Does Dealership service reduce chance of problems?

[scbamber]

What does the panel think here?

I have wondered for a long time about the same problems that we see repeatedly coming up in these forums.

One doesn’t want to get things out of perspective since most Volvo owners do not read these forums and may have no troubles at all with their cars. My own MY 2015 D4 is relatively low–mileage, and has never been used for trips less than 25-30 miles. It has given no problem, and had its services and recalls at a dealer who has been consistently helpful and clearly better than some dealers we read about. I may be lucky.

Engine problems are the most common and well-recognised event, especially with the D4 and especially EGR issues. They also appear more likely with cars used repeatedly for short journeys, but longer-journey cars are certainly not immune. By often paying good or full contributions to repair costs Volvo have tacitly acknowledged design faults, but owners sometimes need to have given a firm nudge to the dealerships to get the contributions agreed.

My question is: do you think that problems are much more likely to occur with cars that have not had regular services at a dealership? Put another way: irrespective of design faults and usage patterns, are cars serviced by owners or by non-Volvo garages more likely to experience problems?

[Zebster]

Despite having a Full Volvo Service History, at 84k miles mines had all the common early VEA diesel problems...
Replacement blocked EGR cooler - twice!
Replacement stuck open EGR valve
Replacement intake manifold as the sooted-up 'swirl' assembly was sticking
Exhaust oxygen sensor cleaned & software updated to fix slow response
Ongoing oil weeps at engine rear from cam cover gasket and camshaft end seal
Engine oil consumption of 0.5L /~2k miles (not attributable to weeps at rear)

I don't think the above has much to do with journey duration. Short journeys might be bad for the DPF but the EGR valve would be closed for a high proportion of most short journeys due to the engine not being fully hot. I think it's mostly due to the high EGR volume necessary to meet the Euro 6 NOx limit without AdBlue.

Car's running really well at the moment, but for how long?

[Chrisv60]

I don't think having it serviced at a dealership necessarily reduces the problems, but may influence the way they are dealt with. Although with the dealer you will get any software updates which may be designed to reduce soot levels which might not be available through other service centres.

It's a bit of a dilemma I have now. My car is due it's 6 year service which is £450 at the dealers. But I've had 10 grands worth of goodwill up to 5 years old because of the Volvo history and I'm not convinced the EGR saga is over. So if I have a dealer service, am I more likely to get continued goodwill if it goes wrong or is it now just too old? it looks like it will have to go in at some point anyway for yet another recall. I'm torn.

[V8XCV]

I think it depends on the age of the car and what you are expecting from them.

Volvo tend to flag up everything in my experience, but sometimes miss the obvious because they are too keen to just hook it up to the computer.

A friend had a V70 that was down on power, took it to Volvo who hooked up the diagnostics and said he needed a new swirl flap system at £800.

I had a look under the bonnet, swirl flap lever arm had popped off. Fitted it back on and that lasted until got a new £10 arm off ebay and been fine since.

Had a run-in with a VW main dealer today, I had popped a shock absorber yesterday on the VW doing a 150mile run and it was horrible to drive on. Phoned first thing and said they would fit it in even though they were busy, arranged a lift and took the car to the garage, but when I got there they said it would be a week before they could look at it!

Needless to say I was not impressed. Went round to a small local garage that services my older cars and they fixed it this morning no problem. Shocking customer service, I really don't know why I bother using them. I think I have been fooled by the glamour of the complimentary soft play area....

My experiences with Volvo dealerships in the past has not been great as they were all Arnold Clark.... but that's another story for another time.

For me, having a garage that will do exactly what I want is more important than overall service.