Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks

Sat 5 Dec 2015 18:59

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - Evo_101

I have been having some on going issues with my Volvo powered by the new 2.0l D4.

It's pretty lengthy but I will try to keep it short.

I bought my Volvo V40 last year and received it in October, I was aware there had been issues with the egr through this website though this was with the XC60 as it was the first to recieve this new engine. These reports also seemed to imply Volvo had a fix.

So after 8 months (June) and 11000 miles my issues started to happen with engine management light then after a few days reduced performance, my dealer was unhelpful and gave me a 2 week lead time before he could look at it.

So I contacted Volvo assist to attend my vehicle at my home, which they did within an hour, and after 20minutes diagnosed the egr as at fault and booked it in with my prefered local dealer (Not the dealer I purchased from) the next day with a hire car arranged for me to use as a courtesy car.
It took three days to repair my car when I went to collect it I was told by the service manager that my egr was fine and in actual fact it was my oil level to high, I slight comment about how I should be more careful topping up oil, before I cut him off and explained I did not top up my oil.
He had no explanation for the high oil level, obviously I as annoyed that the service technician did not call me to investigate. Anyway I had a trip organised that weekend to accepted the car back and drove the 30 minutes 20 miles back home.

I arrived home to a low oil light (it has recently transpired my oil level was fine and they actually removed to much) slightly annoyed I called for Volvo assist to attend again, promptly he arrived tested my car and confirmed it was to low, he proceeded to top up a process that took more than an hour of running testing and topping up. Eventually he told me all was fine but it took 1.5 litres to get the oil gauge half way.

So I set of on my trip to Birmingham some 90 miles with my wife in the pouring rain, about half way it became hard to clear my windscreen not thinking any ting of it other than contamination from passing traffic I pushed on, about 20miles out my engine light came on again. I completed my journey said hello to the family, went out to check my car via electronic dipstick and had an overfill message.
At that point I popped the bonnet and understood why I struggled to clear the windscreen, oil had forced its way past the filler cap sprayed inside the engine bay and up the windscreen, it was not dramatic more a fine mist and small splatter.
So again call to Volvo assist and recovery to the local dealer, which also happened to be the purchasing dealer, now I tried hard to reject the vehicle on grounds of there is no way to know if permanent damage has been caused by the overfill, but after a weekend of diagnostics and testing they fitted a new egr valve and cooler plug new software and said my car is fine and should now perform as intended.

I had also been in contact with Volvo UK as intially I wanted an extended warranty as a show of good faith from Volvo that my car would be fine. They refused, although provided me with written assurance that they would take into account this episode outside of warranty period.
I accepted the car back in good faith providing the assurances given by Volvo UK and my dealer that my car "will" perform normally and not fail me again after this latest egr valve,cooler and software update.

Well 4 months and 5000miles and my egr has has blocked again, went straight to Volvo assist this time, they promptly arrived only this time looked genuine Volvo and not a 3rd party contractor, after 10 minutes he cheerfully told me it's my egr nothing to worry about, gave me a long talk on the new updated design software etc that completely resolves all issues and makes it 100 percent reliable.
"Just like the last one installed a few months ago?" I asked him, his body language instantly changed he looked uncomfortable could not make eye contact with me, eventually he admitted they are working hard to fix the issue but as yet have no definitive fix and cannot understand why they are failing.

So off it went last week for a new cooler (the 4th revision this year perhaps and my 3rd now) the egr valve is the latest do they just cleaned that up and new software.

Okay sorry for the long winded post hope your with me.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sat 5 Dec 2015 20:41

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - scot22

Yes, thank you.

It is very helpful to hear what happens with a car when it is being used - not just what it looks like in the showroom.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sat 5 Dec 2015 21:31

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - Evo_101

Also I do not want to come across as atagonistic, but

This is an answer from this site to someones having issues with the EGR and the new VEA i-art engines in Volvo cars.

