Recently I had to take my Volvo to a mechanic who told me he used to work on Volvo's at his last job. I took it in to get the PCV cleaned out and he told me that my breather box was clogged. What he didn't tell me was that HE didn't actually work on it, he had one of his other techs work on it. Unfortunately for me this guy was an ******* and did a half-*** job. When we popped open the hood to see the work he did the high pressure turbo vacuum hose was completely loose, like he had forgotten to tighten it. The guy apologized and tightened it in front of me. Ok, that was a little unprofessional but sometimes people make mistakes. Thats fine. He tells me that they cleaned it out and reset the CEL from a broken hose I had and I was on my way. Flash forward 1.5 weeks, today I opened my hood because i was experiencing problems with my RPM's going down by about 200 on the freeway after I step on the throttle. It didn't do this before so I was a bit worried. I got home, waited for the car to cool down and popped the hood to look around, maybe this "mechanic" forgot something else. Sure enough i notice that there is a yellow wire leading undernear the sheath next to the spark cover. Ugh, it must have gotten loose or something, I thought to myself. I take off the cover and there it is. The hose was nudged between the 2 stubs in order to stay in place to cover up the fact that the mechanic BROKE the piece that the hose connects too. The reason I took it to a mechanic is that I'm still learning how to work on these things and wasn't experienced enough to take apart as much stuff as I needed to take off in order to get to the PVC. It's unacceptable that he not only broke the piece on my car but also tried to hide it from me and the main mechanic. On Monday I'm going over there and demanding that they replace it.

Basically i'm posting this so that I can better understand what I will need to replace and what the pieces are called from a more experienced person. I'll add the pictures, but they're not very good.

Also, am I wrong here for being pissed off? Is this actually a really common thing to happen?

Photo Album - Imgur

Thanks guys!

 

Take it back, show them the problem; they should fix it and most likely will be apologetic about it.

Sounds like the kid that worked on it was learning too..? Sometimes it's better (and cheaper) to break (I mean work on) your own stuff. That's why I'm a DIYer (for most things).

 

Yeah, you're right. I'm also trying to learn how to do repairs myself but there is still too many things I don't know to do something as complex as cleaning out a PVC (not that complicated, i know lol).

I found out the part is called a Vacuum Tree, although I'm not sure I really feel comfortable taking it back to the mechanic. When I pointed out that the Turbo vacuum hose was loose he brought out one of his younger mechanics and made him help him tighten the loose bolts. The problem I have is that the younger mechanic looked pissed that I even pointed it out and said "yeah, well, everyone makes mistakes" with a bit of an attitude.

I'm not sure I feel safe having that same guy work on my car again, although I'm definitely going down there on Monday to tell him what happened and that I want him to at least pay for the replacement part.

 

Stuff like that happens all the time, even at the steeler. Old cars like ours have very brittle parts, that vacuum tree included. That hole on it can be plugged and the yellow vacuum elbow and be put on one of the other ports that are capped off. But the vacuum tree may be a pretty cheap part, like $25, not sure. You can also get one from the junk yard. Then you'll have to take the time to replace it or fix it, which ever you decide. Either way, you shouldn't have to do it, you didn't break it.

When you take it back to show them, you can be calm about it and it should be taken care of, no big deal. BTW, your pictures are great.

Also, there are a lot of good instructions on this and other Volvo sites that will walk you through these repairs step-by-step. I have done a lot of things that I would not even have tried 3 years ago. Mainly because I got tired of going behind other mechanics and finding things that they broke and hid, not to mention going back and forth like you are, just un-necessary stress and wasted time. When something breaks while I'm doing a job, I know it and can fix it then or later. Not something that I have to find out about a year or two later. Not to mention the money saved and feeling of accomplishment I get from doing the job myself. So, print of the instructions, read them over (really read them) untill you understand them, ask questions about the stuff you don't understand, then do the job yourself if you have the time. Other than that you'll have to keep dealing with this kind of stuff all the time.

 

Thanks rspi, once again you're a huge help. I was originally planning on going to the dealer and making a big fuss about it, but I realize now that just dealing with it calmly would most likely get me better results.

Since I'm already talking to you, do you think replacing a Breather Box is something someone unexperienced like myself could do on his own? Is it super important to replace or is it something I can just ignore for a while. Currently I'm a college student and I need to make sure I have my car in tip top shape for the 18 mile daily drives to and from school.

Also, I checked out how much a vacuum tree costs and it's like $5, hehe. Do you happen to know what that yellow tube is for and what it's called that plugs into the vacuum tree?

Thanks again!

 

I can't be sure but it looks like the plastic line that runs under the intake to the fuel pressure regulator.