Hello everyone, I'm a new member here but have been a Volvo owner for years now. I've got an 03 s60 that my wife and I decided to cut in half with a telephone pole Friday (the 13th). Everyone was ok, but I've got some questions and probably some parts for everyone. My question is this, has anyone experienced suspension problems with this model that cause serious hydroplaning? Don't jump all over my gun with new tires and pressure, the reason I'm asking is I've never experienced a vehicle loosing control like this girl did me yesterday. I noticed about 3 months ago that the rear end was getting "loose" when it would rain, so I immediately took her in for a new set of Yoko's. I run recommended tire pressure and I don't buy cheap tires. When our accident occurred, it had been raining for about an hour (not a new greasy rain) and I was slowing down from 60 to 50 on a well maintained Oklahoma highway (no joke intended). Now I do know that I had all the wrong environment variables against me as we were also going down hill slightly. However, when the car got to about 50 mph the rear end became completely disengaged from the road. By the time we came to a stop, we jumped a 15 ft ditch backwards and clipped a telephone pole with the rear end. As I said, this is an 03, has 75k miles on it, no previous accidents, and had no "dry" condition driving problems.
Now before everyone jumps all over me for my maintenance routines, let me warn you that I'm an ADVOCATE, I've owned and driven more cars than most car lots can hold. Everything from Flat 8s to XJ8s and I've NEVER had a vehicle do this to me. Even with nylon tires and drum brakes, my old falcon can blast over any puddle at 55mph.
So if anyone has heard of anything like this, please hit me up. And if anyone is looking for a GORGEOUS s60 grey leather interior and some rims, let me know. I'm stripping this rig and will be posting everything I get off of it but the drive train (got a project in mind....)
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First off, I glad you both are alright!

About the back end feeling loose, when was the last time you had an alignment done? I have no first hand experience with your model year, but the S60R suffer from what's known as "side hop" from the car being out of alignment and can make the back end feel like it's shimming quite a bit when you go over bumps especially in the rain where you have lower traction.

Other then that is there any chance you just hit a larger puddle? Doesn't matter how good your tires are if you hit some standing water going that fast.

I only mention this cause I live in the constantly rainy Pacific Northwest and I run very good summer tires (Bridgestone Potenza RE-11) that have excellent hydroplaning resistance and I've still hydroplaned on the freeways if I hit a patch of standing water.

 

60 in the rain is too fast for one
for two you said you had just gotten new tires, now if the shop put the new ones on the back end and rotated your older from tires to the back that will cause you to hydroplane and spin out

the most probable cause is you hit a rock in the road or perhaps a deeper puddle, pothole, or oil
there are many, many environmental factors that are may times more likely to cause this
these cars are great in rain and snow, and with yokohama tires they are some of the best cars to drive in the rain in my opinion
I think it was just an unfortunate series of events, just count your lucky stars you were in a Volvo. things might have gone much worse in something else
these really are the safest cars on the road.

basically what I'm getting at is a Volvo with 70k miles, well maintained did not cause this event
more than likely it was a cheap road made as quickly as possible

 

Thanks for the driving tips, after 18 years of hard driving with this being my only accident, that's exactly what I was asking for. Again the vehicle has 4 new Yoko's, the road in question is the same road I've been driving on for all of these 18 years. And in vehicles with MUCH worse service history.
What I'm looking for is information on any vehicle problems that could cause a serious stability issue in the rain. One reason I ask is I know that these wheels are VERY difficult to remove if they've corroded at all. I'm wondering if damage could have been done to the tie-rods or track-bars if the wheels had to be pounded off from the rear.

I wouldn't have even started this thread if I wasn't seriously concerned with the driving condition of this car. Our roads here are not "Kansas flat" and due to our annual storms, we have a very good crown to our roads here as well. And the puddle issue isn't possible as we were headed downhill, the road was wet, but without standing water where the hydro first occurred.

Thank's MadMatt for the side hop info, this actually makes since to me as the rear of the car would constantly be "pulled" in one direction even though the car is tracking straight. With this force against the rear wheels, any serious reduction in traction to the rear end would essentially allow this pulling force to take affect on the entire rear axle. Thus pulling the rear in the direction (or maybe opposite) the alignment is pulling. I'm still investigating the side hop phenomenon but if anyone knows of any other similar stories or symptoms please let me know.

I'm not looking for an insurance claim or a lawsuit, I'm concerned with the safety and welfare of my family and I. I want to know why this car reacted this way so I can make sure I know to watch for it in future FWD purchases. Thank you.

 

Sorry for your accident, glad you are all ok, speaks well of the car. I drive my car quite hard wet or dry and here in South Africa the road surfaces and or drainage are not often the best, nevermind the fine silty soil and dust that often builds up on the road surface. I have never experienced what I would consider a control issue with my car, I have exceeded its, or maybe just its tires, limits with very predictable fall off in control, very recoverable from. I might wonder if some car or truck didn't leak something on the roadway.

 

That was actually my very first thought, RGT but OHP inspected the accident site and found no oddities on the road.

I do need to clarify the actual event though now that I'm a little more educated on a true "hydroplane" When the vehicle first told me that something was wrong, it actually felt like the rear end had its own steering wheel, and it wasn't in my hand. The font end of the car NEVER broke from the road until the rear end catching up and passing it forced it to break direction. Every hydroplane incident I've read about involves a "floating" feeling above the road and nearly all loss of control front and rear. Because of the way this car acted, I actually first thought we had a tire go flat on us. If you've ever driven on a road that's under construction, and fell into a "scrape channel" that's exactly what it felt like. Like the front end and rear end had their own agendas.

So remembering this feeling had happened before I got the new tires on. I've started digging into some known volvo suspension issues and found that several of these models have experienced either worn or broken sway bars. So I read up on the symptoms and one is a loud thumping from the front or rear of the car (typically passenger). I then remembered that my wife had just asked me to dig in the bottom of the trunk cause she thought the spare tire was loose. I never heard any thumping but she claims to have heard it for a few months now (before I got tires). So now I'm digging on this, I'll let everyone know what I find out.

And thank you to everyone for the support. Backing into a telephone pole at 50 mph and 5 feet off the ground will really make to realize what's important lol.

 

Had the shocks ever been replaced? I've ridden in a car before (Buick) where the rear shock was completely shot and it wandered all over the road when wet. Other than that I do not know...we've had no problems with our 2008.