Chris' Rant about Volvo

Post by **Nick C** » 26 Apr 2007 07:33 pm

Chris_C wrote: Right, I'm in p*ssed off mode again. Volvo have decided, in their infinite wisdom, that stopping is no longer required by 300 owners. Rung up the parts dude today for some new calliper seals, to be told they are out of stock. "You can have the slidey bolts for £25 a side" right, ta. ECP and GSF also don't do seals, so I rung Southampton's really really useful brake and clutch shop. This guy also said that he doesn't do them, but at least would give me a recon calliper for £30 (which I didn't think was that bad, apart from I'd just made mine super shiny, which is all these would be, but with new seals.)

So, I was a nadgers peeved. So I rung Volvo UK, cos I felt like a moan. I went through the bloody menu, please press 1 to buy a Volvo, please press 2 if you are thinking of buying a Volvo, please press 3 if you want to buy a Ford etc. I obviously didn't press anything about buying a new car, so they didn't give me much priority in the queue, and I gave up hanging on after 25 cocking minutes. Customer service?!! B*stards. All of them. Luckily, my seals weren't that bad, and I was just going to renew them as a matter of course as I had the callipers apart.

My car now stops. Shame Volvo don't want it too. Lifetime Care? Guess they expected the thing to have rusted by now seeing as they couldn't be a*sed to galvanise the damn thing.

T*ssers

Post by **classicswede** » 26 Apr 2007 09:49 pm

I would have pressed 1 and then had your winge.

Post by **A M R** » 26 Apr 2007 10:06 pm

yep thats what i would have done too.

Post by **dynamite40** » 26 Apr 2007 10:48 pm

they do take the p*ss when they give you life time care but no longer sell the parts

Post by **classicswede** » 27 Apr 2007 09:03 pm

A lot of 300 bits are available but only through the clasic parts devision and the dealers do not want to know.

I'd hate to know waht the availability of parts for the current S, V and C rubbinsh will be in 30 years time!!

Post by **mac** » 28 Apr 2007 01:51 pm

Mornin' all,

Try http://www.brakeparts.co.uk/

eg:- currently listed for '84' on :-

Caliper LH, part no. BCB0812, £36.97 (exch)
Caliper RH, part no. BCA0813 £35.14 (exch)
service kit (x1) pt.no. BCK4808 £9.77
Replacement piston (x1) BCK4810 £12.25
Rear wh.cylinder (x1) BWC5245 £7.19
Cyl.seal kit (x2) pt.no BWS3173 £6.16

All prices excl. vat and p&p.

They also list the pre 84 calipers/seals/pistons.

Lucas used to do a seal kit for '84' on - part.no. SJ1014 but I don't know if that is still available.

Mac.

Post by **SoLaMaNdA** » 28 Apr 2007 06:09 pm

Impressive rant. I'm not suprised they are stopping providing parts for older cars, they're a business and there can't be much profit in parts for 20yr old+ cars. Very few other industries provide spares for that long.

Post by **Nick C** » 28 Apr 2007 06:23 pm

Yeah, but I think the main point of the rant is not that they don't make the bits anymore, but the fact that they promised when the car was sold that it had 'lifetime care', which implies that they should support it for as long as it is on the road....

It seems that older cars like my Dolomite are often better supported than 'middle age' cars like the 300, because they have become classics and so are supported by the aftermarket classic suppliers, decades after the manufacturer went out of business...

Post by **A M R** » 28 Apr 2007 07:55 pm

hmm now if we were to sue volvo for this 'false advertising', we could make a bit of moneys and bring back the parts that we all want...

anyone up for it?

Post by **SoLaMaNdA** » 28 Apr 2007 09:10 pm

A term like lifetime care is open to alot of interpretation...

Sorry to sound so unsupportive but in my industry, most only support for 5-10 years!

Post by **jtbo** » 29 Apr 2007 09:05 am

Right, my rant is from Volvo too even not from 300 series.

I needed to get air filter, oil filter and driveshaft support bearing + rubber, I visited two Volvo dealership and got none of these from them, oil filter would have been available by order, but not anything else.

So needed get aftermarket parts, filters are Mann and driveshaft support bearing + rubber I'm still tracking down, damn that I'm not rich as I have feeling now it is time to get loads of such parts to get good amount of them for future use.

Post by **Fuse** » 29 Apr 2007 09:59 am

btw. jtbo, Motonet sells original Volvo oil filters too, price is somewhere around 6 euros.

It seems that parts availability is better in here than in UK, Motonet has those caliper seals in stock also, of course it's usually not original Volvo part in blue box, but usually Motonet parts are from some big manufacturer, like head gaskets are from Elring etc..

Just for interest I'm going to check if those seals are available from the dealer.

Post by **Tourinki** » 29 Apr 2007 12:30 pm

jtbo wrote:Right, my rant is from Volvo too even not from 300 series.

I needed to get air filter, oil filter and driveshaft support bearing + rubber, I visited two Volvo dealership and got none of these from them, oil filter would have been available by order, but not anything else.

So needed get aftermarket parts, filters are Mann and driveshaft support bearing + rubber I'm still tracking down, damn that I'm not rich as I have feeling now it is time to get loads of such parts to get good amount of them for future use.

About those oilfilters i heard a rumour that Mann W917 (i hope is the correct number) is exactly same filter that you get from Volvo. Only difference is that other has Volvo text painted to the side and another has MANN painted to the side

Post by **foggyjames** » 29 Apr 2007 01:48 pm

Yes, MANN are the OEM for oil filters.

It does suck. Perhaps we should poke Farrell with a stick a few times to make him furious, then send him around?

cheers

James

Post by **jtbo** » 29 Apr 2007 02:12 pm

foggyjames wrote:Yes, MANN are the OEM for oil filters.

It does suck. Perhaps we should poke Farrell with a stick a few times to make him furious, then send him around?

cheers

James

Aye, this sounds as a plan

Yes, Mann is original, heard this from other sources too so that is perhaps what I'm hunting in future too, need to buy few to stock as I need to change oils every month, I drive a lot