Background: after seeing the butchery, and ineptitude, I’ve seen from “technicians” at various dealerships, independent shops, and specialists, I do all my own maintenance, even AC, in the shop I have. I have dealer level software (VIDA for Volvo and DAS/XENTRY for Mercedes)
I take my car to dealers for recalls, or state inspections. I have a favorite alignment shop. That’s it. I do everything else.
But, I have a car I keep in Colorado that I drive every other month. My 2004 V70R. A fairly rare Volvo model with a six speed manual, four piston Brembos, AWD, and electronic suspension.
Unfortunately, I have no tools or workshop in Colorado, so, I am forced to rely on “mechanics”.
The set up: In August, the car was in the downtown Denver Sheraton garage and it cranked but wouldn’t start. Fuel puddled on the ground. I had nothing but dress clothes, so I had it towed to Macdonald Volvo.
They fixed the problem (fuel line disconnected from the fuel filter) and recommended some other repairs. One of which was to re-seal the engine sump to fix an oil leak. I authorized that repair.
This is not uncommon for Volvos of that vintage. I recently did the repair on my wife’s V70XC.
Here is the sump of that car (an identical part) when it came off:
I carefully cleaned the mating surfaces with a razor blade and solvent, as directed by VIDA (Volvo maintenance manual software. I carefully cleaned the interior with a bronze brush and solvent. Looked great. Installed new o-rings. Rolled out the pink anaerobic sealant, shown, and then Reinstalled.
So, I am very familiar with the work.
What the technician did: He used an abrasive power wheel to clean the mating surfaces of the block and sump. I’ll post pictures in a bit. They refilled the sump with six quarts of Castrol synthetic 5W30.
This is where I get upset. Volvo says razor blade or scraper for a reason. Abrasive gets into the engine when you use power abrasives. Those abrasive bits that aren’t caught by the filter, either because of small size, or from where they were flung by the power tool, will destroy bearings and pistons, rings, cams, lifters, everything that the oil touches.
Pure mechanical incompetence.
But you trust a dealer to follow manufacturer procedure, don’t you?
It’s a good thing I am an oil nerd. Because I am an @High Performance Lubricants fan, I took the car up to @wwillson house and we drained the oil and changed the filter so I could put the car back on its HPL regimen. It had 225 total miles since the dealership work.
Disastrous Discovery: Wayne pulled the magnetic drain plug and we saw this:
That is a shocking amount of debris for 225 miles.
It gets worse….
I take my car to dealers for recalls, or state inspections. I have a favorite alignment shop. That’s it. I do everything else.
But, I have a car I keep in Colorado that I drive every other month. My 2004 V70R. A fairly rare Volvo model with a six speed manual, four piston Brembos, AWD, and electronic suspension.
Unfortunately, I have no tools or workshop in Colorado, so, I am forced to rely on “mechanics”.
The set up: In August, the car was in the downtown Denver Sheraton garage and it cranked but wouldn’t start. Fuel puddled on the ground. I had nothing but dress clothes, so I had it towed to Macdonald Volvo.
They fixed the problem (fuel line disconnected from the fuel filter) and recommended some other repairs. One of which was to re-seal the engine sump to fix an oil leak. I authorized that repair.
This is not uncommon for Volvos of that vintage. I recently did the repair on my wife’s V70XC.
Here is the sump of that car (an identical part) when it came off:
I carefully cleaned the mating surfaces with a razor blade and solvent, as directed by VIDA (Volvo maintenance manual software. I carefully cleaned the interior with a bronze brush and solvent. Looked great. Installed new o-rings. Rolled out the pink anaerobic sealant, shown, and then Reinstalled.
So, I am very familiar with the work.
What the technician did: He used an abrasive power wheel to clean the mating surfaces of the block and sump. I’ll post pictures in a bit. They refilled the sump with six quarts of Castrol synthetic 5W30.
This is where I get upset. Volvo says razor blade or scraper for a reason. Abrasive gets into the engine when you use power abrasives. Those abrasive bits that aren’t caught by the filter, either because of small size, or from where they were flung by the power tool, will destroy bearings and pistons, rings, cams, lifters, everything that the oil touches.
Pure mechanical incompetence.
But you trust a dealer to follow manufacturer procedure, don’t you?
It’s a good thing I am an oil nerd. Because I am an @High Performance Lubricants fan, I took the car up to @wwillson house and we drained the oil and changed the filter so I could put the car back on its HPL regimen. It had 225 total miles since the dealership work.
Disastrous Discovery: Wayne pulled the magnetic drain plug and we saw this:
That is a shocking amount of debris for 225 miles.
It gets worse….
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