Obviously it could be something else other than the evaporator, but let's just focus on the diag of evaporator first.

From my experience, with small to moderate size leak on evaporator like yours, leak detector can rarely pick up a trace of 134A from the air vent, I tried that on almost every car that came in with already diagnosed evaporator leak, no reliable result from my Inficon Stratus detector which is more high end than the leak detectors most shop and dealer have, I've gotten a few hits from the first blast of air coming out of the vent maybe like a couple PPM for a split seconds, but it's extremely hard to duplicate, maybe one of those really high end Bacharach detector can pick up the traces reliably but I seriously doubt any dealer or shop would have it.

Have them run the car with AC on full blast for a while, turn it off and let it sit under the sun, and then run the leak detector around the evaporator drain area periodically, it might take a couple tries to start seeing result, usually my inficon detector can pick up small traces amount of 134a reliably after letting it sit for 30min to 1hr, if they can't duplicate, they'd have to either isolate the evaporator and leak test it from under the hood or take out the blower motor to expose one side of the evap coil and run their leak detector directly there. If you are in Houston, my shop can take a quick look at it for you.

 

Holy crap! Imagine if you didn’t have the warranty! Fidelity is acting like any other insurance company: saving money and denying claims, even when it’s without cause. Remind the dealer of the rental car reimbursement they must pay per the contract. This alone has gotten me either:
-a loaner that magically appeared
-or the correct diagnosis to be covered by the VIP warranty

Push back hard on this.

 

Is the low pressure line the hose at the top? If it is, my 2019 T6 Inscription had an obvious leak and was replaced. I didn't buy warranty so I'm hoping that was the only issue. I also paid for the leak dye in case I lose cold air again. So far 1 month later, still cold air.

Hopefully the dealer put dye in to see where the leak is. Fidelity needs to honor the warranty and fix whatever is needed. Good luck!

 

You'll need to get it diagnosed with a borescope. In the past when dealing with extended warranty companies on this issue, I have used a borescope, ran the scope up through the evaporator temperature sensor hole (sensor removed), leaks will generally be seen across the top edge of the front of the evaporator, sometimes in the fins towards driver side. The leak is usually very small but the tracer dye can be seen in the borescope image. I've never had success when using a sniffer to detect those leaks. Also if using a sniffer in the dash vents with system running it will likely never detect due to airflow. R134 is heavier than air so if using a sniffer, you wouldn't want the system running (will be higher pressure in evaporator w/o running) and use the sniffer in the condensate drain as the R134 being heavier than air will naturally settle to the lowest point. Checking that way, I would charge the system to full charge, let sit overnight, DO NOT run AC or Start the vehicle, do not run fan either, then check outlet of condensate drain with sniffer. I had a borescope that also recorded video and stills to assist Insurance Adjusters and never had a claim denied using this method. Good luck.

 

It is normal for CPO or 3rd party repair insurance coverage to send out an adjuster for repairs over a certain dollar amount. The adjuster needs to take pictures and verify the complaint. We have had to remove the transmission, wait on the adjuster to show up and take pictures of a leaking rear engine seal. CPO will cover the repair as long as they can see, verify the complaint. After the factory 4/50, Volvo is done with warranty, it is handed over to CPO or other 3rd party warranty. This does not help you, the customer out, that is just how the system works. As mentioned, vent AC sniffer rarely detects freon.
AC evap on SPA cars 2016- have had a higher failure rate for evaporator leaking. There is a TJ about installing an inline temp sensor resistor on all TYPE, P5 from build week 201505 to 202327.
This is week 5 of 2015 to week 27 of 2023.
On long 2-3 hrs or more of non stop driving, the evap temp sensor would not turn off the AC compressor. The below 32 degree evap would freeze the dripping evap water into a solid block of ice. This would stop or restrict air flow coming out of the dash vents. If you shut the car off, get gas or whatever, the ice would melt and cold ac air would be restored until it froze up again. The pic shows where most all P5 evaporators leak freon. Did the ice freeze up help the evap to crack and start to leak, I do not know.
What about cars that were never driven 3 hrs to experience evap ice freeze up, they still leaked freon in the same place. The inline resistor somehow stopped the AC from getting cold enough to freeze the evap into a block of ice. Borescope thru the temp sensor hole is a good idea as @Oceans60R mentioned.
Getting the dealer to go along with this test could be an issue. We all know that it needs an evaporator,
it just has to be verified. You may have to agree to teardown, then if it is leaking CPO will cover the repair.

