Hello,

Firstly, thank you in advance if you're reading this..

To get straight to the point without boring anyone with the finer details...

ISSUE RE:2010 XC90 V8 MY10:

For example. When driving with approx. less than 1/4 of fuel left in the tank (displaying on the dashboard gauge), and in parallel the digital reading displays 90km remain (until empty). From this point, if we were to drive for another 8-10kms the amber fuel gauge light on the dash will appear, and the digital read will display around 75kms until empty. At this point we really have approx. 4km to until the car runs out of fuel.
When the car runs out of fuel, the digital reading displays 80-75km remaining. Sometimes we are able to restart the car and drive for another 500-800 meters until it completely runs out of fuel.

unfortunately this has happened for us on a few occasions, twice when we are trying to capture results for Volvo to diagnose.

And yes, we have taken it back to Volvo twice, they have claimed that they have changed and recalibrated the gauges within the tanks and Volvo head office cannot find any historical cases that are similar to mine. They also claim that it takes about 30kms for the digital meter to re-set and be accurate..I think this is a load of crock because if I was driving on a highway, I might not have 30kms..

They have also tested the car while it was stationary and told me that they can get the car running with less than a litre of fuel and the digital reading was 5 kms, then 0 kms...

I also said that stationary testing isnt the same and they should test it on the road and highway...they wouldnt

So now I'm really stuck without any ideas. This has been causing my wife and I issues for 12 months now. we have a everything is running perfectly fine, however the fuel gauge is causing us pain for over 12 months.

My friends own various Volvo and I also have owned a BMW, MERC...and digital gauges have worked perfectly in all cases..

Is there a fix? or is this just normal?

Appreciate any feedback.

Thank you

Jimmy

 

This is what I gave Volvo...

 

Thank you for the enormous volume of responses I'm guessing that this issue is very rare especially in V8s

 

Well normally when that happens there are 2 possible reasons that it would be doing that. The first thing which I have encountered many times if the floats tend to stick cashing it to read more gas than there normally would be. The second would be that somewhere inside the tank the line is pinched and when you get to about a quarter tank it cuts out because it is not supplied with fuel. But that's unlikely unless you have had the pump replaced before. Seeing as you took it to the dealer they must have seen that before and checked it so there might be something else going on.

 

Hi Damien, thank you for your response.

YES I have taken the car back to the dealership twice. They did say that the float in one of the two tanks have been re-calibrated. They also told me that their are two tank compartments and one of them has the float which works similar to a toilet action (thats what they tell me)..and that things are working perfectly fine.

During both returns, they had the car overnight to which they would have syphoned most of the fuel out for testing. According to their reports, the car was stilling running with 5ltrs, 2ltrs, and 1lt of fuel remaining. And that the gauge did show 70kms, 30km, 10km, 0km......

Whether they have taken the car for a test run to simulate the issue is yet to be proven, and Im not saying that Volvo is lying or the above wasnt true, however I just cant believe that this is happening while we are driving.

Unfortunately for me, the car is now not covered under the manufactures warranty. And what makes it even worse for my wife and I is the fact that we didnt take up the extended 1-2yrs warranty they offered..lesson learnt I guess.

if you have any other ideas, I would be most grateful and would share it with my local mechanic.

Cheers

 

Hi Damien, sorry to be bother again...are the two things mentioned above easily detectable? and how long would it take roughly to diagnose? only asking because I'm thinking about taking it to my local mechanic.

cheers

 

Well to check for the sticking float I normally would use VIDA to check how much fuel was actually in the tank vs. How much was the computer would be reading. The kinked line the mechanic would need to take the pump out along with the level sensor.

 

Hypercritically speaking, how long would the two processes take?

cheers

 

Hi Damien,

managed to grab hold of the service invoice from Volvo, could you please verify what you mentioned above to what was executed by Volvo? I really concerned because the last two drives by wife indicated that the car was about to stall when the fuel gauge was still at 120Kms and the orange light didnt even appear.

It would be greatly appreciate if anyone else can verify.

thank you

 

So the problem is still happening? It shows that they have replaced the fuel pump already but the other side also has a float.

 

Hi Damien,

yes the problem is still occurring, getting worse. as mentioned earlier even at approx 120km remaining while driving on the freeway, the car feels like its going to run out of fuel and stall...just the other day, my wife had to pull over and wait for 3 minutes..restarted the car then drove to the nearest petrol station. it is getting to a stage where everything feels like pot luck. very hard for me to explain this to the guys at Volvo.

in relation to the float, i do vaguely remember them mentioning something about looking it...any ideas?

cheers mate.

 

To me it kinda sounds that the right side float is caught up on the wires for the fuel level sensor. How many times have you taken it to the dealer?

 

Twice. from the invoice given nothing made mention of the right side float. i just bet if i call them, they will say "yes, we've checked that' agrrr! this is frustrating

Is this right side float a common issue? does it require any additional parts to be purchased and installed? might just buy the part on-line and give it to my local mechanic...this is how upsetting I have become.

 

I spoke with Volvo dealership today. They said that the right side pump was was replaced which included a new sensor during the replacement. They seem confident that no twists are in the hose because the engine would be cutting out regularly if that was the case. The sensor on the left was not replaced.

I also asked them for a price to replace the sensor on the left.

Do you think that it could be the sensor on the left?

 

The times that I have discovered a small kink in the line the engine would shut off with a quarter tank left. Honestly there is a lot of things that can go wrong but that is a good possibility but without having the vehicle in front of me and no data from VIDA that is just a game.

 

Hi Damien,

if there's a kink in the line, would it be located on right or left side?

 

Normally the kink is going to be located in the drivers side of the fuel tank. The fuel tank is a saddle tank so you would need to route the hose from the right side to get it over the middle and end on the left side. It is possible to kink the line by forcing the line over the middle.

 

I have had a similar problem on my 2006 XC90. After 2 fuel pump replacements due to bad gas and a new tank.
For about the last 4 years if I get below 1/4 tank (sometimes 1/3) and am driving at highway speeds my car runs out of fuel. I then proceed to pull over and let the car cool down for a few minutes. It usually starts right back up and I proceed to the next gas station. This is a rare occasion because I now don't drive over 250miles.

I don't believe it is a float issue as I have only traveled ~250 miles on a 21 gal tank and I only put 12-14 gallons of fuel in the tank to fill. Also in town I can drive further, but usually don't because I don't want to risk it shutting down and their are gas stations everywhere.


The dealer couldn't replicate and told me they checked the pump and the floats. One smart*** mechanic told my wife you shouldn't be driving with a tank below 1/2 as it heats up the pump.


Any ideas?