My serpentine belt broke on 6/6/2014 and was replaced. On 6/20/2014 I was driving about 60mph on the interstate in Chicago, il when my vehicle stopped accelerating and eventually stopped. This nearly caused an accident on the interstate, but I was able to pull to the left shoulder before being struck. I had to have the vehicle towed to a shop where it was determined that when the serpentine belt broke, shards of that belt went in to the timing belt area. This is due to a flawed design on my make of Volvo. The timing cover is not sealed, allowing particles to enter this area causing severe damage and nearly causing an accident. I have 20 bent valves that now need to be replaced due to this design flaw. There is no technician service bulletin that would have notified mechanics to be aware of this potential problem when a serpentine belt breaks, so my mechanic would not have known to look for this, which would have prevented the almost $3,000 worth of damage. This caused my car to completely shut down in the middle of traffic, which could have resulted in not only my death, but potentially other fatalities. I have requested Volvo correct what has occurred due to their design flaw, and lack of public notification but they have not agreed to do so. This is a known concern at the local Volvo dealership level, as my mechanic contacted a local Volvo dealership in orland park, il and was advised by the mechanic that they are seeing this issue on not only my model, but other Volvo models as well. This problem, if it is not known to mechanics, can and did cause a complete loss of power in the vehicle. This increases the risk of a crash or potential fatality. As you can tell, I have few miles on my vehicle for it being 6 years old, so there is no reason for having to replace 20 valves in the engine, other than due to the design flaw. Thank you so much for your time.

- Chicago, IL, USA

While driving on the highway I set cruise control to 65. Within seconds I felt as if I were going very fast and I had accelerated to near 90 mph. I turned cruise control off, stepped on the brake and when I let off the brake the car began to accelerate again. After the second time stepping on the brake the problem ceased. The same type of incident occurred again, only this time cruise control was not involved. Stopped at a red light, I stepped on the accelerator to make a right hand turn, the rpms immediately jumped and my car accelerated very quickly. I stepped on the brake and after a few seconds the issue resolved itself.

- Waldorf, MD, USA

The contact owns a 2008 Volvo S40. She stated that while driving 2 mph and parking the vehicle with her foot on the brake pedal, the vehicle accelerated on its own and crashed into a store window. There were frontal damages to the vehicle. She suffered chest injuries. A police report is available. The vehicle was towed to the dealer and they are waiting for the diagnostic test results. There have been no repairs done to the vehicle. The failure and current mileage were 10000.

- Chestnut Hill, MA, USA