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Low coolant warning!

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110K views 67 replies 39 participants last post by  Davejjjhh  
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Have had my 14 plate V40 for 3 and a half years now and started getting the coolant warning light coming on a few times in the last week or so. Checked various times and always ok. Happened again on Monday but this time had loads of pressure at the header tank. Booked it into my local Volvo dealer who thought it was a faulty thermostat but now thinks it's the head gasket or a cracked cylinder. I think he said cylinder. Only done 40000 miles. Has anybody else had to bother? D2 SE LUX NAV.
 
#2 ·
Have had my 14 plate V40 for 3 and a half year now and started getting the coolant warning light coming on a few times in the last week or so. Checked various times and always ok. Happened again on Monday but this time had loads of pressure at header tank. Booked it into my local Volvo dealer who thought it was a faulty thermostat but now think it's the head gasket or a cracked cylinder? I think he said cylinder. Only done 40000 miles. Anybody else had bother? D2 SE LUX NAV.


I had this a few months back in a hilly area ('13 D2 CC 40k). Pulled over for a while and topped up coolant, it hasn't come on since. I have noticed the coolant levels drop a couple of times, but again topped up. This seems to stay where it is for a month or so at a time. Was keen to get it sorted regardless, so took it to the main dealer last week, and had water pump replaced under Selekt warranty. They offered to do the cambelt(early) while they are there (c.ÂŁ130) No labour as it's got to come off anyway. I hear it was a reasonably common complaint from that era of D2 engine.


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#3 · (Edited)
sorry to say not an unknown problem water pump or head gasket seem to be the main cause but I'm afraid some have reported cracked heads or cylinder block, hope its only the lessor problem for you.
 
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#4 ·
I had the same issue last year. I got a low coolant message but temperature was not increased. I went by the volvo dealer, where they tested the cooling system by pressurizing it. They didn't manage to find any leaks. They topped it back to MAX and has stayed that way over the past 12 months (and 17,000 kms). Given that this is a closed system I cannot understand where the losses come from, but since the problem did not repeat, I don't mind.

Your case seems different though. A cylinder or head crack is a significant issue. Was it covered by warranty? Did they replace the block or?
 
#5 ·
Here's the report from our 2013 D2.

"Cooling System (I) - 2
Excessive pressure in cooling system indicating cylinder head gasket has gone.
GBP1,088.04

Additional Maintenance (I) - 2
Removed head to replace head gasket and found a small crack in cylinder 3's bore and the liner on cylinder 2 and 3 have shifted. Need a replacement engine.
GBP7,245.78"

Only now the car is out of warranty is has become apparent where the coolant was being lost! If your car is under warranty I would strongly advise you insist the dealer remove the head and inspect the bores if you have had "coolant level low". Any perforations or crack will most cause coolant to be lost internally in the combustion chambers and leave you with a huge bill if you are out of warranty.

Stephen
 
#7 ·
Additional Maintenance (I) - 2
Removed head to replace head gasket and found a small crack in cylinder 3's bore and the liner on cylinder 2 and 3 have shifted. Need a replacement engine.
GBP7,245.78"
I hope you've contacted Volvo Head Office and asked them what their thoughts are on a car with only 40,000 miles needing an engine replacement, especially if you have a full service history.
 
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#9 ·
Here's their response from yesterday morning.

"Dear Mr Bond,

Thank you for sending a copy of your letter and apologies the original letter did not reach our team.

We take on board all your feedback and apologise for any inconvenience caused whilst you have not had your car. Like yourselves, Volvo do not expect such parts to fail at this age or mileage but accept they can and do, both on older models and brand new cars. It is for this reason we offer the manufacturer’s warranty of 3 years or 60,000 miles (whichever comes sooner) where we are confident any manufacturing or material defects will manifest themselves.

We accept you have reported concerns whilst the car was under warranty and also trust every dealer in the network is qualified to correctly diagnose and rectify any faults found at the time. Volvo UK cannot comment if the reported fault and repairs now needed are related to any issues raised when the car was younger and you would need to talk to the dealers directly about this.

We trust however, that the garage would have informed you and Volvo UK of any potential issues at any given opportunity. There is nothing to be gained by the dealer once the car is out of warranty so we trust they have followed the Volvo diagnostics processes as we would expect.

The dealer network are also empowered to review and offer goodwill on behalf of Volvo UK, often with having to contact us. We use various factors to measure this such as age, mileage and loyalty to the dealer network for servicing. In this case, the dealers and Volvo UK have offered to contribute a total of 40% towards parts and labour, leaving you with 60% of the bill to pay.

We feel this is a fair offer and cannot facilitate you request to cover the cost of repairs in full. We have however, reviewed the case internally and you will be pleased to know that we can increase this offer by 10%.