""Very simple. Before I took delivery of the Volvo S60 D4 181 I ran for 6 months and 7,000 miles, averaging 61mpg, I had a discussion with Volvo's engine man and he gave me a piece of vital information that I have been trying to get across to the public for the past 18 months: All new engines are optimised for the ECDC tests on the very best fuels in order to get the very best results, and that means Shell V-Power Nitro Plus Petrol or Diesel. If you run this engine's very sophisticated injection system on anything else you are looking for the sort of trouble you experienced. Beats me why the dealer didn't come clean and tell you this in the first place""

Bit dissapointing as this is as far as I know the first site that reported such issues.

I am sick of the implication thats "its the way you drive it sir" or "its the cheap supermarket fuel you put in it sir"

What utter nonsense, being self-employed and traveling a lot with my work i only do long journeys where the engine has plenty of time at correct temps, it is able to complete regen cycles, I do not give a damn about mpg and and only use Shell V-Power or equivilant BP and ESSO fuels and have every receipt to prove it, yet my egr lasted 11000 then 5000 respectivly.

It has nothing to do with Fuel or driving style.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sat 5 Dec 2015 23:18

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - craig-pd130

I have a MY2015 V60 D4, delivered July 2014. It had an EGR valve and cooler replacement in Feb 2015 after 7,000 miles, and the replacement units recently failed again.

Volvo has not sorted the issue - it's affecting a large number of D4 engines in all models (V40, S/V60, XC60 etc). Some owners just get a Check Engine light, others get limp mode requiring urgent attention.

Some owners are on their third replacement EGR valve and cooler.

I can say from the experiences on the Volvo UK owners forum (there is extensive information there about this problem) that it is NOT related to driving style. There are owners that do 20,000+ miles per year that have had the problem; others that use nothing but premium diesel that have had the problem.

It is a badly designed EGR valve and cooler mechanism, which isn't up to the job of handling the EGR requirements to meet Euro 6 emissions.

Volvo HQ in Sweden recently sent a group of technicians over to the UK to do live data logging in cars affected by the EGR problem in an attempt to resolve it. My dealer told me last Friday that new parts are in the pipeline based on the technicians' findings, but they cannot say when they will be available due to demand.

In short, this is a design issue: nothing to do with how owners drive, or the fuel they use.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sun 6 Dec 2015 08:17

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - Evo_101

According to the Volvo engineer that attended my vehicle I would have been fitted with the new cooler with its different internal layout.
Which I find at odds with other reports of owners not being able to have it fitted due to high demand one owner in Belgium had to wait a couple of weeks for his. It was fitted next day for me within a few hours...

The other strange statement from Volvo is this claim that a team of Volvo engineers came to the UK to run tests. Why would they do that? There are owners from Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium and Germany on various forums having the same issue. There is one German owner who is on his 4th repair now.

Another point to note here is there are now reports of owners with the D2 2.0 I-art engine beginning to have egr failures. Wonder how long it will be until the D5 in the XC90 will start to report issues.

What can us Volvo owners do?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sun 6 Dec 2015 09:41

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - craig-pd130

According to the Volvo engineer that attended my vehicle I would have been fitted with the new cooler with its different internal layout. Which I find at odds with other reports of owners not being able to have it fitted due to high demand one owner in Belgium had to wait a couple of weeks for his.

It was fitted next day for me within a few hours... The other strange statement from Volvo is this claim that a team of Volvo engineers came to the UK to run tests. Why would they do that? There are owners from Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium and Germany on various forums having the same issue. There is one German owner who is on his 4th repair now.

Another point to note here is there are now reports of owners with the D2 2.0 I-art engine beginning to have egr failures. Wonder how long it will be until the D5 in the XC90 will start to report issues. What can us Volvo owners do?

Volvo knows it has made a royal c o c k-up with the EGR design on this motor, and to its credit, it is swapping out faulty EGRs as fast as it can without arguing with owners.

