2017 Volvo XC90

The contact owned a 2017 Volvo XC90. The contact stated that while driving at 10 MPH, a white-colored smoke began to emit from the vehicle's engine compartment. The "Coolant Low" warning message soon appeared on the instrument panel as the contact pulled over into a parking lot and exited the vehicle with her three children. As the smoke grew rampantly, the vehicle quickly caught fire. A fellow motorist attempted to extinguish the fire but to no avail. The authorities quickly arrived at the scene and the fire department extinguished the fire. While the incident all mentally shook the contact and her 3 children; no medical treatment was rendered. A police report was not filed. The vehicle was towed to an independent tow yard where it remained in their possession for an insurance inspection. The vehicle was destroyed by the fire. The dealer nor the manufacturer had to be notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 100,000. The VIN was not available.

Recently our 2017 XC90 experienced a significant coolant system leak via a part that was part of a recall campaign for the prior year model (2016 XC-90). The exact same part (a coolant bleeder hose - part #32249907) failed in our vehicle in a similar manner as the prior year component. There was no antecedent warning prior to its failure until after a significant amount of fluid was lost (literally sprayed about the engine compartment) leading to a low coolant level CEL. The safety concern, as stated in the prior recall, is that this particular part failure can cause coolant to leak on the catalytic converter heat shield insulation causing a fire hazard. The connector of the hose in our vehicle literally started to deteriorate and crumble at multiple locations. The vehicle is only 8 years old. This has to be a related failure of an already identified defective component. The prior recall is noted as: 19V-308 / R29936 The vehicle required towing and the component was replaced at the local dealership at standard cost. We are obviously concerned that others with our particular year and model could experience a more catastrophic end.

Received a Suspension Service Required message on the gauge cluster. Online searching led to this from the NHTSA website: [XXX] I contest it is not accurate and it did not go far enough to protect consumers. Per the above, there is a logical condition in order to take advantage of the warranty which requires precisely 2 error codes to “prove” that the air suspension compressor needs to be replaced and can be covered under the warranty. My compressor fuse had blown per the bulletin. I replaced the fuse and the compressor started to work again. The error went away. I was still concerned of the safety of the vehicle (something caused the fuse to blow). I took it to the dealer to have them scan the codes to confirm the above warranty would cover the cost to replace the compressor - which by the way the entire intent of the warranty is to convey that the compressor is known to have a design defect. What this warranty is NOT is an exhaustive fault tree analysis to show all the causal paths that can lead to the root cause. However, because Volvo identifies one single logical fault path - I was not able to have my compressor covered under warranty. The reason the dealership gave me was that both error codes in the warranty would have had to come up in their scan in order to take advantage of it - and mine only showed 1 of the codes. Then I requested a quote and what was needed to fix the problem so that I could pay for it. Their quote was $1,088 for them to replace the air compressor and relay. Stop right there. That quote I received from Volvo was a clear cut and dry admission (from Volvo themselves) that only having received 1 error code is enough to justify the warranty - because one or both error codes leads to the same recommended replacement. Even still, I’m forced to pay for a known defective part that presents a safety issue. Not fair. This should have been a recall. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The contact owns a 2017 Volvo XC90. The contact stated that while his wife was driving at an unknown speed, she noticed smoke from the engine compartment. The vehicle spontaneously caught fire. The coolant warning light was illuminated a minute prior to the failure. There were no reported injuries or air bag deployments. The fire department was on the scene. The vehicle was towed to an unknown location. A police report was filed. The contact called the local dealer, but the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 79,000.