As we work with different rates to our dealers, we would urge you to contact them directly for a revised cost.

Thank you once again for contacting our offices, I trust we have clarified our position and assisted with your query.

Kind Regards

Connie Wheeler

VOLVO CAR UK LIMITED"
 
#10 ·
And my retort.

"Dear Connie,
Thank you for your response.

Whilst we are pleased to hear things are moving in the right direction, we are still not happy with the situation i.e. we are presented with a bill for thousands for a new engine for a 4.5 year old Volvo.

With regards to the warranty, the fault was manifesting itself. However, the small internal coolant leak and subsequent “coolant level low” message could not be fully diagnosed until the head was removed and the bores inspected which only occurred when the car was out of warranty.

With the case of the door lock issue, this began manifesting within warranty but was not sorted until the car was out of warranty. I am glad to say that in our case Volvo rectified this fault without charge, whilst out of warranty, only fair considering to the proliferation and seriousness of this fault.

With regards to the engine we are in a similar situation. The symptoms were reported to the dealer back when the car was in warranty. However, the reason for the fault is only now fully known.

It is clear we are not alone with this issue

http://www.volvov40club.com/forums/....com/forums/15-engine-technical/23921-engine-coolant-level-low-stop-safely.html

"Yes this happened on my v40 D3. After a lot of hassle and 12 weeks in the garage, it turned out to be a leak in the exhaust gas coolant coil where it goes to the egr valve. Got a brand new engine out of it though as they found a split in one of the bores."

http://www.volvov40club.com/forums/15-engine-technical/11954-coolant-level-low.html

http://www.volvov40club.com/forums/15-engine-technical/27001-low-coolant-level.html

http://www.volvov40club.com/forums/15-engine-technical/23785-check-coolant-level.html

http://www.volvov40club.com/forums/7-volvo-v40-general-discussion/31809-low-coolant-warning.html

I have refrained from commenting online since our engine block failure was fully diagnosed. However, if Volvo are unsympathetic then we shall make our situation plain. Also, there are many avenues to explore with this regard, media, social media, online forums and reviews. I do not wish to be a disgruntled customer but it is clear the engine supplied was not fit for purpose and Volvo should replace it.

At this point I want to mention that the omission of a temperature gauge on the dashboard was more that a faux pas with regards to the design of this car, indeed another design fault. I have driven many different brands and models of cars in my 30 years of motoring, some older than myself and I have never seen one which didn’t show the temperature. If the temperature was indeed on show then the overheating issue would have certainly been diagnosed earlier as it started climbing rather than later at the point where it was likely catastrophic.

I want to state again, we bought the car for it’s resounding safety and reliability record and it has failed abysmally on both accounts. Our son has a rare condition, as I mentioned before he is under Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. During all the time that the car has been in for repair and we have had to wait for a response from you we have struggled with appointments and daily logistics for our son. This has caused more stress and strain on our family which is ironic as the purpose of purchasing a reliable car was to help reduce these stresses not compound them.

So I ask again you to reconsider your position and replace the faulty engine as seems fair and right.

Yours faithfully,


Stephen Bond"
 
#11 ·
I received this reply this morning, hence I am posting on here regarding the matter.

"Dear Mr Bond,

Thank you for your response,

I must advise that our position still remains,

The manufacturer’s warranty of 3 years or 60,000 miles (whichever comes sooner) is there to cover the cost of any manufacturing defects within this period. After this period any financial contributions towards repairs are considered goodwill.

As mentioned goodwill has been reviewed for your case and we feel that the 40% contribution towards this is fair.

We will of course note your feedback on this matter in your case here in Customer Relations.

Kind Regards

Connie Wheeler

VOLVO CAR UK LIMITED"
 
#12 · (Edited)
so sorry to read this as it seems to be another hidden fault and takes a long time to be diagnosed by computers alone, this is were the present dealer system of if there is no fault code then nothing is wrong, you have done all you could to flag up this problem as we did with our first v40 different type of problem and received the same we know better attitude, thankfully our lease car was less than a year old with just 4000 mls on the clock and thanks to the intervention of our lease company the car was returned as unfit for purpose sadly for you this is not possible.
hopefully Volvo will come back with a revised offer but that sort of depends on the dealer having logged all of the times it was returned and the fact that there is a similar fault and line of fault finding leading up to the engine failing centred on a number of other owners, just wonder if this relates to a batch of engines but I cant see Volvo saying yes to that one as looking on the net this fault goes back a long way, hope you get something sorted soon.
 