From what I can tell, Volvo is now on the 4th or 5th design revision of the EGR cooler and valve, and it's still not working properly. I'm on pretty good terms with the dealer service manager at my supplying dealer and he's been quite frank about the level of work they are having to do, and the various insructions from HQ to 'fix' the problem. Basically, the EGR cooler is not up to the job of passing & cooling the exhaust gas it needs to in real-world conditions. Internally, the exhaust gas goes round a couple of S-bends while being cooled, and the soot in the exhaust plus the oily diesel goop from DPF regeneration post-injections cakes it up.

I think the reason the team of Swedish techs came to the UK is due to the sudden popularity of the D4 here, because of the favourable company car tax regime etc. I suspect we have a bigger cluster of faults than in other countries, simply because very, very few people run petrol Volvos here.

For more information, browse this thread at the UK Volvo forums. In the interest of full disclosure, I started the thread: www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=221555

It's 77 pages but the most recent information is illuminating.

A couple of owners have emailed Volvo UK to express their concerns and have had this reply:

"Thank you for your e-mail in relation to your on-going concerns with the EGR system.

"Our Technical teams both here in the UK and in Sweden are working tirelessly to ensure a permanent fix for this concern is offered to our dealer network. I'm afraid that we don't get have a timescale however we do have solutions in place to improve the situation. I have every confidence that the team at your local Volvo dealer will ensure that the very latest repair methods are completed on your vehicle.

"In addition, I can confirm that any repairs for this specific issue will be covered by Volvo Car UK, even once the standard manufacturer's warranty expires."

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sun 6 Dec 2015 10:28

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - Evo_101

I can understand the issues involved and it's not just Volvo this happens to other car manufacturers out there.

When this first occurred there was strong denial from Volvo assist, the dealerships and Volvo UK, all implied to me this is rare and has more to do with my use of the vehicle, that's what really got my back up.
Now there is acceptance there are problems and it has nothing to do with use of the vehicle, as to the extent it's hard to say, it is a significant problem though above and beyond usual egr issues and modern Diesel engines.

I don't know how to proceed, obviously I cannot accept a car that does not perform correctly and is liable to egr replacement every 10months.

I am also still greatly concerned about the oil over fill issue I encountered, I tried to reject the vehicle based on unknown damage that may of been caused internally, in the end I accepted it back after assurance from the dealership my car would be fine, only for it to need repair again 4 months later...

Do I have a chance of rejection based on the history?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sun 6 Dec 2015 10:45

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - gordonbennet

Are these water cooled EGR's perchance, if so they are proving troublesome on some lorry engines too leading to high water loss.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sun 6 Dec 2015 12:38

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - craig-pd130

Are these water cooled EGR's perchance, if so they are proving troublesome on some lorry engines too leading to high water loss.

They are. To meet Euro 6 NOx emissions, Volvo chose the high-duty EGR route rather than AdBlue and NOx traps. So the EGR cooler is a complicated casting with serptentine internal passages for the exhaust gases and coolant. Effectively, it's like a mini watercooled intercooler.

The Volvo service manager told me the original factory-fit component suffered internal leaks (either dodgy sealing or porous castings), enabling the coolant to mix with the sooty exhaust gas. This created a paste which eventually baked solid and gummed everything up.

Volvo HQ's original instructions was to clean the affected components and refit them. Then when the scale of the problem became clear, Volvo revised the cooler and valve. That didn't fix the problem either, so they revised the cooler a second time. Presumably enlarging passages and the like.

I got one of the 2nd revision EGR coolers in February 2015, at that point my car was 6 months and 7,000 miles old. These 2nd revision components are now failing again. My own 'Check Engine' light reappeared at 8 months and 8,000 miles after the replacement, and sure enough it's the EGR system that's faulty again.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Mon 7 Dec 2015 18:53

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - gordonbennet

Are these water cooled EGR's perchance, if so they are proving troublesome on some lorry engines too leading to high water loss.

They are. To meet Euro 6 NOx emissions, Volvo chose the high-duty EGR route rather than AdBlue and NOx traps. So the EGR cooler is a complicated casting with serptentine internal passages for the exhaust gases and coolant. Effectively, it's like a mini watercooled intercooler.

