940 broken down, second time today!

[Laney760]

It's very concerning that this is the second time recently I've bought / ordered parts for the 940 from Volvo dealers and their database is wrong / incomplete / very difficult for them to understand

I wonder if other older Volvo model's owners are finding this too?

Volvo Reading Parts Dept. did apologise to me last time and told me their data is wrong and ambigous, I had driven all the way into Reading to collect ordered parts which they assured me were the parts I needed for my registration and they were wrong but they did kindly personally drop the parts off on my doorstep whilst I was at work

I wonder what happened during the changeover of data from the old fashioned microfiche to computer? There seems to have been a lot of condensing into ambiguity

Yes, it's surprising that Volvos are £170 and Scandix are $270

The 6pm closing time at Volvos and my garage tonight put an end to all communication so until I get back on the phone Monday morning I won't know if Volvos really can get this part and sell it to my garage, I may be back to the drawing board on Monday morning!

[Stephen Edwin]

It is not that unusual to find Volvo parts prices are good value.

Re getting the right part, may I suggest developing a relationship with a Volvo dealer parts department? For example, I had to change my fairly local and previously excellent dealer parts supplier when they changed management. Now I buy long distance from FRF Volvo dealership Swansea.
01792 790066 or 01792 784272 - Quoting discount code: C3.

They seem to work hard to identify the part. If it is listed as unavailable, they give me the part number and suggest I do an internet search.

&c. &c.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Laney760

It's very concerning that this is the second time recently I've bought / ordered parts for the 940 from Volvo dealers and their database is wrong / incomplete / very difficult for them to understand

I wonder if other older Volvo model's owners are finding this too?

Volvo Reading Parts Dept. did apologise to me last time and told me their data is wrong and ambigous, I had driven all the way into Reading to collect ordered parts which they assured me were the parts I needed for my registration and they were wrong but they did kindly personally drop the parts off on my doorstep whilst I was at work

I wonder what happened during the changeover of data from the old fashioned microfiche to computer? There seems to have been a lot of condensing into ambiguity

Yes, it's surprising that Volvos are £170 and Scandix are $270

The 6pm closing time at Volvos and my garage tonight put an end to all communication so until I get back on the phone Monday morning I won't know if Volvos really can get this part and sell it to my garage, I may be back to the drawing board on Monday morning!

I've had a few anomalies with parts i've ordered too, sometimes the descriptions have matched but it has transpired the parts are from a different variant. Then parts i've personally removed from a certain vehicle in a scrapyard and can find listed elsewhere as fitting that particular model, when i try using the same part number it comes up as a different model 10 years newer - or older!

Most manufacturers have part number problems, however Volvo do seem to be one of the worst i've encountered. It doesn't help they fitted so many different types of the same thing to the different models within a range. For example, my front brake discs are approximately 285 diameter by 22mm thick, ventilated.

Found a set of discs on ebay, hit the Buy it Now button and had to provide my reg number for confirmation they were the right parts. Got a message soon after to phone them. I did and they tried telling me i had 302mm x 26mm discs on mine. Simple fact is, there is now way the calipers would go over discs that big and even if they did, i couldn't have got the pads in or fitted the wheel afterwards.

In short, yes, there are many problems with the part numbers. I'm fairly sure that as your garage has said this latest pump looks right, it will be because the other one looks very different - also several other suppliers (including ECP believe it or not) have shown the same pump.

One of your biggest problems is it looks like your car was on or close to the changeover year so will provide a constant source of joy in finding the correct parts!
My first 740 was like that and so is my current 760, one of the first facelift 760s so i feel your pain!

[Laney760]

Well, well, well!

Just clearing up the carnage on my desk, the result of my crazy week and I found the business card which RAC man number 1 (who didn't want to fault-find) gave me stating the business was an RAC approved garage in Reading who he recommended to do my work

Looking on their website they don't say they are RAC approved so I entered my postcode on RAC website, there are no RAC approved garages in Reading, nearest to me is Maidenhead

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Laney760

Well, well, well!

Just clearing up the carnage on my desk, the result of my crazy week and I found the business card which RAC man number 1 (who didn't want to fault-find) gave me stating the business was an RAC approved garage in Reading who he recommended to do my work

Looking on their website they don't say they are RAC approved so I entered my postcode on RAC website, there are no RAC approved garages in Reading, nearest to me is Maidenhead

The very first thought that runs through my mind is that the garage he recommended is run by a friend/relative.