 

Great that @PLE229 was able to get this warrantied.

The inline resistor somehow stopped the AC from getting cold enough to freeze the evap into a block of ice.



View attachment 309359

View attachment 309360
View attachment 309363

Should SPA owners with functional ACs proactively add that inline resistor?

 

Tell dealer to pull glove box and blower fan out. Using uv light and mirror you can get exposed great view of evaporator.

 

Wow, thanks for all the helpful input! I’ve reached out to the dealer to suggest bore scope diagnosis. Fortunately we do have a loaner right now so we are covered for our transportation needs. This is awesome community support.

 

I understand there are TWO of these evaps on the SPA XC90 (front and back). Yeah - you're lucky to have the warranty. There's also a line resistor install that can help minimize the issue? @LukeFlynn or @Tech are you aware of this or what it does?

[edit - I see it mentioned above now that I read further in the thread. Should have known @volvogod would know too. The worrisome thing is the parts - aren't they destined to fail again in the future? Is there no updated part family?]

 

Not saying these parts never fail on their own, but they often don't. Do it right, check for other leaks in the system, low on charge causes the coil to freeze and this cycle eventually will cause it to crack.

I'll use my own car as an example, I found the evaporator leak on my S60 with the sniffer, also ran it on the rest of the system, no issues. Had the dealer fixed it with the Volvo extended warranty. Being a MVAC specialist myself, I didn't really trust their work, so I went over everything again, my RRR machine passed it for the vacuum test, then I pressure tested it, and no surprise it failed, found a small leak in one of the compressor hoses with my ultrasonic leak detector, which is likely the cause of evaporator failure.

Point is AC problem is often not diagnosed completely and correctly. Most shops will hook up their auto RRR machine, let it run its auto cycle and call it good, they are betting on their luck on no immediate comeback. Ask around shops that do MVAC, how many micron can their RRR machine vacuum pump pulls down to, most won't know because they don't even have a micron gauge, which is a very basic tool that many HVAC techs have, but somehow not widely adopted by MVAC space, it just blows my mind how the industry standard of pulling vacuum on vehicles is by time, not micron reading, that's the equivalent of building an engine with a tape measure, sometimes you get it right, sometimes you dont.

Rant over.

 

I know it's not popular when I point it out, but it's a pet peeve of mine. Not everything is a safety issue. Cars worked perfectly fine and safe without AC for many decades. Black ones too. I lived in Atlanta for a few years and had a mix of cars with no ac or broken ac. No children or pets were harmed.

But it is a real problem, and one that the warranty will cover once they get what they need.

Fidelity isn't saying there isn't a leak, they are saying they don't see it at the evaporator. They didn't say they are just using the sniffer, they said they saw no evidence of a leak AND the sniffer showed nothing. The dealer is guessing it's at the evaporator, and there is a good chance they are right. What you need them to do is find proof. There is a leak somewhere, and there is a way to show it... that's what needs to happen. And then they will fix whatever the leak is. Dealer needs to find a way to show where the leak is, as Fidelity requested to reconsider.

 

A working AC system takes the moisture out of the air. Helping a driver see in humid/wet/icy conditions. And when it’s 120 degrees air temp and the the asphalt is 160+, this will be a safety issue when the car gets over 130 degrees with children or an elderly person in the car (or any number of real scenarios). You can’t just put your windows down in an ice or rain or snow storm and expect the windows to clear up. Cmon man 😂

If AC is a safety issue in your home (it is), then it is absolutely a safety issue in the car.

 

Knowing how much trouble this is on the XC90, I'd gladly pay a specialist every once in a while rather then deal with the exorbitant cost of repair and replacement. Since a/c is used all year for things other than just cooling, what would you suggest may be the frequency for this to potentially be reviewed? Once a year? Once every 20-30K miles? To me this sounds like visiting the dentist for a cleaning every so often, to make sure things are good...

Not saying these parts never fail on their own, but they often don't. Do it right, check for other leaks in the system, low on charge causes the coil to freeze and this cycle eventually will cause it to crack.

I'll use my own car as an example, I found the evaporator leak on my S60 with the sniffer, also ran it on the rest of the system, no issues. Had the dealer fixed it with the Volvo extended warranty. Being a MVAC specialist myself, I didn't really trust their work, so I went over everything again, my RRR machine passed it for the vacuum test, then I pressure tested it, and no surprise it failed, found a small leak in one of the compressor hoses with my ultrasonic leak detector, which is likely the cause of evaporator failure.

Point is AC problem is often not diagnosed completely and correctly. Most shops will hook up their auto RRR machine, let it run its auto cycle and call it good, they are betting on their luck on no immediate comeback. Ask around shops that do MVAC, how many micron can their RRR machine vacuum pump pulls down to, most won't know because they don't even have a micron gauge, which is a very basic tool that many HVAC techs have, but somehow not widely adopted by MVAC space, it just blows my mind how the industry standard of pulling vacuum on vehicles is by time, not micron reading, that's the equivalent of building an engine with a tape measure, sometimes you get it right, sometimes you dont.

Rant over.

Yeah - but the climate keeps getting meaner. I had a Toyota 4x4 for 10 years and more than 220K miles and I bought it with no a/c. In the summer it was hot, but a truck cab is quick to cool down when slider is open in back and both doors' windows are rolled down. I agree nobody will die, but when you spend that kind of coin for a luxurious vehicle you kinda expect it to work and it's frustrating. I hope you're right that they are diligent and find the leak so the costly warranty will cough up the funding to cover it.

I know it's not popular when I point it out, but it's a pet peeve of mine. Not everything is a safety issue. Cars worked perfectly fine and safe without AC for many decades. Black ones too. I lived in Atlanta for a few years and had a mix of cars with no ac or broken ac. No children or pets were harmed.

But it is a real problem, and one that the warranty will cover once they get what they need.

Fidelity isn't saying there isn't a leak, they are saying they don't see it at the evaporator. They didn't say they are just using the sniffer, they said they saw no evidence of a leak AND the sniffer showed nothing. The dealer is guessing it's at the evaporator, and there is a good chance they are right. What you need them to do is find proof. There is a leak somewhere, and there is a way to show it... that's what needs to happen. And then they will fix whatever the leak is. Dealer needs to find a way to show where the leak is, as Fidelity requested to reconsider.

 

Hello - update here: sounds like the dealer was able to advocate for us and they have approved repair! Fingers crossed all goes smoothly. Thanks again for the community support and suggestions.

 

Regarding the Resistor, why couldn't Volvo fix this with a software update. All the resistor does is increate resistance of the evap temp thermistor which effictively makes it look like its colder than it is. I assume this is being monitored by some type of control module which then controls AC. Why cant it be fixed in software. I guess I would need to look at wiring diagrams.

 

I do not know the answer with software. It seems like it should work.
Way back when we were getting the issue with no dash air flow after driving for 2 or 3 hrs or longer, the ac worked ok after a 20 minute pit stop.
The AC worked perfectly when it was in the shop.
Opening a case or better yet talking to the Volvo service rep, he said to add an inline resistor for the evap temp sensor.
Rep told us that the evap was freezing up.
The Service rep or Tech line would have Volvo parts ship us one overnight.
I assume at that time this was still in a testing phase.
The resistor part and part number was not officially in Volvo parts to be ordered thru the Volvo network.
Volvo did release the TJ and resistor to be added when replace the AC evap.

 

Yes, I would proactively install the resistor wire. It takes 10 minutes. I bought one on AliExpress for ~$25 and had it in a week.