

Beautiful interior!!!

Definitely upgrade to the H8 larger battery. The hold-down has two slots so you can use the larger one. Many of us use an AGM H8 battery with good results.

The door panels/cards can be a pain to remove. The handle cover is the hardest part to do without cracking any of the plastic. Different years have slight variations to the handle cover. Remove it on a warm day so the plastic is more flexible (as much as it could be) use plastic trim tools and search how to remove it on YouTube. There is a Torx screw under the handle that is probably holding the panel on.

With the door rattle, I had some when I upgraded a pair of speakers and my amp (used the factory upgraded Dynaudio amp). The first things to check are loose speakers and the speaker grills since they are just press-formed and inserted into the panel. If the previous owners and passengers were kicking the door open, this would dent the grills. You can then go through the back of the panel and see where to add foam on the surface, as well as in between panel sections.

While in there, add some sound deadening material to the doors to help reduce road & wind noise. I used to do monthly 1500-mile round trip drives and in the 11hr one-way routes, a small noise could get annoying. The sound deadening and foam on the door panel helped reduce the road & wind noise where I could lower the stereo volume level a couple of notches. This helped reduce ear fatigue.

Lastly, I have not had a 2nd-row seat rattle nor have I explored if there is any adjustment that could help. However, if you are getting a seat track rattle, it's possible it has a worn bushing. If you cannot find the part, you might be able to create one yourself using Delrin. Here are two videos on a GM and BMW that show how a rattle on the seat track happens, as well as how it's fixed. For now, if it's not the bushing, maybe you can slide the rear seat forward or aft a little to see if it helps reduce the rattle.

Good Luck!

Hello!

I plan to get the largest battery I can from my local auto parts store. I always do with my Volvos, since no models seem to like weaker batteries. Partly my reason to try and find a Volvo branded battery. All of my cars have them and I've never had to change them (yet, knock on wood..).

Regarding the door panel, I do have the "two piece" handle variation. Surprisingly, the silver trim piece is the least of my worries! That came off with no problem. But I still cannot get the upper clip to come loose, the one just below the tweeter/BLIS indicator. We keep the car in a detached garage with no insulation, and it's crazy hot/humid here right now. Garage is currently 95F and the car has been in there all night/day. Still, that freaking clip will not budge out of it's spot.. I may try to see about cutting it off and ordering a new clip. Not really sure what else I can do without breaking the panel (more..).

The plan to fix the rattles was exactly as you stated. Putting additional adhesive padding in the doors. I can tell you that it's absolutely the pieces clipped to the panel internally that are rattling, and the panel itself hitting the door. Speaker grill and entire door panels are in immaculate condition. Not even a single scratch on any of the 4. Only items loose externally on the panels is the window switches. Those rattle like crazy from the bass as well.

I was able to fix the rear seat by loading the rails with "red and tacky" grease that I have. I've had the same tube of it for 15 years and it's always fixed noises for me! XD I guess I just didn't put enough on the first time. I filled both sides of the rail this time and slid the seat forward/back a bunch. Old grease seemed to be dirty was all. Will do this to all the seats once it cools off here to avoid future issues.

[chitownV]

Nice!

I am assuming you are using a panel removal tool to help give leverage without flexing the door card too much. I am there with you if you can visually see the white or yellow plastic clip, then I too would just break it. Retrieve the broken piece later inside the door. When you do remove the vapor barrier foam, it's a good time to add sound deadening. Ironically, I did a test years ago (maybe decades ago?) and the butyl/aluminum helps to insulate from both cold and hot exterior panels and door skins. This helps keep the interior temps more stable when you need it.

After the 3.2 engine maintenance for 100k miles and the driveline fluids, next will be the XC90 suspension components. Remember, the XC90 has an amended approach compared to the P2 S60 P2 and at the 100k mile mark most likely all the front suspension should be replaced. The reason is the XC90 is 500-700lbs heavier, the rubber suspension parts are larger (more rubber, yet more rubber to flex and go bad affecting geometry), yet it still uses some P2 common parts like the front ball joints (it's not larger or beefed up).

Good luck with the rest of the repairs and maintenance and keep us up to date. Good to bring that beautiful XC90 some TLC so it lasts another 10 years.