I've got a 2005 xc90 t6, it has 150 thousand miles on it right now, bought the car at 145 thousand miles, just barely bought it back in January.
I took it on a 200 mile round trip today which included climbing a pretty steep pass. When I was about 5 miles away from the town I was going to I pulled out to pass a car and I didn't even hammer on it I just eased into the gas and while I was passing them I hear this strange clattering/ticking noise, the best way I can describe the noise is think about someone putting a baseball card in between the spokes on thier bicycle wheel and spinning the wheel. That's exactly what it sounds like. I put the transmission in nuetral and it went away and then I put it back in drive and didn't hear it again.
Then on my way home I didn't hear the noise for the first 50 miles or so then I started hearing it again, it came and went the rest of the way home. I checked the fan to make sure it wasn't hitting the shroud and it isn't.
I checked the transmission fluid and it's good, in fact I just recently serviced the transmission put new fluid in it and a new filter. I can't feel any vibrations when the noise occurs. I can't get the car to make the noise unless I'm driving and it randomly comes and goes, I put it in drive and put my foot on the brake and applied throttle to put a load on it and it doesn't make the noise.
I'm scared to death that it's transmission related and I've already spent over 2 thousand dollars putting new struts, tie rods, ball joints, new tires, I can't afford another major repair on this car.
Has anyone else expierenced this noise? Anyone have any ideas as to what it could be?