Out of diesel with a quarter tank remaining - XC60 2009 model

Arran

Hi there,

Just last night I found myself parked on the side of the highway after running out of diesel in a 2009 D5 XC60. There was still 1/4 tank showing on the gauge. Fortunately help wasn't too far away, thanks brother-in-law! We stuck 10L of diesel in it which lifted the gauge to 3/8 and when I filled it up was only able to add 48L.

Because I was only able to add less than 60L to a dead empty 70L tank, it seems more likely that the fuel gauge was correct, and that there is a problem with the pickup. I'm vaguely aware that these cars have a tank that straddles the rear drive shaft so it may be a problem with whatever is supposed to be drawing from both sides.

Is this a function of the fuel pump? Previous owner had evidently replaced the fuel pump just before I purchased the car so I wouldn't have thought it would have failed just 25,000km later.

The car has otherwise driven faultlessly. It runs like a swiss watch and hasn't missed a beat.

Thanks in advance,

Ex850R

Sender one side pump on other. Hose between.

Could be PO effed it up or something else.

Pulling out seats and carpet is your future.....

Arran

Thanks for your help. I think I'll buy a new fuel pump assembly, pull out the seat, replace it and look for other problems while I'm in there to save pulling it apart multiple times

Arran

I've been maintaining more than quarter tank since I ran out in March 2023 and haven't had a problem. However I had bought myself a new fuel pump and set about trying to install it today. I was not successful, for a couple of reasons. Firstly the pump I bought was the incorrect part. Secondly swapping fuel pumps on an XC60 is very difficult.

There is no inspection plate under the back seat like there is with the XC90.

So the job requires the car to be jacked up, the exhaust to be dropped. But Volvo were stingy with flanges so it won't come out without dropping the rear subframe. The rear drive shaft also needs to come out along with a bunch of heat shielding. Then the tanks can be dropped, after disconnecting the filler pipe.

So to replace an item that might not infrequently need replacing in an XC60, half the car needs to come apart. Because Volvo decided to remove the inspection cover in this model.

There's this guy who solved the problem by cutting his own hole which I initially watched in horror. But maybe if better executed it's not a bad idea