#13 ·
so sorry to read this as it seems to be another hidden fault and takes a long time to be diagnosed by computers alone, this is were the present dealer system of if there is no fault code then nothing is wrong,
I'm not so sure. Even without any diagnostics, a competent mechanic should be able to identify loss of coolant and the cooling system being pressurised as primary symptoms of head gasket failure. It does strike me as them ignoring the problem so they don''t have to go through the hassle of doing warranty work (that Volvo pays them less for per hour than they can charge paying customers) so they can then charge full price once the warranty has expired.

Other examples of this attitude from dealer workshop staff have been the cases of sticking clutch pedal/clutch slave cylinder failure where they have danced round the houses greasing shafts replacing pedal boxes and springs rather than fixing the well-known real cause because of the amount of work and time it takes which ends up losing them money as warranty work compared what they can charge a customer per hour for the same job.

<dons tinfoil hat>
Even more cynically, I've often wondered if the dealerships get black marks from Volvo UK when they make expensive warranty claims, which would be another incentive to try and put it off until the warranty expires (for example, in this case, they have potentially saved Volvo UK 60% of the cost of replacing an engine).
 
#14 ·
Hi everybody,

I had the same problem twice. At first, the engine of the car was replaced with new one at around 34.000km. At the second year of my car, I had the message on the dashboard saying that “coolant level low”. When I immediately checked the coolant level, which show me it was just below minimum. After that, I took the car to service and they just added water. This visit was not registered in the service. One year later after I took the warning for coolant level, I had the same message. At that time, the technical people in the service told me it was probably related to cylinder block and the engine needed to be replaced. Luckily, there was 3 months left to be out of warranty. I escaped huge cost and proceeded with the replacement of the engine.

Unfortunately, I had the same warning “cooling level low” one week ago at around 59.000km and visited the service 30.04.2018. Service did not find anything related to external factor and told me that they needed to remove the cylinder head on the condition that I had to accept 50% of the cost which would occur during the repair including replacement or repair of the engine. Because the warranty expired. The funny part is that Turkey Branch Volvo Turkiye presented the cost share as courtesy. This was the most disrespectful and unfair act I have ever seen and I did not buy it. Therefore, I stopped the remedial actions and took my car back.

From my point of view, it is obvious that Volvo did not conduct proper RCA at the first issue and did not provide permanent solution to the customer. For that reason, I had the same defect in a period of two years, has been a further vast disappointment for me. Furthermore, according to what I read in the forums around the world, this is a well-known problem for V40 engine T4 and D2. I think that is why engine T4 was removed from production.Additionally, this is certainly a chronic or hidden defect due to manufacturing or design. Otherwise, I would not have the same issue second time.

Whenever I want to sell the car, the buyer will check the history of the car and notice that there was engine replacement once in a two year. The buyers in the market will pay anything near what my car is actually worth. My car will be treated by the buyers as junk. Additionally, I am very curious about how they will assure that problem will not repeat third, fourth time in the future.

Anyway, I instruct my attorney to sue Volvo Turkey. I have to trust Justice.
 
#15 ·
Hi,
Thanks for the post.

Additionally, this is certainly a chronic or hidden defect due to manufacturing or design. Otherwise, I would not have the same issue second time.
Yes, I agree. It seems that these blocks are of a poor design/manufacture.

Anyway, I instruct my attorney to sue Volvo Turkey. I have to trust Justice.
I'm in a similar situation here in the UK. I am awaiting the ombudsman who I had to start the case with against the dealer as it turned out I cannot claim against Volvo UK as the car is out of warranty.

Hope you get it sorted!

All the best,
Stephen
 
#20 ·
Volvo’s dealer called me yesterday and offered to proceed with remedial actions free of charge on the condition that I will sign a waiver of notice. So that they will escape from the court. If they provide an extended warranty, I will probably take it. What would you do if you were in my shoes?
 
#21 ·
Not sure if this is related. Read on www.volvohowto.com :

Volvo Recall Description: Coolant leakage may result in a fire
Volvo models affected by this Recall: Volvo V40, V40 CC, S60, V60, V70, S80
Recall chassis numbers (VIN) by Volvo Model:

  • V40 CC – YV1MZ4851D2000004 to YV1MZ485BDM990043
  • V40 – YV1MV485BD2000002 to YV1MV485BDM990067
  • S60 – YV1FS485BB2001139 to YV1FS48C1F1369491
  • S80 – YV1AS075BC1134728 to YV148HAS3F1192990
  • V70 – YV1BW4851C1168544 to YV1BW485BF1337417
  • V60 – YV1FW48A1B1001085 to YV1FW48HBEM990120
Build Date of Volvo cars Affected: 06/02/2012 to 22/04/2015
Recall total number of Volvo Cars: 3192
Recall defect descripton: It has been identified that during the engine warm-up process and under certain driving/climate conditions, for instance periods of high acceleration or high engine load immediately after a cold start, in cold climates, there is the possibility for coolant leakage or oil seepage. This can lead to the possibility, in a worst-case scenario, of smoke or a slow developing fire in the engine compartment. However, the driver will receive a warning message on the driver Information Module indicating a low coolant level.
Volvo Recall action: Recall all affected vehicles to modify the coolant bypass valve and install a new exhaust manifold gasket.
Volvo Recall launch date: 26/10/2016
Recall Reference: R/2016/249
 
