Hello everyone! Can't believe what happened today to my car! I always take my Volvo to be serviced at Autobahn Service Repair in Copley, OH, they do a great job and the car always runs like new, but I needed new tires and the Goodyear Service Center was having a tire sale. I needed an oil change so I figured they couldn't screw that up and the oil change was $20/off full synthetic so I went for it. They called and said I was all set so went to get the car. Started it up fine, but it threw a message "service engine soon" and the check engine light came on. Turned it off and took the key back inside, he said he would check it out and call me. He calls a few hours later and said that a "plug on the air filter" had accidentally come unplugged while they were doing the oil and they plugged it back in and it was all set. Went back to get it, started it up and it idled roughly, when I tried to back up it was jerky and the check engine light came on again. Turned it off and took the key back in. The service guy had me wait 20 minutes then came back and said they want to keep it further, he said the check engine light didn't come back on but it is still idling rough. He said the engine or the computer may need to cycle before it works properly again? It was late in the day so they are keeping it overnight and will check it out and drive it more tomorrow then call me. Seriously? All I wanted was some tires and an oil change! Does anyone have any idea what these guys may have done? He said they will make it right, but I am starting to question their competency after going over there twice to pick it up with these problems . I've never had any problems with this car at all other than replacing a motor mount. It was working fine when I dropped it off so I know they did something to it. Could it be a vacuum hose or something with the air filter like he mentioned. Thanks so much for any ideas or input you may have! Glad I found this group, I love my Volvo!!

 

the check engine light was probably caused but the mass air flow sensor being unplugged if they checked your air filter. if all they did was an oil change the only thing i can think of is they didnt put any oil in but that would be noticeable with an engine knock and if you didnt hear it and there wasnt an oil light on they put the proper amount of oil in it. so you cant really blame them for your car acting like that, they are trying to figure out whats going on with your car but i highly doubt it was anything they did.

 

Frankly I cant see what they were doing even touching your air filter, or maf unit area in the engine bay if they were merely undoing the oil cap to refill the engine and check the level on the dipstick. Thats all readily reachable from the front.
Given that someone appears to have had a good general fiddle about with it then a dislodged vacuum hose is very possibly the problem now.

 

i dont know if you work in this business but its called upsells. you have a sale for cheap oil changes to bring the cars in. once the cars are in you look at things that you would recommend replacing to make more money. in this case they looked at the air filter.

 

Yes, I am well familiar with that age old routine of course however they were instructed specifically with fitting some new tires and to do a synthetic oil change, no mention has been made of an oil filter also?
From the OP's statement above no request was made to give her a once over for engine tune up issues at all.
Now its running like a pig and he will likely have to chase them real hard to get them to accept responsibility and put it right.

 

Most oil changes come with some sort of look over. I check many, many items on every car that comes in, whether specifically asked to or not. That's how it works.

If they said they will make it right, tell them you want to take it to your normal shop and have them reimburse you for the repairs.

 

Well it's still at the Goodyear shop. They say their Master Mechanic has the software in order to diagnose the check engine light problem and he is not in until tomorrow. No one on duty could do that for them from Friday until tomorrow? The service manager said they drove it yesterday and it is still losing power and has the CE light on. This shop has been there since 1970, I can't believe how their service and abilities have degraded. Kicking myself for going there, although I did get 4 Goodyear Assurance Touring tires and a full synthetic oil change for $360, of course the car not working in exchange is a problem lol. Hopefully their main man can figure it out tomorrow. It just has to be something stupid or unplugged, I'm sure. The car always ran like a top until they looked at it. Another problem is I have already paid them for the tires and oil change, as you do that before they give you the keys to take it out of there, so I can't even hold payment over their heads.

 

Well you certainly would not get a 'once over' down this way when the car is in for a specific advertised special deal / offer at a fixed low price.
They cannot afford to waste more time and resources than the minimum necessary.
If they tripped over another future potential problem you may be advised ? but that would naturally be with the view to hopefully being asked to do the additional work with your approval first.

 

it really doesnt take that much time to look the vehicle over with an oil change. you check everything underneath while the oil is draining and check everything under the hood afterwards. thats how these places make money with oil change promotions. i dont know what you do difflock54 but im pretty sure es6t is like me and works at a shop for a living. a lot of my hours come from upsells from cheap oil change promotions.

 

Yeah, I get paid a half hour for an oil change. I can easily check many items in that amount of time. That's how it works. You can't just rely on "tripping over" something because what happens of you miss something else that causes a problem soon after? Then they come back and say "You told me I needed _____, why didn't you warn me about this too?"

 

I'd be very happy to let you two guys as mechanics do work on my car especially if I was confident that you were not upselling without reasonable justification.

Unfortunately many people are regularly being screwed and overcharged for some work and parts not always necessary and it is common for tyre sellers and some workshops to employ non mechanically qualified staff to make these important assessments.
(I am not implying that non qualified people should not work there but need to be mentored by someone who is.) We all do need employment after all.
Its actually one of the main reasons that regular car servicing and proper maintenance is left lacking by many vehicle owners nowdays.