Once the car gets in there, they find the fault, work out how viable it is to fix and then sell the car for a profit and if it looks like they can make a good profit, they phone you up, give you the sharp intake of breath treatment and tell you it's going to cost in the thousands (or at the very least much more than the car is worth) to fix.

Your natural response is you'll pay them for what they've done so far and get the car recovered. They then point out your RAC cover won't give you recovery from their premises to your home or another garage (whether it will or won't) so in addition to their bill, you'll have to pay for recovery which could cost you £2-300 and their bill is already £250 because they spent 3 hours and a gallon of fuel on it.

That leaves you facing a bill of nearly £600 for a car that still doesn't run so they offer you a solution. They say they'll give you £50 as a goodwill gesture and send it off to the scrapyard on your behalf but they'll need the log book and MoT obviously.

You, being the "average mug punter" (not you personally, this thread has proved you're no mug beyond all doubt! Not that i had any of course - i'll stop digging now! ) agree to this, get a bus, taxi, lift or whatever to the garage and sign the log book and give them the MoT certificate.

In the meantime they've found a similar aged car in a breakers and bought the fuel pump and got it going.

No sooner are you out their door, they have it on ebay, Autotrader or sold to someone in the trade at a fat profit, more than they'd have got for doing the job and earning the money.

That's the usual scam. Often, a relative/friend of theirs has a scrapyard and has told them what cars they have with parts available for what cars so they can pick and choose their "prey".

I'm glad you didn't get sucked in on this one!

[Laney760]

Gawd Dave, I've met some rip-off garages in my life but not one like that, thank goodness. I'm sure they exist, I'm sure you're right!

[Laird Scooby]

Sadly Laney i've known a few and seen it happen. I've also been a partial victim in a similar scam - i had a Mk2 Granada 2.8 Ghia that was written off by an industrial bin wagon and while i had it for sale for spares, i was approached by someone in the next unit to where i was working asking to but it for the engine and box but he'd have the whole car for a few other spares.

The next morning a white 2.8 Ghia Granada turned up, running quite nicely so i was a bit puzzled as to why they need my engine and box.

A couple of days later they had the engine and box swapped, tuned up and running sweetly again - they'd also swapped the number plates and unbeknown to me at the time, the VIN plates including the one stamped into the floor of the car!

Thought no more of it until about 2 years later, a police officer knocked at my door, introduced himself as being from the Stolen Vehicle Squad and started to caution me!

Long story short, he realised i wasn't a party to what had gone on and then he showed me some photos they had of the VIN number being cut out of mine and welded in to the "new" bodyshell to name but one - they had loads of photos, some must have been taken from inside drains, hidden cameras in the workshops and other strange places.

They also had a tame breakdown service guy that they would pay a "finders fee" to then pull the scam outlined above to get a cheap but legal car in need of something major. Then go out and "liberate" a similar car and do a similar thing to what they had done with mine.

[Stephen Edwin]

Or the first RAC patrol might have been simply recommending a hopefully honest garage but not necessarily a good garage, possibly in exchange for a referral fee.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Stephen Edwin

Or the first RAC patrol might have been simply recommending a hopefully honest garage but not necessarily a good garage, possibly in exchange for a referral fee.

He may well have been Stephen - i'm a cynical old git anyway and always look for "the angle" and having seen these sort of scams many times, that is my first thought for a non-RAC Approved Repairer that a patrol is recommending.

It could also have been this particular garage was previously an RAC-Approved Repairer some years back and the patrolman was going on old information.

Could be any number of possibilities in fairness but these days i take the view that it's a scam until proved otherwise. Hardly a day goes by on the TV when there isn't some mention of people (generally older/retired people) being scammed out of money one way or another on the news.

Expect the worst but hope for the best, the real answer isusually somewhere between the two!

[Stephen Edwin]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

- i'm a cynical old git anyway

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Expect the worst but hope for the best, the real answer isusually somewhere between the two!

I have "dealt with" more scams and wrongdoings than some people have had hot dinners.

In the process I have learnt to remember to look for that which is of God in every person.







But you really should not describe yourself as old.


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