Greetings to all--Hope you're all well and getting in the holiday swing of things. If you have a moment and can be of help here, I'd much appreciate it.

My daughter drives a 2010 S40 that is in a Volvo dealer's shop in the city in which she goes to college. She took it there today for evaluation of an "intermittent draw" of power from the electrical system that has drained the battery twice within the last couple weeks to where she needed a jump. After the first episode, a local general auto shop inspected the vehicle, charged the battery, said she was good to go--no problems. A week later, same song--on a weekend, of course--and a return visit to same shop resulted in referral to Volvo for the evaluation now getting going--she took it in to the dealer's shop today.

They can't find/haven't yet found the electrical problem, but did present her with a list of other issues needing to be addressed: (1) "dirty" transmission fluid and a "broken" t/f dipstick (on a model that, AFAK, doesn't have a t/f dipstick); (2) damaged CV gaiter needing replacement; (3) front brake pads down to 2mm, needing replacement; and (4) "the spark plugs are due to be checked".

The car was taken to a local garage (near where we live) back in June. At that point, all was (allegedly) just fine. Oil changed, etc., back on the road.

This sort of list has all sorts of red flags, from my perspective. The brake pads might need to be replaced--that should be easy to check, but it's of course hundreds of miles away. But "dirty" transmission fluid? And where in the names of saints Peter and Paul is the S40s t/f dipstick that is "broken"? A broken/worn/torn CV gaiter is a minor issue, I'm not worried about that. But that brings us to "spark plugs due to be checked"--say what? It has literally been decades since a mechanic has said anything similar to that to me. And why are they looking at all this crap before they've sorted out the electrical issue? Why did the general (and allegedly reputable) shop not catch any of this?

Am I overly suspicious? Should I tell her to get her car and drive as quickly (but safely) as possible away from these people? Should I go there and have a face-to-face with the manager? Do what they suggest be done and skedaddle?

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions welcome. Thanks

 

There is certainly a dipstick on that model. It's not easy to find from the top, but it's there. Maybe the other shop went to check the fluid and broke the dipstick and didn't want to fess up.

A CV boot is a wear item. Nothing strange there.

Brake pads are also a wear item. Again, no red flag.

Spark plugs are due every 75,000 miles on that engine. How many miles do you have?

As for why the independent shop didn't mention these things, there are a few possibilities. With the CV boot, maybe it wasn't torn at that time. Or maybe it wasn't a job the technician wanted to do- it's a messy job. For the brakes, if they are at 2mm now, odds are they were higher in June. And for the spark plugs, an independent shop probably isn't aware of the service interval for spark plugs on every vehicle they service. Or maybe the mileage didn't warrant it at the time.

Why are they mentioning this without sorting out the electrical issue? Because most shops do an inspection with any service. If there is an intermittent drain, maybe they checked for a drain and didn't find one. If the drain is not excessive, they can't do anything about it. So the tech would move on to the inspection so he can move on. Maybe pull the car out, recheck the drain later.

 

Thanks for the prompt reply. Very much appreciated. As you may have gathered, I know enough about cars (and Volvos in particular) to be dangerous, but not enough to be truly proficient. (Hey, we've all got our weak spots, right?) That said, the car (and thus the plugs) is/are only at just over 65K miles. I'm well aware that brakes (and the CV boot/gaiter) are wear items. Frankly, it was the t/f dipstick thing that threw me. A friend (who drives an S60, wife drives an S80, and who has been driving Volvos since Moses was floating among the reeds) told me that there isn't a t/f dipstick, but . . . well, there ya go.

At any rate, it sounds like it's not entirely nutso, but maybe a little bit of a stretch for the tune/plugs. I'm glad to hear it's probably more my fatherly paranoia than anything else. Thanks again.

 

Haha no problem.

Your friend likely has a dipstick on both of his cars too. Just might not know where. Depends on the year though.

The plugs are a stretch. Volvo used to recommend them at 60,000 miles so some old school techs or guys who don't know they changed the interval might still suggest them at 60k.

 

You're the perfect customer then.

ES6T is a Volvo technician so you're getting the party line there.

Easy. Finding the electrical problem is a PITA that involves actual work from a tech with more than two brain cells. The laundry list they gave you is easy, profitable monkey work. If you have it done they will charge you for all of it and if you're lucky will do most of it. Some of it you may actually need.

 

We really can't win with some people. If we inspect a car and tell a customer what it needs, we are greedy thieves. If we don't inspect the car and the next shop a customer goes to does, we are lazy and incompetent because we didn't catch it.