Engine knock or bearing noise on the 2005 Volvo Xc90
Only 3 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When engine knock or bearing noise gets reported
There are 4 reports of engine knock or bearing noise on the 2005 Volvo Xc90, 3 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 110,000 miles. It is the 20th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 55,504 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $2,500–$9,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure, every year of the Volvo Xc90
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Counter balance bearing failed at 55,504 miles. Non-greased bearing failure, caused by rusting, due to moisture build up inside of engine chamber. Vehicle had all required service done a volvo dealerships. Engine was repaired not replaced, for a cost of $5000.00. Repair work was done at volvo dealership. Volvo mechanic drilled weeping hole in chamber where counter balance shaft sits to allow water caused by moisture build up to escape. Drilling weeping hole was part of a tech bulletin issued by volvo. V8 engines for the xc90 produced in 2005 did not initially have this weeping hole in them. This design change was implemented part way through the production year (I believe post engine #6833). Letter was written to the ceo of volvo cars of n.a. Llc and representative from his office refused to provide any support, stating that the vehicle in question was out of warranty and that there were no recalls with regards to this issue. Info provided to volvo from swedespeed.com (see odi id #10313311), however, this was rejected by volvo as a non-valid source of information (their own customers!). The repair job to replace the cb shaft and…
I have a 2005 volvo xc90 v8 the car has been developing a shake, I brought it to volvo for a check up, nothing was reported as unusual. Yesterday I heard knocking in the engine and immediately flatbedded it to the dealership, the went to diagnose and the engine has froze. The dealer is researching and explained it is out of warranty with a new engine costing $14,000.00, reading other bulletins I suspect this is a counterbalance shaft bearing failure and is occurring with all 2005 v8 xc90's as they increase in age and exit any warranty period. I hope someone can do something, a new engine cost as much as it's trade-in value. Such a know issue should be investigated with volvo picking up the cost. *tr
Counter balance shaft bearing failure and complete destruction of engine while traveling down a crowded I-95 going into ny city with two children in car. This is such a common problem with the vehicle, that it's criminal to not hold volvo accountable to fix this. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Volvo Xc90
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Other electrical problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Fuel pump failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 4 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does engine knock or bearing noise happen on the 2005 Volvo Xc90?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is engine knock or bearing noise on the 2005 Volvo Xc90?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed