I live in Florida where you use your AC constantly. But, I was surprised that my A/C compressor needed replacing at 24,000 miles on my 2012 S60 T5. I've had the car for three years and so far replaced tires, battery, and now A/C compressor. For a lightly driven car, this seems a lot to me. Anyone else experience A/C problems of this kind? My engine was knocking and the cause was the A/C.
jaybrams
There were a lot of AC problems for '11 & '12, from what I have read here and seen on the NHTSA recall/tsb site. I don't remember a full replacement from anyone, mostly it involved a loud whining and the fix was the replacement of a valve. Maybe they have updated the fix to full replacement at this point as I remember many people having to go back several times to get it fixed.
It sucks about the tires, but hopefully you replaced them with higher mileage ones. The battery is probably bad luck, like our fuel pump was.
It sucks about the tires, but hopefully you replaced them with higher mileage ones. The battery is probably bad luck, like our fuel pump was.
24K on tires isn't that terrible. I assume they were all season, so you'd hope for better. But if you break down the cost of a set of those (not a lot compared to high performance summer tires, maybe $600 installed) getting 24K instead of say 36k might be $200 extra over the 3 years you've had the car. Compared to real disaster cars people sometimes get it's not worth worrying about. I'd look at it as a chance to upgrade from mediocre to better quality tires that sound and perform better than OEM.
Batteries can start to fail at about 3 years. Life is affected greatly by extreme heat. We had a couple of batteries to replace living in S. Florida for just one year, (BMW and Saab). Again, buy the right battery the right way and install it yourself (many auto parts places do it free) and the cost is negligible vs a "normal" life battery.
I run equipment for my business and 3 years seems to be when all sorts of batteries start to have a better chance of going, from tractors to trucks.
AC compressors have failure rates, just like all parts. Sounds like there may have been issues that year. Hopefully the replacement is improved. Our '11 had zero issues with AC (or anything else) in 3.75 years. The thing is to find out how much things like this cost now before you make the decision to keep it into its old age. BMW and Mercedes can take your breath away with some parts costs. Catalytic converters on a 5 series were $2500 over a decade ago, I recall sadly. An independent Volvo specialist shop would probably be glad to give a rough price on a variety of known major replacement parts, as they want your business from the dealer.
Much more important is how big ticket items such as the engine/transmission have held up over time. Try the site truedelta for data from real owners on their cars as they age.
Batteries can start to fail at about 3 years. Life is affected greatly by extreme heat. We had a couple of batteries to replace living in S. Florida for just one year, (BMW and Saab). Again, buy the right battery the right way and install it yourself (many auto parts places do it free) and the cost is negligible vs a "normal" life battery.
I run equipment for my business and 3 years seems to be when all sorts of batteries start to have a better chance of going, from tractors to trucks.
AC compressors have failure rates, just like all parts. Sounds like there may have been issues that year. Hopefully the replacement is improved. Our '11 had zero issues with AC (or anything else) in 3.75 years. The thing is to find out how much things like this cost now before you make the decision to keep it into its old age. BMW and Mercedes can take your breath away with some parts costs. Catalytic converters on a 5 series were $2500 over a decade ago, I recall sadly. An independent Volvo specialist shop would probably be glad to give a rough price on a variety of known major replacement parts, as they want your business from the dealer.
Much more important is how big ticket items such as the engine/transmission have held up over time. Try the site truedelta for data from real owners on their cars as they age.
I had my battery fail in my 2013 RD at right around 8k miles (just a couple of months ago). Not sure why it failed but it wouldn't recharge for some reason, leaving me to call roadside assistance twice (both times in my parking garage though so no biggie).
I assume Volvo doesn't make batteries, so can't chalk that up as a Volvo issue, other than to the extent of who they contract with to supply it.
I assume Volvo doesn't make batteries, so can't chalk that up as a Volvo issue, other than to the extent of who they contract with to supply it.
32k on MY11 and no A/C issues.. I just swapped out tires. I could have waited a little longer to change them out, but I just did it anyway since I was pretty much at the wear indicators.
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