AWD Problem

[xvxvictory]

Hi guys,
My friend 2004 XC90 went for diagnostics and the following came back:

"Angle gear has a heavy grinding noise, Gearings in angle gear are damaged causing AWD to not function and adding stress on transmission. Recommendation is to replace the Angle Gear + Sleeve"

Total cost is $1980 Angle Gear Part & $140 for the Sleeve part + 5 hours labour (~500)

The car is not leaking oil or anything like that. Is he out to lunch for the pricing?

Thanks

[ggleavitt]

That it's not leaking might suggest more an interface issue versus an internal problem but in either case the part will need to come off to see. If it's interface, failure can be noisy if some splines remain on sleeve and input shaft or it can be relatively quiet if the interface is completely stripped, either way failure results in no power being delivered to the rear wheels. Usual "quick test" is to get under a cold parked vehicle, see if you can turn the driveline manually (it's not supposed to turn if everything is working properly).

A Volvo "exchange" bevel gear will run around $1750 plus core if you buy from an internet reseller so the $1980 from the mechanic is not that far off. Sleeve kit and labor (subframe does not need to drop to get the bevel gear out for this powerplant) appear to be also in range.

Sometimes on the AW5x vehicles it's just the sleeve that's been stripped but you won't know until you open everything up. With the introduction of the TF-80, the sleeve was hardened so it's usually both the sleeve and bevel gear input shaft that are compromised, at least as I've ever seen. No leaks as it's a mechanical strip (assuming this is the cause).

Entirely possible there's an internal failure but the usual failure mode looks like this (V8/TF-80 example shown, both sleeve and shaft are worn and stripped):

Transmission to bevel gear sleeve:

IMG_2076.JPG (91.38 KiB) Viewed 308 times

Bevel gear input shaft:

IMG_2079.JPG (57.52 KiB) Viewed 308 times

edit 043022- No need to assume 2.5T or T6, mechanic noted angle versus chain. Remove first sentence, change to interface.

[chitownV]

The car is not leaking oil or anything like that. Is he out to lunch for the pricing?

Thanks

No, that pricing is reasonable and sounds accurate. The angle gear and sleeve is the Achilles heal of early XC90s and all of the P2 platform. While the seal can leak with older XC90s, oil doesn’t have to be present to strip out the angle gear sleeve. Hard launches can contribute to wearing the sleeve splines out.

If your friend needs Awd, unfortunately a decision has to be made how he wants to get this fixed. It is a laborious process and finding a good used angle gear could take time as inspection of the splines is needed. A good used one should still have all the seals changed.

If your friend doesn’t need awd, people have removed the driveshaft and driven in Fwd only. People have also driven this way as they went through the process of finding a good used angle gear and ordering the replacement parts.

It’s sucks when an angle gear sleeve goes and worse if not caught early enough, it strips the splines of the angle gear. Some people have let their Volvos go for this reason. There are YouTube videos on removing the angle gear yourself, but I wouldn’t suggest it unless you have experience wrenching beyond just doing oil & brakes.

Good luck!