Do Volvo care about classic parts any longer?

[classicswede]

I have noticed more and more parts being discontinued and others being replaced with badly made parts. A lot of things like water hoses are no longer available. At least with no longer available parts you know you need to look after market. What bothers me is some of the cheap crap or wrong spec parts

240 strut top mounts.
For a few years now Volvo have been putting some cheap top mounts into Volvo boxes. They have a service life of 3-12months and will soon be in a worse state then a 30 odd year old original part

B200/B230 Water pumps
Again cheaped out putting a poor quality part in a Volvo box. If they can not be bothered to supply one of the well made pumps that are out there then I would rather they just said no

Redblock Turbo 144 oil pump,
Latest victim. Just ordered a couple of genuine 144 pumps. Check the parts the casting quality is not what I expect from Volvo but thats not the problem. The problem is they are not 144 pumps! The 144 pump is high volume with 30mm deeps pump gears, these new pumps are the non turbo spec 25mm gears! Now the problem is turbo engine with the piston oil squirters need more oil pumped volume. These smaller pumps will have too low of a pressure and would lead to engine failure.


With that said there are lots of parts where Volvo is best but it is getting to the point where you need to check the quality is there every time

[MiniNinjaRob]

Unfortunately no manufacturer can still keep making all the parts for all their cars they have ever made. Volvos aren’t so popular that 3rd parties are making replacement bits when Volvo don’t anymore either, like you get with Ford/VW/Land Rover etc.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the parts dealers can get very quickly for my Volvo so it isn’t that bad, I have a friend in the trade who says that Volvo are one of the best manufacturers for parts support as well.
Maybe if you’ve only been in the Volvo world for a long time you might think it’s a bit crap but we’ve got it pretty good to be fair. And if you want to keep a 25/30/40 year old car running you have to expect some stumbling blocks - the fact it’s still possible to run a 30 or 40 year old Volvo as a daily car is pretty amazing.

[classicswede]

They are way better than Ford etc.

20 years ago you could buy Amazon and PV parts from the dealer and the quality was always good. You can still buy those parts now.

The Dutch built cars 66/300/400 series parts a long time ago were dropped with the take over from Ford due to loan issues. The only parts available are ones common to Swedish built Volvo's. Not good but I get it

The 240 made the Volvo name across the world so poor parts supply does not make any sense. The water pumps for example yes you can buy it but its crap. The genuine part (that is crap) is around £40ish and where for the same money you can a good SKF pump. I would rather they sold SKF pumps at £100 than a crap pump. There are still 240's and 7/940's that are dealer serviced. The fitting cost alone would be worth that over inflated price.

[TonyS9]

Are you sure Volvo put the parts in the box? Might be clearing up old stock, mistakes are made or someone sees "value" in an empty Volvo box.

[classicswede]

They came direct from Volvo. A few dealers I know in Sweden all say they have been seeing the same thing.

The good news is that Volvo Classic Parts are now looking at getting the correct pumps available. I suspect they will just be the ones I already have but packed in a Volvo box! At least they will be suitable for the job

[Jebus]

More likely that they have cleared out the stock of the bad pumps are now due to get a new batch a will do a better job making sure they are good, as far as them not caring about classic parts, they are at least doing a good job at deleting stuff that is never coming back rather than leaving it all as not in stock/backorder type stuff on the classic parts site.

[classicswede]

Originally Posted by Jebus

, they are at least doing a good job at deleting stuff that is never coming back rather than leaving it all as not in stock/backorder.

Lots of mistakes in that area. Many parts that are common to more than one model are showing as deleted for one model but still available for another. For example 240 rear brake disks are NLA but the identical (same part number) rear 940 disk is still available.

[Stephen Edwin]

Originally Posted by classicswede

Lots of mistakes in that area. Many parts that are common to more than one model are showing as deleted for one model but still available for another. For example 240 rear brake disks are NLA but the identical (same part number) rear 940 disk is still available.

OUCH!

The task and the database must be vast and we need to do our bit to support the supply of classic parts. Is there a system in place yet for customers and the trade to draw attention to such things needing attention?



.

[TonyS9]

That doesn't make sense. Its basic BOM theory that part number are not model unique. In other words they are stored as part numbers, nothing more. Anything else would defeat the point of having a BOM database.

If you want to know what part number is required for a specific model you look up the model BOM (Bill of materials).

It is true that some people advertise stock 'for 240', instead of '240/940'

[lnparry]

I think Volvo have been better than most with old car parts (certainly in the past) but agree with Classicswede that if they can no longer do this they should be open about it and give the rest of the industry the chance to fill the gap. I have a 1990 Jag XJS and there are a number of independent parts suppliers providing good alternative bits. There must be way more old Volvos still around than Jags so I am sure someone would step into the gap.

Classicswede - my local garage fitted a genuine Volvo water pump for me last year on my 940 as price was similar to non Volvo and I assumed it would last 20 years like its predecessor. I'm getting nervous now. How do the sub-standard Volvo pumps fail? Bearings? Leaks?

Cheers,
LeeP