T5 Hybrid - some worrying faults.....

Faults and Technical chat for the Volvo XC40
virtualal
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:05 pm

Post by virtualal »

Hi all

Had my T5 Hybrid since March. Great car but it has developed some worrying glitches and its only done 4000 miles. Would be interested to know if anyone here has had similar :-

1. When switching from electric to petrol drive in Hybrid mode there is a massive pause in power delivery. Its so pronounced on a dual carriageway I have nearly been hit up the rear trying to accelerate from a roundabout and following traffic is caught out by the sudden lack of progress. But no warning lights come on - just the electric / petrol display whizzing up and down like it cannot decide which to prioritise.

2. Stop / Start Button - car has refused to switch on despite having foot on brake pedal. Finally got it to work by pressing down ridiculously hard on the brake.

3. Limp home mode and loss of power warning light coming on randomly.

4. Gurgling / knocking noise from LH side when raining. I believe this is a sunroof drain from reading posts here.

Real shame - I think the powertrain / gearbox is overly complicated to have to deal with electric and petrol going to the same wheels. Most other hybrids send electric to one lot and petrol to the other as a cheap way of delivering a form of 4x4. Would be less complex than this Volvo system.

Any intel would be much appreciated before I dump it back on the dealer.
T5 R Design Hybrid

Deleted User 2507

Post by Deleted User 2507 »

Still waiting for mine, I seriously would be taking that in. I'm coming from a Lexus IS300h and currently on my second one and I've never had a minutes trouble switching between Petrol and Electric, it's only Lexus's lack of plug in that has brought me here. This would be a real shame if others report the same.
Wheaters55
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:13 pm

Post by Wheaters55 »

Picking mine up on 4 Sep 20. Same for me, it would be back to the dealer pronto! That's a lot of cash for a motor that's not 100%.
T5 Recharge Inscription, Crystal White, Charcoal interior, tinted rear windows + space saver spare.
Delivered 15 Sep 20
virtualal
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:05 pm

Post by virtualal »

Thanks !

Update for you on these faults. Firstly - dealer and staff have been excellent in being straight no nonsense in their approach. However I had the mother of all battles to get a courtesy car as they said I wasn't able to have one due to Covid. Once that was resolved in the car went.

Sunroof gurgle - known fault - drains need extending and the technical fix is underway. Squint has posted on this forum about it and I have the technical repair notes from Volvo. I got them off Facebook in case the dealer quibbled - but they didn't.

Phone volume well low when connected by Bluetooth - also then stereo volume drops and wont come back. Known software fault - software reboot being done.

Drop in power / limp home / starter button they think is all related to the same issue..... a software glitch. Currently liaising with Sweden. Presumably some 15 year old teccy is having to write some code to repair the glitch - assuming they can.

I think this will be 5 days minimum in the shop...will let you all know further when I do but my word if I hadn't got the courtesy car things would have been tricky.
T5 R Design Hybrid
ChrisLF
Posts: 1346
Joined: Wed Apr 24, 2019 8:21 am
Location: Heart of England

Post by ChrisLF »

It's funny how these glitches never show up when manufacturers are doing their extensive testing!

Chris
2023 B4 Plus Dark FWD in Silver Dawn. Tinted Rear Windows. Spare Wheel & Tow Bar dealer fitted.

Gone - 2019 T4 R-Design FWD in Bursting Blue. Winter & Convenience Packs, Power Seat, Front Park Assist, Rear Camera, Spare Wheel & Tow Bar.
virtualal
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:05 pm

Post by virtualal »

Isn’t it ? I remember when Jeremy Clarkson was just a motoring journalist (and not a TV person) and he pointed out that if the aerospace industry had the same approach to reliability as car manufacturers no one would (rightly) ever set foot on a plane. After all “they all do that” is no consolation at 40,000 ft.
T5 R Design Hybrid
Travisthedog
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 10:51 pm

Post by Travisthedog »

Sadly I have to concur here. The power delivery is astonishing.........

In big lumps. In between which the the power flatlines for what seems like an eternity. Its like glacial turbo lag. There is simply nothing happening and it makes overtaking a very scary business indeed. You know the power is there but your never quite sure its going to be there when you REALLY need it.

Mines done 4000 miles and has been back to the dealer for an oil sensor fault (oil light came on after 900 miles telling me to put a litre in immedialtely, which i did, then again after another 1000 miles - which i ignored as there was no oil on th edrive and if it had lost 2 liters of oil internally, i think i would have noticed!

Headlamp Fault light was next - Cleared at the garage

Bits of plastic trim appearing in the drivers footwell.

In "pure" mode it stubbornly refuses to go to EV power only and keep the petrol engine running even on a full charge.

And now it feels like the engine has a misfire, or its constantly hunting for the right mode making for avery uncomfortable seasick inducing ride.

Back to the dealer again next week sadly
T5 Twin Engine R Design Pro
Thunder Grey
eugen61
Posts: 1211
Joined: Sun May 10, 2020 7:33 am

Post by eugen61 »

Mass market car manufactures will test brand new platforms and engines extensively and after launch rely on malfunction data collected from dealers / buyers to correct “weak spots”. Therefore, the older a model, the more reliable it gets. XC40 was launched in 2017, so 3 years of user data from hundreds of thousand of vehicles sold should produce a very reliable car out of the assembly line.

Unfortunately, for XC40 Hybrid Volvo decided to use a new drivetrain build. Instead of using the existing T8 drivetrain (2L petrol FWD + electric motor RWD), Volvo opted for a design where the electric motor is linked to a new auto 7 gearbox and 3 cylinder petrol engine. The new technology does not benefit yet from enough user data to be as reliable as, lets say T5, where the 2L engine and A8 gearbox has 5 years of user data from the entire Volvo model range.

Hopefully, the problems you’re experiencing are only software related and easy to fix, allowing you to join the 98% happy XC40 owners 8-) https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/1141597 ... as-boring/
stu22
Posts: 260
Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:36 pm
Location: Colchester

Post by stu22 »

As already said I'd make a stab at software.

I had a Mercedes C300h which was a diesel / electric hybrid. At first I thought it was a total shed to drive with poor gear changes and terrible changeover however after complaining to my dealer they uploaded the latest software which made it far better, guess with service experience and feedback they continually improve. Shame that Mercedes have a policy of only updating software when customers complain, not at every service like Volvo do.
virtualal
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:05 pm

Post by virtualal »

Some great observations. My local independant (who does my other cars) wont touch Jaguar Land Rover because of all their software issues and was told by a JLR mechanic that in a service once they have changed the oil - its basically a question of hooking the car up to a datafeed that downloads a series of patches and updates - generally 25 for each car !!
T5 R Design Hybrid
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