#22 ·
Not sure if this is related. Read on www.volvohowto.com :

Volvo Recall Description: Coolant leakage may result in a fire
Volvo models affected by this Recall: Volvo V40, V40 CC, S60, V60, V70, S80
That was on the B4164T Ford EcoBoost petrol engines, and related to the manifold gasket failng. It was covered in this thread from 2016:
http://www.volvov40club.com/forums/15-engine-technical/26049-recall-manifold-gasket.html
The recall involved changing the exhaust manifold gasket and fitting a pressure relief valve into the coolant circuit. It seemed there was a risk of overpressure in the coolant circuit at high engine RPMs when the engine is cold (the thermostat is closed so coolant is not circulating to the radiator or expansion tank). This can potentially cause the exhaust manifold gasket to fail (the coolant circuit extends into the manifold to cool the turbo) which can also cause an oil leak (the turbo's oil feed comes though the manifold as well) leading to major coolant loss and the risk of oil leaking onto the exhaust catching fire.
 
#27 ·
Hi Stephen. Any more news on your issue? I seem to have the same issue building with my son's 2015 V40 D2 (4 months out of warranty). A sudden appearance of "low coolant" warning (but no temperature warnings). Took it to Volvo dealer to check hoping for a simple coolant leak to be told it was probably a head gasket failure requiring a 5-6 hour strip of the engine (at ÂŁ160 per hour) plus at least the same time to reassemble. I am now thinking that when it is stripped down they will say cracked head or block or new engine needed. Should not happen for a 3 year old car on 43,000 miles.
 
#28 ·
OK, here's the conclusion to my tale of woe.

In short, Marshall Milton Keynes immediately offered me 50% off the price of a new engine after they took the head off and found the block was at fault. I wasn't happy with that as back at around ÂŁ6K to get it back on the road it was a write off (car being worth ÂŁ7K or so). After my wrangling with Volvo UK they offered an additional 10% off. That brought the cost down to ÂŁ5500. The guy in the service department said he could rejig the figured and make it more like ÂŁ5000.

After much waiting on my case(s) with the Motoring ombudsman, they ruled in favour of Volvo/Marshall. In fact, the ruling read like a speech from the later :|

So after the car had been sat at Marshall Milton Keynes for the best part of 9 months it was time to move on. It went to auction as a non runner and sold for ÂŁ2600. After the auction house fees, transportation and the garage admin fee (yes they still wanted their 2 hours diagnostic work fee to take the head off and find they had supplied me a lemon of an engine block) I got ÂŁ2000.

Anyhow, I took the money and put it towards a second hand Kia. 7 Years, 100, 000 mile transferrable warranty. Once bitten twice shy.

Stephen
 
#31 ·
iam the same 2014 D2 and at 37000 mile. i got a warning yeasterday saying warning engine coolent low.
Anyone any advice please on what to do.Iam really worried somthing major is wrong. Help
First thing to do is to top up the coolant, as per the manual. It might just need coolant and could be nothing serious.

If it happens again or keeps happening, then seek the advice of a dealership/garage.
 
#32 ·
Morning all i had the engine warning light come on as it was overheating , it asked me to reduce my speed then another waring flashed saying stop the car safely and turn off engine , it went to a local garage who checked it out and topped it up with coolant as this light had now come on , this was all sorted they said then my wife drove it home from the garage and the same problem came on again , we took it back where they had replaced the sensor but once again same problem , I then took it to Volvo Taunton motor company where they checked it over and said I had a air block this was again sorted out and within 2 weeks later the same issue again resurfaced, I took it back to Taunton Volvo where they have changed the thermo stat but still same issue , they call me today and say it needs s new head which will cost me ÂŁ3000 but with discount they will do it fitted for ÂŁ2500 , my car has done 81000 miles on a 64 plate and this problem seems to be a common fault on the volvo, does Volvo Uk or anyone have any information on what you thinks best for me to do please
 
#35 ·
@knkighty78 if you check the oil and it's coming out milky looking then its the head... when the car is sitting do you notice any puddles are wet spots on the ground under the engine bay? I had a similar issue to this on my old S80 and it turned out to be the water pump had failed and was leaking out coolant which luckily was a much cheaper fix than a new head