Electrics: Cem repair

[Acer]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

They're a business which means that if they're giving you hundreds of pounds of free stuff, they've had that money off you already through obscene hourly rates and high margins on parts.

Because of the money you spent, no doubt you've had a better overall deal compared to using another garage but you've been given nothing for free.

Don't forget also that the CEM water ingress and spline sleeve issues were Volvo's own fault through bad design yet they still expect you to pay for their incompetence.
No wonder they chuck in a free cambelt and oil change.

Yes their incompetence, but they could have told me to get stuffed. Instead I got a call from Volvo UK apologising for the trouble I had been caused and offering a service with a book price of £800. If you want the official ten year service stamp in the book, that is what you pay. I have always been very impressed with the service at my local Volvo dealer.

They collect your car and deliver it back all free of charge. They throw in a hire car for next to nothing when you need it. When I compare their service to the independent mechanic I used it is different class. They didn't even know how to get the spline sleeve off and suggested taking the whole gearbox out!! At least with Volvo you have the full backup of Volvo UK and a room full of senior technicians who really know their stuff (admittedly the junior lads aren't great but you have to start somewhere!). They even gave me a big discount on a full ATF flush, also by way of apologising for their rubbish plenum cover design! Also let's not forget that all work and parts are guaranteed for at least a year. Any issues and it is down to them to sort it. They will even send Volvo assist to come and collect the car if you can't get it to them. You are right that it is pricey but I felt a hell of a lot better knowing I had a brand new CEM, brand new wiring and new housing - all covered by a guarantee.

Don't get me wrong though, when the DEM, DIM and ICM go, which no doubt will happen shortly!, I will be sending them off for an attempted repair first. Surely these sorts of things must go wrong on other premium brands?!

[Shala]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

They're a business which means that if they're giving you hundreds of pounds of free stuff, they've had that money off you already through obscene hourly rates and high margins on parts.

Because of the money you spent, no doubt you've had a better overall deal compared to using another garage but you've been given nothing for free.

Don't forget also that the CEM water ingress and spline sleeve issues were Volvo's own fault through bad design yet they still expect you to pay for their incompetence.
No wonder they chuck in a free cambelt and oil change.

Where does the water ingress come from> My car does not have a sunroof. Is it the windscreen drain?

[Shala]

Originally Posted by Acer

Yes their incompetence, but they could have told me to get stuffed. Instead I got a call from Volvo UK apologising for the trouble I had been caused and offering a service with a book price of £800. If you want the official ten year service stamp in the book, that is what you pay. I have always been very impressed with the service at my local Volvo dealer.

They collect your car and deliver it back all free of charge. They throw in a hire car for next to nothing when you need it. When I compare their service to the independent mechanic I used it is different class. They didn't even know how to get the spline sleeve off and suggested taking the whole gearbox out!! At least with Volvo you have the full backup of Volvo UK and a room full of senior technicians who really know their stuff (admittedly the junior lads aren't great but you have to start somewhere!). They even gave me a big discount on a full ATF flush, also by way of apologising for their rubbish plenum cover design! Also let's not forget that all work and parts are guaranteed for at least a year. Any issues and it is down to them to sort it. They will even send Volvo assist to come and collect the car if you can't get it to them. You are right that it is pricey but I felt a hell of a lot better knowing I had a brand new CEM, brand new wiring and new housing - all covered by a guarantee.

Don't get me wrong though, when the DEM, DIM and ICM go, which no doubt will happen shortly!, I will be sending them off for an attempted repair first. Surely these sorts of things must go wrong on other premium brands?!

I only bought this XC90 to serve me for about 2 yrs whilse I wait for the 2nd gen to drop in price to maybe £20-25k. I made quiet a loss when I sold my S Class that I only owned for 13 months and did 5k miles on it. I just want to run this as cheap as possible. I commute to work by train and also have a city car now so this means this car will most probably do 3-5k miles a year.

[Acer]

Originally Posted by Shala

I only bought this XC90 to serve me for about 2 yrs whilse I wait for the 2nd gen to drop in price to maybe £20-25k. I made quiet a loss when I sold my S Class that I only owned for 13 months and did 5k miles on it. I just want to run this as cheap as possible. I commute to work by train and also have a city car now so this means this car will most probably do 3-5k miles a year.

Why did you not just keep the S Class and avoid the loss?

[Shala]

Originally Posted by Acer

Why did you not just keep the S Class and avoid the loss?

I needed at least 6 seats. The S class comfortibly fits 4 people in the back but only 3 seat belts there sadly. I really wanted to keep the S class. Most comfortible car I've been in. Maybe in the future when wife is confident in driving a 7 seater I may buy another

[aslan]

Originally Posted by Shala

Where does the water ingress come from> My car does not have a sunroof. Is it the windscreen drain?

From what I understand, through this cover sitting above the CEM.



Above, taken from my XC, is a new revised cover if I'm correct.

The old one which can cause water ingress I think looks like this below

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by Acer

Surely these sorts of things must go wrong on other premium brands?!

Yep.
BMW 5L V8 engines wore out their cylinder lines in the USA in less than 30,000 miles, and engines got swapped out under warranty, with exactly the same thing happening again the next 30,000 miles

Solution: After analysis by BMW engineers, it came down to high sulphur content in some fuel brands in the USA reacting with the material used for the cyclinder liners. BMW changed the material of the liners and that solved the problem.

But they swapped out a fair few V8 engines before they found the cause...

Luckily, my V8 BMW engine was of a later year with the improved cylinder bore material and I never had any issue.

So premium brands are NOT absent of their problems, and some of their problems can be pretty big.

Look at VW with their diesel recalls...

And Mercedes just announced yesterday a recall of 3 million Mercedes in Europe to update their emission systems, at a cost to Mercedes of 220 million Euros.

[Acer]

Originally Posted by SwissXC90

Yep.
BMW 5L V8 engines wore out their cylinder lines in the USA in less than 30,000 miles, and engines got swapped out under warranty, with exactly the same thing happening again the next 30,000 miles

Solution: After analysis by BMW engineers, it came down to high sulphur content in some fuel brands in the USA reacting with the material used for the cyclinder liners. BMW changed the material of the liners and that solved the problem.

But they swapped out a fair few V8 engines before they found the cause...

Luckily, my V8 BMW engine was of a later year with the improved cylinder bore material and I never had any issue.

So premium brands are NOT absent of their problems, and some of their problems can be pretty big.

Look at VW with their diesel recalls...

And Mercedes just announced yesterday a recall of 3 million Mercedes in Europe to update their emission systems, at a cost to Mercedes of 220 million Euros.

Yes but the diesel recalls won't leave you stranded, it is more about staying in line with the legislation. The BMW example is definitely comparable to the CEM issue, T6 gearbox problems, AWD failure etc. Anything that can fail due to a design flaw and, in so doing, prevent the car reaching its destination is unacceptable in any premium brand. You have to wonder how these things got through quality control.

[poiuytre111]

I had one of those BMWs and in southern UK took it to 200k miles without issue - though I understand the north of england also had high-sulpher fuel.

I recall Mahle made the affected Alusil blocks for BMW and other makes were supplied from the same factory to Jaguar, Lotus etc but you only tend to hear about the BMW problems.

[Father Ted]

Dragging us back to Volvo ;-)

Where is the CEM, how do I easily tell if it's dodgy?
I will be taking a code reader with me when I look at a XC90 this week, is there anything in there to show up?