dealer service integrity - experience?

I have become more and more leery of taking my S80 T6 in for service, as it
seems that EVERY time I do, the car 'develops' some new (and very costly!)
malfunction. The last two times I have taken my car in for an oil change
have resulted in the car breaking down within a matter of miles, once for a
mass airflow sensor problem and once for a coil pack failure. The car was
running perfectly fine prior to the oil change service each time. And then
there was the time that I get my car home after an oil change and notice
HUGE pools of oil on my garage floor when it has never leaked a drop before.
So I take it back to the dealer and ask them what they did, and they said
"OH! You have a terrible leak from your turbo oil return line....we can fix
that for about $400...."
All in all, I have replaced 3 coil packs, two mass airflow sensors, one MAP
sensor unit, various belts and hoses.....and ALL after taking the car in for
just routine service!
I've owned various Audi, BMW, Acura, and Mazda vehicles over the last couple
of decades and NEVER have I spent this kind of money on a supposedly
higher-end luxury sports sedan. I've been tempted to purchase a new S60 R,
but with the issues with the dealer I am not real comfortable doing this. A
friend of mine has purchased new Volvo cars and SUVs from this dealer for
years, and he has told me, "It really IS sort of interesting....I NEVER have
any trouble with a car that is factory warrantied, but let them get out of
warranty and it SEEMS that there is ALWAYS something they can find
wrong...."
It just seems suspicious to me.

 

I avoid dealers like the plague. Your story is one of many that have been
posted here that support my policy. But that doesn't exclude the indie
garage from such behaviour by any means. Finding a good indie Volvo mechanic
who you can trust is worth his weight in gold. I am lucky to have two in my
area. Where are you located?

cheers

RS

 

Sounds like a bad dealer.... ours has trouble finding problems with our 960
even when we ask them to look over the whole damn car for stuff to replace
(its a 1993 so some stuff like bushings, and rubber bits are bound to be
going - not to mention things like pumps, brakes, belts, shocks etc...).

Hell they called 2 times to tell us we needed new front rotors - once to say
we needed them and a second time to tell us they reduced the price of their
original quote on them (the price was knocked down again when we got to the
dealer) - this was as the car was at the shop getting new shocks they said
we "don't really need, but would help the ride of the car" when we
complained about the cars handling and ride smoothness (yes the new shocks
brought it back to its normal good level of ride comfort/handling)

I'd try a different dealer

Your S80 is eating sensors faster then a defective Volkswagen (we've got
two... tho only one had sensor defects, and they are fixed now)... Doesn't
sound like a Volvo to me, we've only had reliable service from ours, and no
one we know with one has had issues with theirs aside from the routine
maintenance.

 

We have several good independent Volvo mechanics but they are only good
on old Volvos. They really mess up on new Volvos. They are great on
talk but not so great on results.

When I buy a new Volvo, I interview the shop and make sure they have a
good setup and good mechanics. The garage I bought my last 3 Volvo's
from had to pass a test before I would deal with them. I had an '81 240
that would start right up in the morning but would stall as soon as you
tried to go. It would restart and run fine all day then. I took it to
our regular dealer and he kept throwing my money at the problem but
never came close to solving it. I went to another dealer and told him
that if he fixed the problem I would buy my next car from him. He did
and I did. This dealer has been very good. I recently went through a
period with a problem which stumped him. He kept at it and when someone
on this group came up with a solution, he swallowed his pride and fixed
it for half price.

 

that sucks benjaman...how many mile on the s80?
what is the name/location of the dealer?...

 

The car has around 90K on it now. I'd rather not specify where I am located
as I think it not unlikely that people from the dealer could frequent this
board and then God only knows what they might do to my car...lol! I am in
the Midwest in an area where the largest city only has about 200,000 living
in it, with ONE dealer and NO independent Volvo mechanics. The closest
other dealer is over 3 hours drive away.

I'm not completely dissatisfied with these guys, there have been a couple of
occasions where they have gone out of their way to help me, and I really
appreciate that. I just find the timing and coincidence of the problems I
have had occasionally to be very....suspect. And one thing that seems to be
very common here is that if there is a really invasive procedure that takes
a lot of hours, then they are reluctant to do more than ONLY what was
originally planned. For example while changing the serpentine belt I
suggested that they go ahead and do the timing belt. No, they said...it is
fine. Yet, the very next oil change it was suggested to me that I should
change the timing belt! 'Only' $350..... "So why didn't you do that when
you had the engine all apart the :LAST time and it wouldn't have cost me so
much in labor?" I asked. Their reply? "Oh! That particular technician
wasn't familiar with changing the timing belt...."
I was just speechless! I said, "Do you REALLY expect me to believe that?"
and the Service Manager just shrugged it off.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 

I think the 3-hour drive to the other dealer would seem pretty reasonable
after that little episode and some of the other "coincidences". I have to
drive two hours because there are no dealers near me. I just do some
shopping at the computer stores, etc, while I'm in the big city for service.

 

What serpentine belt requires an engine to be taken apart? Sometimes
they just use a general mechanic in training to do such simple tasks.
Such a person would not be qualified to replace a timing belt.

I think I go to a good dealership and they have several Volvo mechanics
with different levels of abilities. One is very good but slow and
another is not quite as good, but much faster. They assign different
jobs to them as the demands vary. Also, sometimes the mechanics may
help each other.

Typically, serpentine belts are changed every 60,000 miles. Timing
belts are typically changed at 70,000 miles. Shortcutting the interval
will extend the normal interval if you change at the next recommended
service. For example if the recommended interval is 70,000 miles. Then
if you do it at 60,000 miles (like you are not supposed to) and 140,000
miles (like you are supposed to), the second interval of 80,000 miles is
risky.