Hello,

I just picked up a 2004 XC90 with an unusual Air Conditioning issue where it runs fine for the first 15-20mins of driving, then it starts blowing warm. Previous owner told me that two different (not Volvo) shops told him the problem is some small part behind the dash that is easy to replace, but requires dash removal that makes the repair cost-prohibitive.

Has anyone else experienced this issue with the XC90? If so, what was your fix?

Thanks in advance for any info...

 

The most common reason the ac stops working after 20 minutes is the clutch gap is too large - If the gap is too large removing shims to get the correct gap usually solves the no cooling after driving for a while worse when hot outside.

Dash removal is needed to get to the heater fan motor on a xc90 (unfortunately) but that is not the cause of your problems - I trust it still blows just does not blow cold.

 

Thanks again! Wow, you are extremely helpful and insightful for these cars (that's me with Acura RL and early water-cooled Porsche 911's) and I thank you for responding to all three of my posts today!!!!

I spent 30 minutes under the hood with a flashlight, a really long screwdriver and three zip-ties yesterday. A/C blows full time and cold enough to hang and transport meat now. The ziptie-fix did the trick. Also (not previously mentioned) was that the passenger side mirror was taped into the housing with black duct tape. Apparently, the result of smacking the mirror against something immobile... I assumed the mirror was completely broken. I pulled off all of the tape and looked at the back of the glass and found that all the parts were there and none were broken. I managed to put the tension springs back into their slots and get everything snapped back together and was able to make the mirror work again, completely! Some carefully placed electrical tape around the cracks on the mirror housing and now you can't even see that the mirror is cracked!!!! Very impressed with Swedish mirror engineering at this point. Saved myself a $50-90 ebay purchase for a replacement with another 20 minutes of just time and tape.

Thanks again.