Much obliged to me learned friend.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sun 6 Dec 2015 12:46

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - craig-pd130

I tried to reject the vehicle based on unknown damage that may of been caused internally, in the end I accepted it back after assurance from the dealership my car would be fine, only for it to need repair again 4 months later... Do I have a chance of rejection based on the history?

I don't think so, no. However you have a comprehensive record with the dealer of all the woes. If you get any engine problems after the warranty expires, you've got a rock-solid case for hitting Volvo for 100% goodwill based on the EGR and oil-level problems.

As said in my previous post, Volvo UK knows it has bet the future of the company on the VEA engine. The diesel version has a significant problem which they have not been able to fix, despite a year of trying to do so.

This is why Volvo UK is already reassuring owners about extending the warranty on EGR-related components beyond the expiry of the normal warranty.

It's a pity it's experiencing these problems, because it's an excellent engine otherwise.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sun 6 Dec 2015 13:49

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - focussed

A possible cause, which Volvo Car Corporation has not mentioned is that the diesel fuel in Sweden is a much purer, cleaner and lighter fuel than the rest of europe. In winter they use an even lighter fuel.

Did they test the D4 on the worst grade fuel it was likely to be fuelled with?

Another possibility is that the pre-production engines ticked all the boxes for all the tests. But the production engine series could not be made to the tolerances of the hand-built pre-prod engines.

It's happened before with Volvo products. Don't ask me how I know.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sun 6 Dec 2015 16:09

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - craig-pd130

A possible cause, which Volvo Car Corporation has not mentioned is that the diesel fuel in Sweden is a much purer, cleaner and lighter fuel than the rest of europe. In winter they use an even lighter fuel.

Did they test the D4 on the worst grade fuel it was likely to be fuelled with?

Another possibility is that the pre-production engines ticked all the boxes for all the tests. But the production engine series could not be made to the tolerances of the hand-built pre-prod engines.

It's happened before with Volvo products. Don't ask me how I know.

Volvo's own literature states fuel of minimum 48 cetane, which is a fair bit lower-grade than the EN590 (51 cetane) from UK pumps. And plenty of owners report using premium diesel exclusively, yet are still on their second replacement units.

One would hope that the car was tested on fuels representative of what's available in key European markets, and in suitable conditions. But the recurring problems imply a lot of lab simulations and a lack of real-world testing.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Sun 6 Dec 2015 17:09

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - bazza

To meet Euro 6 requirements, apparently EGR is used a much higher proportion of the time, in other words, the engine is using its recirculated exhaust which are typically loaded with carbon particulates and other undesirables.

The downside to this is increased likelihood of fouling up, reduced driveability/smoothness etc ( running under oxygen deficit), although NOx is reduced and also I understand the engine runs a bit cooler.

I imagine this is the case with other manufacturers who have chosen the EGR route to meet Euro 6. It will be interesting to see how this affects diesel service/reliability regimes. I read that the VW fix is also to alter the EGR map, so that it is in play more of the time.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Mon 7 Dec 2015 18:48

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - John F

It's happened before with Volvo products. Don't ask me how I know.

Why not? Would you have to kill us? (just asking...)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Mon 7 Dec 2015 23:45

Volvo V40 - Volvo New 2.0l diesel reliability - focussed

It's happened before with Volvo products. Don't ask me how I know.

Why not? Would you have to kill us? (just asking...)

I don't feel inclined to go into the whole sorry saga of how the aforementioned company got some diesel technology so wrong in the mid eighties, it's a long story and it's not going to help the OP or the other owners and I might get done for libel or somethng if I spilt the beans and I would also like them to keep paying my pension out as well!

We sort of assume that large companies have immaculate quality control and never release products onto the market unless they are fully tested and found to be fit for use-unfortunately it's not always true.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Ask Honest John

Sell Your Car

Real MPG

Fuel Calculator