My wife and I just recently purchased an 08 XC90 v8 AWD. When the car's transmission is shifted from park to reverse or reverse to drive, I can hear a "tick" in the front end whenever the gears engage. I have read about older XC90's having this problem but have not heard about an 08. It's still under warranty. I also heard there was a recall for something similar to this, but again was for older XC90's, mostly 05 or earlier.

Any ideas?

 

I have a 2008 3.2L FWD and I'm having the exact same problem. I hear a loud ticking noise from the front end of the vehicle when shifting R-N-D or D-N-R but not D-N-D or R-N-R. I hear the same noise but somewhat less loudly, when the car shifts from 1st to 2nd gear after taking off in 1st and letting go of the gas so the transmission decides to shift to 2nd with my foot very light on the gas pedal. I do not hear the noise if I keep my foot steady on the gas when the car shifts from 1st to 2nd.

My car is not under warranty anymore (I have 83,500 miles on it). Since yours is under warranty, did you take it in and figure out what was wrong? Thank you

 

I looks I got the same noise on my 2009 xc90 awd 3.2. Is this normal?

 

We did take it in. They said it was the strike plate in the transmission. They said it was shifting with too much force and making a ticking noise. It required a software upgrade to the transmission, so it wasn't anything mechanical thankfully. They performed an upgrade but it is still making the noise. They said if it continues they would have to do different updates. We will be bringing it in on our next scheduled maintenance. They made it sound like it was not hurting the car any, just an annoyance. Hope this helps.

 

Sounds like axle ping, from the CV axle bolt not securing the axle tightly enough in the splines. I've seen the splines have lock-tite (green kind) put on and then noise disappeared, but axles were a pain to remove after.

 

So does this noise hurt the vehicle or is it just an annoyance?