Unfortunately that is exactly how they justify it. The book says do 'X' but if we do it this other way we can save a ton of time and the likelihood anyone will notice is pretty slim... until someone like the OP comes along.
Volvo dealer used abrasive wheel to clean engine sump
- Thread starter Astro14
- Start date
That work was on the 2002 V70XC. I clean the sump by hand…
Yes, the engine sumps are identical between the cars.
The tech washed it and blew it out, evidently, not anywhere close to the degree of work that I put into it.
More than I would have liked to pay for this quality of work...
Parts: $233.25
Labor: $682.12
Here you go, and no, surprisingly, they didn’t change filter.
Follow up:
Just left the dealership. Long chat with service manager and shop foreman. Very polite. Very constructive.
Shop foreman didn’t deny the use of abrasive, in fact, he went back and grabbed a couple of maroon Scotchbrite pads to show me. He assured me, several times, that this was normal shop procedure and that the Volvo oil filters would catch anything left behind.
He did admit that the tech should have a more thorough cleaning job and thinks that the Orange globs in the filter are from the Volvo sealant. They are the same color.
The abrasive in Scotchbrite is aluminum oxide. Roughly white in color. Doubt I could see it in the filter. You sure can see the aluminum.
As I anticipated, when I brought up the long term impacts, they said, well, it’s a 19 year old car, anything could happen. But, and this is important, while I don’t like the work, I cannot yet prove any damage.
Without actual damage, I have no basis for a lawsuit. It is, at this point, a difference in opinion. What I know, and what I can prove, are very different things.
Wayne and I will send out the current fill for UOA when we change the oil in another hundred or so miles.
I will post those results in this thread.
Until then, I will drive it reasonably.
Just left the dealership. Long chat with service manager and shop foreman. Very polite. Very constructive.
Shop foreman didn’t deny the use of abrasive, in fact, he went back and grabbed a couple of maroon Scotchbrite pads to show me. He assured me, several times, that this was normal shop procedure and that the Volvo oil filters would catch anything left behind.
He did admit that the tech should have a more thorough cleaning job and thinks that the Orange globs in the filter are from the Volvo sealant. They are the same color.
The abrasive in Scotchbrite is aluminum oxide. Roughly white in color. Doubt I could see it in the filter. You sure can see the aluminum.
As I anticipated, when I brought up the long term impacts, they said, well, it’s a 19 year old car, anything could happen. But, and this is important, while I don’t like the work, I cannot yet prove any damage.
Without actual damage, I have no basis for a lawsuit. It is, at this point, a difference in opinion. What I know, and what I can prove, are very different things.
Wayne and I will send out the current fill for UOA when we change the oil in another hundred or so miles.
I will post those results in this thread.
Until then, I will drive it reasonably.
Last edited:
I am upset. But as I said, I cannot yet prove any damage.
Just to pile on, I was always taught not to use red shop rags or anything like it around engine assembly work unless you take the bare castings and wash them down. This goes for bead blasting too - that s--- gets everywhere.And y'all laughed at me for quoting the GM training video telling us to beware of abrasives during open engine work
I'm sorry this happened or you, there's plenty of incompetence around these days
It seems you did your homework and kept receipts, I'd expect some form of compensation, or I'd get a lawyer to get it for me
The audacity
Reading through this thread is gut wrenching on so many levels.
You should try living through it…
I think you (and the filter) caught it in time. Hopefully, the oil pump is none for wear.
Unfortunately, we cut the filter after we poured in the HPL. Had we cut the filter before, then we could have purchased a lesser oil and used that as the initial flush(s). We saw the metal on the drain plug, but it didn't register how bad the problem was that we would find in the oil filter. Hindsight is 20/20.
Last edited:
On that note, thank goodness for my oil OCD, my desire to go back to HPL and for @wwillson being willing to indulge both.
Had we not put the car up on ramps, it would have run with that degree of debris (caught by the drain plug) for several thousand miles. The typical owner would have been none the wiser.
And had their engine started using oil, I suppose the dealership would have said, as they did today, “well, it is a car with 1xx,xxx miles on it.”.
Blissfully unaware of their role in turning a perfectly running engine into a clapped out candidate for the junkyard.
My 235,000 mile Volvo XC90 does not burn a drop of oil. When that sump was re-sealed, the “amateur technician” followed VIDA to the letter, and painstakingly scraped the gasket surface with a fresh razor blade. Then cleaned it by hand. It was very dirty with carbon from an entire life spent doing 7,500 miles on Dino.
Looked like this. Factory machining marks still visible.
Last edited:
Using an abrasive disk on an oil pan is fine as long as you run it through the parts washer...
Which is what they claimed to have done.
So, where did all the filings on the magnetic plug come from?
Do it fast. If it don't have a warranty do it sloppy.
This is why I do all my own stuff, I am the warranty and no one is going to care about your stuff more than you.
How did they put the engine block in the parts washer with out removing it from the car? (Clearly they did their little disk trick on the bottom of the engine too)
Maybe these guys are galaxy brain level mechanics... I'm sure they are in their own minds.
The quality and intelligence of skilled workers labor has sharply decreased since the plandemic.
Yeah. Was going to point out that they used it on the BLOCK.
And if they’re so careful, why was the filter full of debris?
Why was the magnet covered in ferrite filings?
1 - Wow that’s a level of incompetence that, despite my low opinion of most dealership mechanics, I can’t imagine they got away with. SOMEONE must have seen the mech doing that - why didn’t they stop them? I can think of all the cumulative hours I’ve spent razor-scraping pan and head faces and then just marvel at the laziness/ignorance.
2- That it was the R is double shame; but it sounds like you caught it fast and no harm will be done.
3 - Great car for those who don’t know it well:
2- That it was the R is double shame; but it sounds like you caught it fast and no harm will be done.
3 - Great car for those who don’t know it well:
Yes, that's how it should look like and then it will seal perfectly.
I like to use the razor blade to get the big stuff out and then a small piece of scotchbrite, wet with WD40 and scrubbed by hand. Gets rid of all the little pieces still stuck that are very hard to get out with the razor blade.
I just called my mechanic friend (50 years of experience) and told him the story. He said that every automaker clearly states do not use abrasive wheels of any kind to clean anything on or near an open engine. He also said that they have seen so many engines over the past decades that have grenaded some time after the use of an abrasive wheel, that you wouldn't believe it.
Last edited:
While that is expensive, it's nothing compared how something like this wears in your head when it happens. That you can't put a price on. And then to have to contend with the whole, "We've always done it that way" complete nonsense.
I admire your patience. That would produce veins in my teeth. 143K is not that much mileage. Especially when you take care of your car, and use top shelf products. Then to have it all placed in doubt by an inept clown, makes it all the worse.
Hopefully frequent oil and filter changes for a while will help remove anything that's left.