Lets just hope the threads original poster, Tom04xc70 gets his car running as sweetly as he says it was, when they worked on it by their senior mechanic / technician without being out of pocket.

 

Thanks all but the cars still not running and I have taken it to my regular shop. I saved $300 on tires but my cars is not running. Now I have to start all over again with paying and hope the first guys will reimburse me if they caused this problem. As a layman I can tell you that taking your car to a garage is very scary, in the back of your mind you are always wondering if you got screwed because you don't know enough to know otherwise. In my current problem, it looks like the first shop was about to claim that I needed a new timing belt and that this wasn't their fault only a coincidence that the belt went bad while they had it for 12 hours. Now that I have it at the other shop and I have talked to other mechanics and researched online it looks like it COULD be that the first shop just used the very wrong viscosity of oil when they did the change thereby causing my little problem. (I started another thread called Update 2004 XC70 if you want to see it). It would be truly terrible if I was sold a new timing belt when all I needed was a new oil change with the correct viscosity by people who made the error to use the wrong viscosity. These things go through everyone's mind I know who takes their cars to garages where they don't personally know the people. It can take 3-5 years if you have a newer car before you can get to know a garage, since you really only need fluid changes up to that point. Be glad if you personally know and trust your mechanic, I don't have that going on at all. Especially if you go to a dealer or a national garage, they change all their people constantly.

 

I've said this many times- If you are not sure about something someone tells you that you need, ask questions. Keep asking questions until you are confident.

I NEVER have a problem bringing a customer back to their car and showing them what I am recommending and explaining why it needs to be replaced. And I find that most customers find it very comforting when I take the time to answer all of their questions. Just ask politely. If you say "I don't believe you, you are a scam artist", then you will probably not be met with someone too willing to explain it. But if you just say "I'm sorry, I don't understand. Can I come in and check it out?" then they should have no problem showing you (if they are being honest).

Also, there is a difference between not knowing what they are doing and knowing they are ripping you off.

A tire place that also does oil changes is not the best place to have a problem like that diagnosed. They replace tires and change oil for a reason. So, they pull the codes and guess that it means something with the timing belt.

I work at a dealership. I see it all. I have access to repair information they do not. I have extensive experience with just Volvos. So I can more accurately diagnose problems because I see a lot of them often. Generic OBD-II codes are not the best way to diagnose a Volvo, trust me.

Also, not all dealers change their people constantly.

 

I hear you, you sound great. I used to have a Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.0 and I took it to the dealer, but I felt like they didn't appreciate my business and did not like my questions and felt like they thought I was a pain. I'm not an abrasive guy at all, easygoing. Also, I just felt like I couldn't go there without dropping $300-$500, they found something wrong every time, even though the Jeep drove like a dream. I got the feeling they were ripping me off and didn't appreciate my business so I stopped going there. The guy never seemed to remember me even though I bought the Jeep there and was there every 3 months for 2 years. After I stopped going there I had the Jeep for another 7 years just changing the oil and fixing things when they broke, like the radiator once and a starter. It reinforced that I didn't need to spend all that money they were having me spend every 3 months, I dropped about $3000 there over 2 years with a 2 year old car, they always pushed these packages that started at like $269 and if I didn't buy it or just said I wanted an oil change I got the feeling they thought I was a jerk. I'm sure every dealer is different and I probably should try the closest Volvo dealer out with this car and see how they are there.

 

Yes, not all dealerships are the same. And I am by no means saying all Volvo dealerships are great and honest. Its mostly about the people, not where they work (when it comes to honesty). I've seen guys recommend unnecessary work or try to charge too much labor- and I've gotten them fired.

Volvo offers free diagnosis, so the dealer might be a good option for this situation.

 

In my opinion what has changed across the board in nearly all service occupations is the way most mechanics/techs are paid.


In the old days mechanics/techs were paid by the hour.
Now days many m/techs are paid a very small hourly wage and depend on commissions for additional work sold to the customer...hence the up-sells and some m/techs/companies being less than honest.


Some employers will terminate m/techs that are not up-selling or curtail the amount of "leads" the less producing m/tech receives...effectively neutralizing the less producing and perhaps more honest tech.


Always amazed at service-advisors with no practical experience.


Interesting that if the m/tech/company is "caught" being less than honest the company will fire/discipline the m/tech...blaming the tech for the transgression.


My opinion is based on over 35 years in a service oriented industry.
Exceptions to every rule...im sure there are great service people everywhere...I have found mine over many years in my city.

 

The low hourly wage and commission based stuff is more of a chain thing such as Sears. Dealer techs make an hourly rate and are paid by book time in most cases. If a job pays 2 hours in a labor times guide and I can do it in 40 minutes, I get 2 hours and move on to the next job. I've had weeks with 80 hours and weeks with 30 hours.

The hourly rate varies by region, union, experience, etc. A broad range would be anywhere from $14 to $40 an hour.