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XC90 Water Leaks

87K views 205 replies 88 participants last post by  fishdoc52  
#1 · (Edited)
After 2500 miles I have discovered my Inscription delivered in October has water leaks. Specifically water is visible in the passenger side rear interior near the cubby, and water pours out of the drivers side rear door when opened after a rain. I think this is a serious issue.

To date, I have heard this discussed by Okie, who had his car bought back by Volvo, Ikea who has received a $750 stipend for his trouble, and Bolinp78 who's problem has not yet been resolved, and others with damaged headliners (and possibly B&W speakers).

I am starting this thread to determine if anyone has received and verified a resolution to the leaks. To date, the resolutions have suggested a leak in one cars roof antenna which was not sealed properly, and a second with a cramped drain, and a third with a bad moonroof cell requiring replacement.

I would like to make sure my dealer knows how to address a hard problem to diagnose. Any successful resolution to water leaks?


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#6 ·
From what I've read so far and please correct me if I'm wrong the car has to be parked uphill for the condition to appear.

My question is can't they lift the front end of the car and spray water on it to find the leak.? Can't they take out the headliner and see where the water is getting in and trace it backwards.? It sounds labor intensive but it's probably better than I don't know ..guessing.?
 
#10 · (Edited)
capla's was flat

And you're right, but Volvo hasn't woken up yet. I've sent messages to their Facebook acct, I've told my rep. The regional manager, you name it. How many more people will report this on these forums before someone at Volvo wakes up, does a bit of extra work, communication and digging and actually figures out what's going on instead of a bunch of dealerships and VCNA techs throwing their hands up in the air and keeping people's cars in the shops for weeks?
 
#8 ·
Also, just curious... Do you guys that have leaks in your sunroofs regularly drive with them open? Maybe the act of opening and closing the sunroof causes something to mess with the drains...
 
#18 ·
If I may make another suggestion, it would probably be useful to post this issue on the official Volvo support forum here.

http://support.volvocars.com/forum/forum18-volvo-xc-my-.aspx

That forum is officially hosted by Volvo and there have been numerous posts by sanctioned Volvo staff there. It may be another way to ensure this issue gets the visibility and attention it deserves.

This is definitely a major and rather scary issue (especially with the amount of electronic sub-systems in this car, the idea of water entering the cabin is especially scary) and regardless of whether it is a systemic or a series of idiosyncratic issues, you folks deserve a good answer to your questions and satisfactory resolution to your problem.

Hopefully by bringing it to light on Volvo's official forum, you'll at least get someone's attention at the mothership level.

I wish you all the best of luck.
 
#25 ·
Another Similar issue here...

We have a similar issue to report - with an added twist. We park our car facing uphill on a slight grade. We found water in the rear storage cubby, water damage on the headliner on the passenger rear side going back into the 3rd row and we have also had water draining out of the intellisafe cluster when we start driving the car and at some point after facing downhill or hitting the brakes (interestingly we have not found water sitting in the front console after a rain...just in the rear).

In calling a local volvo dealer nobody has heard of this so we're bracing for long patience testing process to resolve this. Has anyone been able to isolate the root cause of similar issues (Drain tube, roof rack clamp, etc)?
 
#27 ·
I finally picked up my defective car today from the shop on day #30 of it's incarceration.

The plan is to drive this until our new car arrives in 2-3 months.

I spoke with my service manager today and he indicated that there is a gap between the sunroof tub and the lip that is supposed to keep water out. When the car is parked level, the lip is sufficient as a water buffer, however when the car is parked on the right incline, gravity forces the water to drip in between the tub and the lip. Their modification involved moving the sunroof tub "up" is how he described it as to eliminate the gap.

He did say that the one other XC90 that they have checked out for this issue had the same gap, and that he thinks all XC90's will have this problem until the factory adjusts.

Good news to report, however. On the 4 mile drive from service to office, I didn't have any problems!
 
#32 ·
He did say that the one other XC90 that they have checked out for this issue had the same gap, and that he thinks all XC90's will have this problem until the factory adjusts.
If this is true, Volvo is bound to recall all XC90s with sunroof to fix the defect. Not to do so would expose it to countless claims of water damages. However, we have not heard of any such recall yet.

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#29 ·
While this isn't a Volvo specific comment it does confound me why manufacturers seem to use the smallest possible rubber hoses for sunroof drains.
Why not use the largest plastic hard pipe they can find? No kinks, better water flow, not as likely to hold debris, easier to clean out if it does.

Kind of sounds like the first few years of first gen XC-90 sunroof leaks all over again.

Good luck to all. This is no fun.

Mike
 
#30 ·
The latest suggestion to me from VCNA is that I try to make a trade with my dealer since my car has been leaking. To be clear, they didn't suggest that I could demand or expect a new one from my dealer, but that I should trade in the leaky car I have for whatever amount of money my dealer would be willing to give me for it and buy a new one. As if that wouldn't set me back a few thousand dollars or be a huge ordeal for me when the only thing I did was have the bad luck to buy a leaky car. Volvo customer service is truly something else.
 
#31 ·
You should all compare your VIN sequence numbers to see if a bad batch of parts/workmanship occurred around the same time on the production line
 
#34 ·
This is indeed a shame that this problem has lingered for such a long time and even the latest XC90 has the same issue ! I mentioned in some other thread that there could be a potential class action lawsuit on XC90 and didn't even though that Volvo was sued before !

My question to the current owners is - have any recent owners encountered this issue? A lot of complaints were from people who bought their cars last year and I am hoping maybe Volvo perhaps addressed this issue? Has anyone who bought the car in February and March of this year encountered this issue?
 
#36 ·
Volvo now has a pretty quick-fix for MY16 XC90's with the issue.

Field Engineer will come in and they install a new sunroof tub seal and use a kit that has new seals to better channel water towards the drain and away from the tub seal. It's described as a "seal kit on the rear of the tub frame" on my work order.

Design defect may be too strong of a description - but it's definitely something they know well and can fix readily if it pops up.

Got my car back from the dealer at the start of a 5-day rainstorm. Haven't seen any water in the cabin since the fix.
 
#40 ·
Volvo now has a pretty quick-fix for MY16 XC90's with the issue.

Field Engineer will come in and they install a new sunroof tub seal and use a kit that has new seals to better channel water towards the drain and away from the tub seal. It's described as a "seal kit on the rear of the tub frame" on my work order.

Design defect may be too strong of a description - but it's definitely something they know well and can fix readily if it pops up.

Got my car back from the dealer at the start of a 5-day rainstorm. Haven't seen any water in the cabin since the fix.
Good to know that they have a fix for this issue. However, since Volvo knows of this issue why is this not being addressed at the factory before they ship out the cars? Or is this more like a temporary fix? Additionally, I would think that in theory every XC90 should have this issue if they were using the same kind of seal.

Still curious to get the feedback from very recent owners whether they have encountered this problem or not and if this was isolated to the cars that shipped out last year.
 
#37 ·
That's good to hear reeg2, both that they have a fix in place now and that since you had it performed you have not had to deal with water intrusion anymore. Sucks it had to happen to begin with but again, glad it appears to have been squared away and you can enjoy the car again.
 
#45 ·
Seems as though VCNA is still not on the same page with all dealers about this yet?

If so, wow......
Argh. I hope that they have resolved the issue.. We had our first real extended rain storm last night and this morning, every time we hit the brakes, there was water coming out of the IntelliSafe housing of our Momentum that was delivered in November . Going to bring to the dealer later this week..