Another Failed Auxiliary Drive Belt-B4 Mild Hybrid

[poleposition]

So, tried to start the car yesterday after moving it out the garage onto the drive. Only a quiet whirring noise on pressing the start button. No warning messages on the car. 12V battery measured ok, and lights radio etc all normal. After trying locking and leaving for a while, with no joy, contacted Volvo Assistance.

They arrived in about 90 minutes and within 5 minutes said the belt driving the starter/generator had failed. How it failed from being in my garage to being on my drive is strange.

Now waiting on the recovery truck to take it to the nearest Volvo dealer, as my normal dealer is too far away, more than 50 miles.

I asked the Volvo assistance tech if he could get my car off my drive, and he was able to get the (auto) car to roll down the drive and onto the road where it can be loaded onto the recovery wagon when it arrives.

Excellent service by Volvo Assistance, hope the recovery and repair now go to plan.

Shame it happened, but could have been worse if it had happened when I was not at home.

I understand a batch of faulty belt pulley tensioners are likley to blame.

Will report back with an update on how things go.

[gedger]

Mmm, that's a worry. Is this easy to visually inspect?

[poleposition]

Edited to add pulley "tensioners"

You can inspect the belt looking down into the engine bay, but it may look fine until it suddenly fails?

[Deleted User 4737]

Belts are the innocent victim of a failed tension-pulley bearing. The belt will often look perfectly fine, but if a tension-pulley seizes the belts shred in seconds. A few have reported this issue, and if there is a faulty batch out there, unfortunately you won't generally have any warning before failure!!

[gedger]

You'd hope that Volvo would issue a recall if it was a faulty batch like they did for the O-ring last year.

[ChrisLF]

You would hope so wouldn't you.

[eugen61]

Multiple recalls in a short time spam are very bad for brand image. I wouldn’t be surprised if Volvo says it’s not a safety critical failure deemed for a recall.

[Deleted User 4737]

Perhaps worse for image are known multiple failures without the recalls. Regarding safety, serpentine belts disintegrating at high speed are not nice and can cause a lot of damage!!

[gedger]

Multiple recalls in a short time spam are very bad for brand image. I wouldn’t be surprised if Volvo says it’s not a safety critical failure deemed for a recall.

Not safety critical until you try and take a loved one to A+E and the belt snaps, admittedly a fairly low probability.

Probably why the left indicator malfunction was a recall in the U.S.A but not in Europe. Although from my experience using indicators seems to be optional for many drivers these days….

[eugen61]

An official recall gets media coverage, complaints on the forums reach very few to make an impact. Despite all problems forum members know about, Volvo is perceived as doing well… https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/01/volvo-s ... nding.html