10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
64,709 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

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problem #7

Feb 112022

S60

  • miles
My wife and I were driving to BWI airport for a 10:30am flight from Virginia Beach in the Express Lane on I-95N going 75mph when all of a sudden at 8:30am the engine seized and I got a message telling me I would experience "Reduced Engine Performance" as my car puttered to a stop with white smoke pouring out of the exhaust. Prior to this message I had no warnings or messages on my dashboard. I got out of my car to check my oil and it was completely evaporated, so I called AAA. While we are 1 hour into waiting (it is now 9:30am) on the narrow shoulder of two Express Lanes for a tow truck to take our car to a shop at 11:40am and for a Lyft driver to figure out how to get to us, two VDOT employees told us we had to move our car by 11am otherwise the state police will tow us. I managed to call a local tow company who finally arrived by 10:55am, so we had been stranded in an Express Lane watching cars fly by at 85mph for almost 2 and a half hours before we were able to move. After the first shop took a look and told me the engine was damaged and that they couldn't replace it, I had it towed to a Volvo dealership. 5 days and a $375 diagnostic later, they find that the turbocharger has an internal oil leak and that this and the catalytic converter would have to be replaced for $6k. Aside from now being carless 4 hours from the dealership and missing my wife's birthday celebration without refund, I now have a $6,375 bill that I had no way of preventing due to a manufacturing design flaw in 2012 Volvo S60 T5. I SHOULD have been warned of a low oil situation so I could have at least pulled over and properly tended to it. I SHOULD NOT have to be liable for a Volvo design flaw that may involve faulty piston rings that has apparently affected countless others. This incident put both my wife and I in danger on an Express Lane on a very busy highway. Volvo needs to be accountable for this design flaw.

- Virginia Beach, VA, USA

problem #6

May 182020

S60 5-cyl

  • 81,300 miles
There was one incident that my car was not accelerating on the highway. The car would stall for a bit and when I tried to maintain the same speed I was going at, I would press the gas pedal and the speed would not change, it continued to slow down. Fortunately, I was able to pull over to the side of the highway and put my car on park. This when I put the car in neutral to check the RPM, to see if the gas was working. The RPM would go up every time I pressed on the gas pedal. From there, I turned my car off and on, and tried to see if the car was able to accelerate. Once I turned the car back on, the check engine light had turned on. I managed to get home from work driving on the left lane and at a slow speed. That is when I scheduled an appointment with my mechanic. The following day, the mechanic had found out that there was an issue with my fuel pump, there was not enough pressure. Upon doing some research on the issue, I had found out that the NHTSA had reported a recall with the same issue for the same model and year of my car (https://static.NHTSA.gov/ODI/rcl/2011/rcdnn-11V303-8835.pdf). I searched my VIN number to see if my car fell under the recall period listed on the website, and it had reported only a door latch issue and not the fuel pump. I would like the NHTSA to investigate further into the issue with the fuel pump, more specifically, determine whether or not the time period for issue stated under the recall needs to be extended even further.

- Annandale, NJ, USA

problem #5

Jun 202019

S60

  • 90,478 miles
The oil was changed at 85,000 miles. At approximately 90,000 miles, the low oil pressure light flashed on and immediately disappeared when making turns. The sensor light did not remain on the dashboard. There was no evidence of oil leaking. After a couple of days, the engine began knocking. The oil level was checked and was low. Oil was added to the car. The car was taken to the Volvo dealer for a diagnostic check. The dealer representative stated that no warning light indicators showed during the diagnostic check. The engine was starved of oil and needed to be replaced. He mentioned that for this model and year, new vehicle owners that still had a warranty were asked to come in and have piston O-rings replaced because of excessive oil consumption. We were not made aware of this issue.

- Charleston, SC, USA

problem #4

Oct 162018

S60

  • 88,186 miles
In October 2018. While driving my 2012 Volvo ( 88,000 miles)the car started to hesitate in traffic then it stop. I had just exit the express highway on to a city street. There was no sensor lights or engine check light that came on at all. Tried to crank the car back up. The car would not start. Suddenly the oil light and the air bag light came on. A sears technical came out to jump start the car thinking it was my battery to take car to there shop. He check the oil because the light was on. The oil was fine not low. I had just had a oil change Sept 2018. The car still would not start. I had to get a tow to a shop for foreign cars. My diagnosis engine locked up. The injectors 5 and 6 was wide open (hydro locking ) fuel had been leaking everywhere even in my oil. The price was $1400 to repair.

- Bossier City, LA, USA

problem #3

Dec 052016

S60

  • 75,000 miles
My vehicle was parked in a grocery store lot. I entered the vehicle to back it out of its parking spot. It was next to a full sized van which had carpet cleaning equipment mounted inside. I started the car and placed it in reverse as it began to accelerate on its own. I tried to slow the vehicle with the brake which failed. I collided with a block wall in the rear of the car and attempted to get it out of gear, with the solid jarring from the rear the car went into drive and continued to accelerate to full speed, while I was attempting to brake. The Volvo hit the van which it had been parked next to in the rear left bumper and drove it approximately 20 feet through a planter and into a parking spot on the other side of the planter. This car (Volvo) is equipped with a collision warning system that was supposed to have auto braked and did not. Additionally the air bags did not deploy. I took the car to Volvo and had them attempt to pull codes from the vehicles information system. They reported that no codes were present and attempted to explain away the incident as driver error. The car was totaled in the process. I am certain that there was no driver error and that what happened was a sudden unexplained acceleration. Other somewhat similar incidents are reported on the internet. The car has been retained in my possession until Mar 9th 2017. In the event it should be evaluated I have it available.

- Arroyo Grande, CA, USA

problem #2

Jun 212016

S60

  • 52,000 miles
On April 12, 2016 I took my Volvo S-60 leased brand new from Volvo and the purchased at the end of the lease as a certified pre-owned car in for an oil change and a check oil light. Volvo had a recall on oil pressure censors (this had caused other car engines to seize something that the ntsb has reported on). The Volvo authorized dealer, herb gordon, claimed to have made this repair. However on June 21, 2016, the engine seized in the middle of a busy road. The Volvo authorized dealer determined it needed a new engine, at the time, I asked about simply applying the cost to replace the engine (about $12,000) to getting me into a new car. Volvo refused and went ahead with an engine replacement (they had my car from June 21, 2016 to August 1, 2016. The car broke down again on August 15, 2016 while my family and I were on the road for a vacation. When we returned from vacation the car was given back to us but the problem now is that the car's value has significantly diminished because of the engine replacement, the bluebook value of the car is on average $13,789 but the highest we can get for it is $8,000 because of the damage done to it by Volvo. We have tried to get Volvo to work with us by making up that difference as a trade in on a car they have in stock. We have been met with nothing but hostility and abuse. In fact earlier today we were told by a customer service representative at Volvo to shut up and then he hung up on us,

- Beltsville, MD, USA

problem #1

May 202015

S60

  • 66,000 miles
My 2012 Volvo S60 had serious engine noise brought to the shop they thought it might of been the fact that I had low oil, but I had just gotten my oil changed 12/17/14 and it was 5/27/15 now and I had not driven anywhere close to 6 thousand miles to deplete all the oil. The shop told me to really figure out what was going on they would have to take out the engine to take a look at what was making the noise. That evening I got a call from the shop again telling me that there was a serious problem. They told me because my car was dangerously low on oil in fact 3 quarts low that the engine for that fact had not gotten any oil, this in turn cased the barring and the crank shaft the be damaged so bad that they shop to me that if basically beyond repair and I would need to get a new engine. Upon researching the internet I came across a string of recalls for my car, it stated that the Volvo's software had a problem which prevented the low engine oil light from coming out and in December 2013 they started a recall. I check the website and got the number to Volvo of North America and called and was told that my car was one of the vehicles that was recalled. I was also told that they problem was fixed by a simple software update. I was also told that in their records my car was taken into Volvo and the update was applied to my car fixing the problem. I told the representative on the phone that if this was the case then it must of not worked because my car was in the shop with the exact same problem that Volvo's website described and also no "low engine oil" light ever came on.

- Ponte Vedra, FL, USA